It was a small tour, but an enjoyable one, with a lovely book. In the end we had 6 blogs participate with 16 posts…that means almost all the participating bloggers posted three days!  Who knew there would so much to say about this book?

The posts included:

7 reviews: 

Whispers of Dawn (writing)

Whispers of Dawn (photos)

SMS Reviews (writing and photos)

My Own Little Corner of the World (photos)

Dolce Bellezza (writing and photos)

The Hungry Readers (writing and photos)

Never Jam Today (writing and photos)

2 interviews with Nancy Bo Flood:

SMS Reveiws

The Hungry Readers

1 interview with the photographer:

SMS Reviews

1 post introducing many of the author’s other books: 

My Own Little Corner of the World

1 rambling lecture on writing the truth: 

Whispers of Dawn

and 1 link to a discussion of race in children’s books:

The Hungry Readers

Three bloggers signed up but didn’t participate…I blame myself for rescheduling the tour. I”m sure this caused conflicts for some. I’m sorry they missed out on this lovely book, though.

I am closing up the poll for three-day blogger for Calamity Jack. Becky give me a couple of days to get the Amazon gift certificate to you–someone stole my CC info and I have to wait for a new card.

Also I am going with a new policy for the three-day bloggers. From now on you get a hearty “THANK YOU!” and that’s all. 

Sorry. I was in the hospital for twelve days a couple of months ago and sitting at home all day, blogging, amazingly, does not come with health insurance. So…I am scrambling to pay my bills and I am having to cut back on the fun stuff.

(I know, what a world, eh? One funny friend, after I’d written, pouring out my woes and telling her I was going to have to get a job, wrote back so sympathetically and said, “I’m so sorry you were sick. And now you have to look for gainful employment! What’s next? Daily bathing?” heh heh With friends like that….)

But back to the bizz at hand: For this last tour, I am not even going to open the thing up for a vote. I am declaring SMS Book Reviews the winner because she did a couple of wonderful interviews. And I am also sending The Hungry Readers a gift certificate for their long-time faithfulness at posting three days on blog tours and for always putting up interesting, thought-provoking posts.

If you don’t like my tyrannical decisions here, I say in the words of Edward, the Black Prince of Wales, as recorded in the movie A Knight’s Tale, “This is my word. And as such is beyond contestation.”

ha ha That was a great impersonation, wasn’t it? If I do say so myself.

In the life cycle of a blog tour, Sand to Stone and Back Again was birthed, and lived, and now it’s time to die. (Thanks to the Internet, it will live on for a good long time as people surf in and out of our blogs!)

So here are the third-day links:

• Callista, at SMS Reviews, has a wonderful interview with the photographer—we children’s book people have gotta love a man (not in children’s publishing) who admits to reading a loving Harry Potter, eh?
• Noel’s brother wrote a super review over at Never Jam Today. It was great to see the book through the eyes of a kid.
• At Whispers of Dawn I pulled a lecture on writing out of something the photographer said on his site about the creative process in the darkroom. I’m great at taking the smallest thing and turning it into a big loooonnnnnggggg lecture. Just ask my kids.
• Julie, at My Own Little Corner of the World, gives us a look at the author’s other books. I had no idea there were so many.
• And, finally, from The Hungry Readers, we have a lovely interview with Nancy Bo Flood.

I’ll try to get back tomorrow to post the wrap and the poll for three-day blogger.

Thanks!

More posts for our tour book, Sand to Stone and Back Again, written by Nacy Bo Flood, with photographs by Tony Kuyper.

• Callista, at SMS Book Reviews, gives us an interview with Nancy Bo Flood.
• Noel, at Never Jam Today,  gives a peek at some of the lovely photographs in the book.
• Over at My Own Little Corner of the World, Julie talks about the pictures in the book.
• I talk about the pictures, too, at Whispers of Dawn.
• At Dolce Bellezza, we have the artistic review we have come to expect.
• The Hungry Readers give a review along with their ever wonderful suggestions for school activities that can go along with the book.

OK here are the posts for day one of the Sand to Stone and Back Again blog tour.

• Over at SMS Book Reviews, we have a review—the book grew on her. I find that’s what great picture books do. The more you look the more you see. That makes them fun to read over and over.
• Noel, at Never Jam Today, gives the all-important definition of a hoodoo.
• An introduction to the book at My Own Little Corner of the World.
• I reviewed the writing part of the book at Whispers of Dawn.
• And over at Hungry Readers we are invited to consider race in children’s literature and she highlights another one of Nancy Bo Flood’s book, The Navajo Year.

Come back tomorrow for more posts.

Monday we take off on a new tour for a picture book written by Nancy Bo Flood with photographs by Tony Kuyper.

The book can be found on Amazon here:  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555916570/allabowha-20

The book cover can be found here:
 http://kidzbookbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/sand_to_stone.jpg

The author’s website is here:
http://www.nancyboflood.com/

The photographer’s website is here:
http://goodlight.us/index.html

Here are the links to participating bloggers:

For a paragraph listing like this:

SMS Book Reviews, Never Jam Today, SmallWorld Reads, Our Big Earth Media Co., Whispers of Dawn, Cafe of Dreams, The Hungry Readers, My Own Little Corner of the World, Dolce Bellezza, KidzBookBuzz.com

Use this code:

<br /> <a href="http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com">SMS Book Reviews</a>, <a href="http://www.noeldevries.blogspot.com/">Never Jam Today</a>, <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com">SmallWorld Reads</a>, <a href="http://www.ourbigearth.com">Our Big Earth Media Co.</a>, <a href="http://www.sally-apokedak.com/whispers_of_dawn/">Whispers of Dawn</a>, <a href="http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com">Cafe of Dreams</a>, <a href="http://thehungryreaders.com">The Hungry Readers</a>, <a href="http://molcotw.blogspot.com">My Own Little Corner of the World</a>, <a href="http://dolcebellezza.wordpress.com/">Dolce Bellezza</a>, <a href="http://kidzbookbuzz.com">KidzBookBuzz.com</a><br />

For a list like this:

SMS Book Reviews
Never Jam Today
SmallWorld Reads
Our Big Earth Media Co.
My Own Little Corner of the World
Dolce Bellezza
KidzBookBuzz.com
Whispers of Dawn
Cafe of Dreams
The Hungry Readers

Use this code:

<br /> <a href="http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com">SMS Book Reviews</a><br /> <a href="http://www.noeldevries.blogspot.com/">Never Jam Today</a><br /> <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com">SmallWorld Reads</a><br /> <a href="http://www.ourbigearth.com">Our Big Earth Media Co.</a><br /> <a href="http://molcotw.blogspot.com">My Own Little Corner of the World</a><br /> <a href="http://dolcebellezza.wordpress.com/">Dolce Bellezza</a><br /> <a href="http://kidzbookbuzz.com">KidzBookBuzz.com</a><br /> <a href="http://www.sally-apokedak.com/whispers_of_dawn/">Whispers of Dawn</a><br /> <a href="http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com">Cafe of Dreams</a><br /> <a href="http://thehungryreaders.com">The Hungry Readers</a><br />

Please link to participants at least once during the tour.

Thanks!

I waited to post this wrap up because I got interview answers back from Shannon and Dean a couple of days after the tour, and I wanted to give everyone a chance to get interviews up if they came in this week.

Superfast Reader posted one interview with Shannon and Dean Hale  and another one with Nathan Hale, and I posted an interview all three of them. 

That brings our stats for this tour to:

• 23 blogs
• 34 posts, which include:
  • 19 reviews of Calamity Jack
    1. Frenetic Reader
    2. Everyday Reader
    3. Homeschool Buzz
    4. Book Crumbs
    5. Book Blather
    6. My Own Little Corner of the World
    7. The Friendly Book Nook
    8. Through the Looking Glass Book Reviews
    9. A Bookshelf Monstrosity
    10. Dolce Bellezza
    11. Abby the Librarian
    12. The Hungry Readers
    13. Booking Mama
    14. Fireside Musings
    15. Reading is My Superpower
    16. Maw Books
    17. YA Bookshelf
    18. Book Cellar
    19. Whispers of Dawn
  • 2 reviews of Rapunzel’s Revenge
    1. The Hungry Readers
    2. Becky’s Book Reviews
  • 6 interviews with Dean and Shannon and Nathan Hale or some combination of the three: 
    1. Reading is My Superpower (Shannon and Dean)
    2. Reading is My Superpower (Nathan Hale)
    3. Whispers of Dawn (all three Hales)
    4. GreenBeanTeenQueen (Shannon Hale)
    5. Booking Mama (Shannon Hale)
    6. Book Crumbs (Shannon Hale)
  • And 1 post with wild videography from the book launch party
    1. Maw Books

If you would like to vote on the three-day-blogger-of-the-tour, the poll is now up in the left sidebar.

Thanks so much!

So for the final day of the Calamity Jack Blog Tour, we have these fine posts:

1. My review at Whispers of Dawn
2. Becky, at Becky’s Book Reviews,  gives us plenty of reasons to love Shannon Hale.
3. We get a review at the Book Cellar
4. Carrie gives us a review at her YA Bookshelf
5. And Natasha gives a review at Maw Books

If I’ve missed anyone, please feel free to leave a comment.

I think we have two three-day bloggers:

1. Becky’s Book Reviews
2. My Own Little Corner of the World

I’ll put up a poll tomorrow.

Thanks for participating in this fun tour. I really enjoyed digging around the Hales’ blogs. What talented people they are. I’m sorry we didn’t get any interviews in, this time. I’m thinking, with the holidays, things were just a little too busy. If you get any interviews back late, be sure to leave a comment in this post so I can link to them later. Thanks!

And today we have some new links and some new fans.

1. Annie, at Reading is My Superpower,  liked the steampunk graphic novel, though she doesn’t care for the genre as a whole.
2. Marie, at Fireside Musings, was not disappointed with this one. In fact she lists it among her top five stories read in 2009 (nine books but only five stories since one story is a nine book series). Yes, she has Calamity Jack sitting right there next to Pride and Prejudice. 
3. Booking Mama is a reluctantly allowing graphic novels into her heart and gladly welcoming Calamity Jack.
4. Becky gives us her review over at Becky’s Book Reviews.
5. Another review over at The Hungry Readers (the movie is hysterical. I tried to leave a comment and couldn’t because the word verification graphic wouldn’t show up for me.)
6. Over at My Own Little Corner of the World, the illustrations were all the rave, today.
7. The GreenBeanTeenQueen thinks this is librarian’s dream.
8. Abby the Librarian also gives her reasons for loving the book.
9. Bellezza asks her teacher friends if they like graphic novels. (And I’m so sorry, I used her old address in the link list. Irk!)
10. Amanda, at A Bookshelf Monstrosity, loved the illustrations and loves Shannon Hale’s work  in general (who doesn’t?). 
11. And Natasha, over at Maw Books, the lucky ducky, got to go the book launch party and meet the three Hales in person. She’s put some fun videos on her site—don’t miss them.

Today we start the Calamity Jack blog tour with several great posts:

1. We have a review at Through the Looking Glass Reviews.
2. Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews gave us a review of the first book in this series, Rapunzel’s Revenge. If the quoted material doesn’t make you want to buy the book, I don’t know what will.
3. Another review of Rapunzel’s Revenge from The Hungry Readers. As usual a thoughtful review packed with insight.
4. A review at The Friendly Book Nook—this one from a reluctant graphic novel reader.
5. Another review from a first time graphic novel reader over at My Little Corner of the World.
6. A lovely review at Book Blather.
7. Old Jack was well-loved at Book Crumbs—she called the book perfect. (It’s snowing over at the Book Crumbs site—look at the book covers. What fun.)
8. And yet another convert to graphic novels over at Homeschool Buzz.
9. A librarian discusses Calamity Jack and Rapunzel’s Revenge over at Everyday Reader.
10. A review at Frenetic Reader.