I also loved this discussion between Noel, her sister Bree, and her cousin Marie, over at Never Jam Today. And what a surprise to find The Raucous Royals linked to Twilight. heh heh That Noel is ever the inventive one. But, I’ll have you know, Raucous has been above Twilight at Technorati for three days running. Take that, Stephenie Meyer.

I posted today on Carlyn’s beautiful websites–both for The Raucous Royals and for Who Put the B in the Ballyhoo? She has the most beautiful websites and blogs I’ve ever seen. Check out the Raucous site, and the Ballyhoo site.

There are also two ways to win a free copy of The Raucous Royals. You can enter my contest or you can sign up for Carlyn’s monthly newsletter. Try both, you might win one.

Dewey signed up for the blog tour the first day I opened it up for people. She found me, I didn’t go looking for her. She struck me as an energetic book lover and book talker–just the kind of blogger I wanted on the tour.

And then she never actually made it on a tour. She moved and she had technical problems. And for this tour she had the book and she was ready to jump in with both feet. I was looking forward to her posts.

I’m sorry we didn’t get to know her better. She had a great blog–I loved the name.

And reading her husband’s note drives home the fact that the people behind these posts are living, breathing persons with sorrows and joys and frailties. I’m glad to live in a world where we can connect with each other over the Internet and our lives are made richer by people whose faces we’ve never seen but who have opened up pieces of their hearts to us in their posts.

Raucous Royals is a history book for middle grade kids–Amazon has it listed as being for four through eight-year-olds, but I’m sure they mean it’s for fourth through eighth graders.

I loved this book, and I’m looking forward to seeing what others have to say about it.

Go check them out:

01 Charger, the 160acrewoods, A Mom Speaks, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, The Friendly Book Nook, The Hidden Side of a Leaf, Homeschool Buzz, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maw Books Blog, Never Jam Today, Our Big Earth, Quiverfull Family, Reading is My Superpower, SmallWorld Reads, SMS Book Reviews

I’ll link to some of my favorite posts later in the day.

OK we’re ready to do our last blog tour for 2008. We wind up the year with a fun history book for middle graders, The Raucous Royals, written by Carlyn Beccia.

The full title of the book is actually, The Raucous Royals: Test your Royal Wits: Crack Codes, Solve Mysteries, and Deduce Which Royal Rumors are True.

The Amazon address we’ll use for this tour is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618891307

Carlyn’s picture is here: http://kidzbookbuzz.com/pictures/beccia.jpg

The book cover can be found here: http://kidzbookbuzz.com/pictures/raucous.jpg

The Raucous Royals website is here: http://www.raucousroyals.com/

Carlyn’s totally engrossing blog (I mean it, don’t go there if you can’t afford to lose an hour at least) is here: http://blog.raucousroyals.com/

Here is a press release: http://www.raucousroyals.com/raucousroyals/pressrelease.pdf

And finally the list of participating bloggers:

For a paragraph listing like this:

01 Charger, the 160acrewoods, A Mom Speaks, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, The Friendly Book Nook, The Hidden Side of a Leaf, Homeschool Buzz, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maw Books Blog, Never Jam Today, Our Big Earth, Quiverfull Family, Reading is My Superpower, SmallWorld Reads, SMS Book Reviews

Use this code:

<a href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/01charger">01 Charger</a>, <a href="http://the160acrewoods.com/">the 160acrewoods</a>, <a href="http://amomspeaks.com/">A Mom Speaks</a>, <a href="http://paraklesis.com/childrens_publishing_news/">All About Children’s Books</a>, <a href="http://blbooks.blogspot.com/">Becky’s Book Reviews</a>, <a href="http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com/">Cafe of Dreams</a>, <a href="http://dolcebellezza.blogspot.com/">Dolce Bellezza</a>, <a href="http://www.firesidemusings.blogspot.com/">Fireside Musings</a>, <a href="http://thefriendlybooknook.com">The Friendly Book Nook</a>, <a href="http://deweymonster.com/">The Hidden Side of a Leaf</a>, <a href="http://homeschoolbuzz.com/">Homeschool Buzz</a>, <a href="http://horslv93.blogspot.com/">Hyperbole</a>, <a href="http://kidzbookbuzz.com/">KidzBookBuzz.com</a>, <a href="http://lookingglassreview.blogspot.com/">Looking Glass Reviews</a>, <a href="http://blog.mawbooks.com/">Maw Books Blog</a>, <a href="http://www.noeldevries.blogspot.com/">Never Jam Today</a>, <a href="http://www.ourbigearth.com/">Our Big Earth</a>, <a href="http://quiverfullfamily.com/">Quiverfull Family</a>, <a href="http://superfastreader.com/">Reading is My Superpower</a>, <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/">SmallWorld Reads</a>, <a href="http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com">SMS Book Reviews</a>

For a list like this:

01 Charger
the 160acrewoods
A Mom Speaks
All About Children’s Books
Becky’s Book Reviews
Cafe of Dreams
Dolce Bellezza
Fireside Musings
The Friendly Book Nook
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Homeschool Buzz
Hyperbole
KidzBookBuzz.com
Looking Glass Reviews
Maw Books Blog
Never Jam Today
Our Big Earth
Quiverfull Family
Reading is My Superpower
SmallWorld Reads
SMS Book Reviews

Use this code:

<a href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/01charger">01 Charger</a><br /> <a href="http://the160acrewoods.com/">the 160acrewoods</a><br /> <a href="http://amomspeaks.com/">A Mom Speaks</a><br /> <a href="http://paraklesis.com/childrens_publishing_news/">All About Children’s Books</a><br /> <a href="http://blbooks.blogspot.com/">Becky’s Book Reviews</a><br /> <a href="http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com/">Cafe of Dreams</a><br /> <a href="http://dolcebellezza.blogspot.com/">Dolce Bellezza</a><br /> <a href="http://www.firesidemusings.blogspot.com/">Fireside Musings</a><br /> <a href="http://thefriendlybooknook.com/">The Friendly Book Nook</a><br /> <a href="http://deweymonster.com/">The Hidden Side of a Leaf</a><br /> <a href="http://homeschoolbuzz.com/">Homeschool Buzz</a><br /> <a href="http://horslv93.blogspot.com/">Hyperbole</a><br /> <a href="http://kidzbookbuzz.com/">KidzBookBuzz.com</a><br /> <a href="http://lookingglassreview.blogspot.com/">Looking Glass Reviews</a><br /> <a href="http://blog.mawbooks.com/">Maw Books Blog</a><br /> <a href="http://www.noeldevries.blogspot.com/">Never Jam Today</a><br /> <a href="http://www.ourbigearth.com/">Our Big Earth</a><br /> <a href="http://quiverfullfamily.com/">Quiverfull Family</a><br /> <a href="http://superfastreader.com/">Reading is My Superpower</a><br /> <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/">SmallWorld Reads</a><br /> <a href="http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com">SMS Book Reviews</a>

If nothing else at least watch this you tube video I found on the site. Hysterical.

The wrap up for This is the Feast is as follows:

We went to number one on Technorati the afternoon of the first day and we’ve stayed for three solid days. It appears that Technorati is broken, frozen in place, and I say, “What a wonderful time for it to break.” It’s like when the Ferris wheel stops and you’re in the top car and you sit up there swinging back and forth and looking out over all the lights of the carnival. Perfect.

I like having This is the Feast sitting above that other book for three days running. Too fun.

We had seventeen blogs participating in the tour. Twelve went for three days! I’m so proud of you all!

Three-day Bloggers:

All About Children’s Books
Becky’s Book Reviews
Cafe of Dreams
Dolce Bellezza
Homeschool Buzz
KidzBookBuzz.com
Through the Looking Glass Reviews
Maw Books Blog
Never Jam Today
Quiverfull Family
Reading is my Superpower
Small World Reads

We had a total of 45 posts about this book.

We had contests with prizes (If you haven’t seen mine at All About Children’s Books, go check it out. It will go on through Thanksgiving Day, and it’s a fun one, I think.) interviews, and many, many wonderful reviews. We had recipes, memes, poems, history lessons, and craft ideas.

This was a fun, fun, tour. Thanks to all of you for taking part!

More importantly, we’ve had some great posts.

Check out what Bellezza did with photos she took of the book. I love that. And she did a wonderful review. (Heh heh, now we know what kinds of book’s she likes we won’t send her anymore of the ones with bare breasts.)

Noel, at Never Jam Today, has done her usual, above and beyond posts, revealing the answers to secret questions we all had but were afraid to ask. She’s one of my all time favorite librarians. Check her out.

Becky, my favorite prolific reviewer, has put up a Thanksgiving Meme which I’m going to answer on my blog later today. She gets extra points for changing A mom pseaks to A mom speaks, also. Yeah for Becky who always posts on time, always does something interesting, and always gets her links in working order.

Kathy at Homeschool Buzz gave us traditions, recipes, crafts and even dug up what the Z stands for in Diane Z. Shore’s name.

Through the Looking Glass has a nice interview where Shore reveals a secret in learning how to write rhyming children’s books.

Quiverfull Family had a great review of the book.

Superfast Reader at Reading is My Superpower has been cracking me up this time with stories about Superfast Hubby and Superfast Toddler.

And I finish up with Sarah at Small World Reads who may have written the perfect post here. Not too long, full of helpful info, and inspiring on several levels. She makes me want to be a better mom, and she teaches me something by calling attention to details in the book I’d not noticed, and she makes me want to thank God, too.

The code for A Mom Speaks blog is mangled. Her address is http://amomspeaks.com/ . If you get a chance to fix it, in your posts, that would be great. Thanks.

Thanks!