Donna Galanti - Where heart and hope meet adventure!

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Review of The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow + Hard Cover Giveaway!

By Donna Galanti

DMSCheck out my review today of The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow by Jessica Haight and Stephanie Robinson, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom. I pre-ordered this middle grade mystery months ago and it finally arrived on my doorstep just in time for Christmas – as you can see! 🙂

**Congrats to Janice who won the book!**

About The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow
Written by Jessica Haight
& Stephanie Robinson
Illustrated by Roman Muradov

The Begonia House keeps its secrets. Everyone knows that. Everyone, that is, except for clever eleven-year-old Fairday Morrow, whose family has just moved in. Being the Senior Investigator in the Detective Mystery Squad, more commonly known as the DMS, she’s ready to uncover the mysteries hidden within the strange manor. As the investigation gears up and the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, the three young sleuths enter into a world where anything is possible, and the danger is most definitely real. Can they piece together the puzzle before it’s too late? Or will whatever’s causing trouble find Fairday and her friends first?

MY REVIEW:

What a fun mystery adventure with a dash of supernatural for kids and grown-ups alike to enjoy! Spunky Fairday Morrow is a good friend full of pluck and curiosity, who stands up for what she believes in and has no time for bullies. Each chapter’s cliffhanger ending raises questions that draws you deeper into the mystery connecting Fairday to Begonia House, the rambling, spooky home her parents plan to turn xenical into a bed and breakfast.

Fairday soon enlists friends in the kids-only Detective Mystery Squad (DMS) to find out who is haunting Fairday’s new home with evil intent. Enchanted mirrors, ghostly music, gypsy curses, an unsolved disappearance, and a nod to The Wizard of Oz all eerily come into play behind strange happenings that ramp up the suspense.

Fairday and her friends each have their own admirable qualities that should appeal to readers and I’d like to get to know them better as they grow as characters. The parents are nicely served up on the outskirts of the story and the authors do a good job of the young characters taking charge of their own situation and solving it, even when they find themselves having to figure a way out of some dark situations. I especially enjoyed the elderly curmudgeon character, Larry Lovell, who sheds light on the trickery occurring in Fairday’s home and provides important information the DMS uses to solve the puzzle trapped inside the magical walls of Begonia House.

This book is a page turner that you’ll want to keep reading to unravel the mystery! The ending is wrapped up neatly but aptly leaves the door open for more tales about the DMS. I eagerly await more adventures of Fairday, her friends, and their investigative adventures!

Check out the book trailer:

Follow Stephanie and Jessica!

Fairday’s Blog

Fairdayfiles.com

@DMSfiles

Would you like to win a hardcopy of The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow? Comment on this post and be entered to win! U.S. residents only please.

 

Middle Grade Rewind Week + Readers Choice Awards & Fun Reads!

By Donna Galanti

It’s time!!! Readers, did you love Joshua and the Lightning Road? You can now vote for it HERE in the Month9Books 2015 Readers Choice Awards under your favorite MG book! Like the cover? You can vote on that too! I would shower you with chocolate kisses if I could but you’ll have to settle for a video of cutie Ian Somerhalder giving chocolate kisses instead. 🙂

via GIPHY

It’s also been soooo fun to be featured on ?#?MGRewind? this week where I share a middle grade flashback story to 1978! Check out all of the fun middle grade flashbacks by other Month9Books authors.

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Get it straight from my goofy young self about a day in the life of living at a campground in New Hampshire PLUS enter to win a pack of 5 awesome kids books!

Donna

Me 1978!

41jcKkCPgiLLooking for more great reads for teens? Check out the talented nominees on the Young buy ativan Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Best Fiction for Young Adults list!

What awesome book are you reading right now? I am having fun with the funny Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a wild, off-kilter novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos.

9780385744713Next on my reading list is just-released The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow by my friends Jessica Haight and Stephanie Robinson. Fans of the classic detective/spy story are sure to adore this highly illustrated debut middle-grade adventure featuring three young sleuths! I know I can’t wait to read it  🙂 .

You will want to follow Jess and Stephanie’s fun blog too – it’s chock full of cool authors and fun reads.

Happy reading all!

Your School or Book Club Could Win an Author Visit!

By Donna Galanti

Blog10If you’re a parent, teacher, librarian, or homeschooler in Southeastern PA, Lehigh Valley PA, New Jersey, or Delaware you could win one of four FREE author visits! (See book club bonus below).

Let your students discover how authors are not secret fairies after all but actual people who live all around them – and if we can make our dreams come true, so can they. 🙂

In my school visits I share a peek at my own writing journey (with lots of humor!), the three nuggets of story telling, and the importance of not giving up – revision and perseverance!

Out of the area to win? I do extended travel paid author visits and am negotiable.

Here’s what Erica Cranden, English Teacher at William Annin Middle School, NJ, had to say:

“Ms. Galanti came to visit our middle school’s creative writing group, and she was awesome! She shared her creative process from start to finish and is a talented writer and an inspiration. By the end of her engaging presentation, the students felt as though they, too, were capable of achieving ultram their goals of writing a book and becoming published authors. We can’t wait to have her back!”

ANYWHERE BOOK CLUB BONUS!
Any town library book club, private book club, school book club, or classroom of 8 members or more that reads Joshua and the Lightning Road will receive either a free in-person book club visit (with swag!) or a Skype visit. Just contact me about setting up a visit.

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HOW TO ENTER:
Comment on this post or contact me by November 15th with why you would love to win an author visit. I will randomly select four schools as winners for visits to be scheduled at their convenience. Winners will be notified by November 18th.

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“Thank you so much for coming to discuss your writing process and background with our fifth and sixth grade students. Your manner during the presentation ensured that each student was interested and engaged! Thank you again for being so generous with your time.” –Melanie Jones, Librarian, Kutz Elementary, Doylestown, PA

Visit my school visits page for more information.

via GIPHY

Summer Fun: San Francisco, book signings & reviews!

By Donna Galanti

6-2916Summer is racing by and it’s time for a mid-summer break. I’ve been in la-la land with my son being out of school and I’m not sure even what day it is – and I’m so late in posting news! So here’s a mish-mosh for ya.

I was thrilled to receive a glowing review from The Midwest Book Review for Joshua and the Lightning Road that hails it as “A heart-pounding thrill ride full of unexpected twists and turns from start to finish.” See the full Midwest Book Review.

I also planned a family vacation in San Francisco, California, around my book signing at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference the last week in June.

6-292And WOW what an amazing time our San Francisco trip was!

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I will never forget biking over the Golden Gate Bridge…

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…or seeing the great redwood trees…

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…or driving down the winding Pacific Coast on Route 1…

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…or visiting Alcatraz. Put them on your bucket lists now if you haven’t already done so!

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San Francisco is unlike any other city I’ve been in. The architecture. The weather that can change three times a day. The culture. The FOOD! The diversity.

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And THE FOG. It rolls in like a mysterious beast that slinks its way through the Golden Gate Bridge and rolls up and over the mountains. It sucks away the world and returns it on its own time. I was so fascinated by it that buy provigil it’s becoming a character in my new fantasy book!

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The fog rolls in across the Golden Gate and Alcatraz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I truly did leave my heart in San Francisco and can’t wait to go back!

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And to sign at the ALA Conference was amazing! Although getting there was a bit tricky as the city was one big colorful festivity with the Pride Parade going on the same day.

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ALA2I got to meet some author friends there like Selene Castrovilla with her award-winning book Melt. And had a co-signing with fellow Month9Books author, Scott Craven, who writes zombies for middle graders.

This week I’m thrilled to be returning to my hometown of Albany, New York for a book signing and celebration at The Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza at 7pm on Friday, July 31st. Folks local to Albany, come out early for a scavenger hunt, goodies, and giveaways – and of course, books! My real Joshua will also be there for me to embarrass him. Hope to see you there. Please invite your friends!

I’m gearing up for school visits now and if you’re a teacher, parent, or student who would like for me to come visit your school I’d love to! I live in Southeastern, Pennsylvania, but can travel anywhere in the U.S. See my assembly flyer and contact me for more information.

HAPPY SUMMER ALL!

150628-101841 RSC4 Michael and Josh on bench Grand View  Park

 

 

 

 

Today is the day! JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD is here!

By Donna Galanti

20150424_162645It’s happening. It’s really happening!

My book is real.

It’s out in the world!

This is pretty much me all week!

There’s a lot of this going on…

And this…

And a whole bunch of this…

And then this…but with fat cats

So many folks have helped this book come alive! I could not have done this alone. All of my friends, writing pals, editors, publisher, literary agent, and my wonderful son and husband have made this day happen. For all of your time and support please know…

Four years of working on this book got me HERE! And I’m very proud that I didn’t quit when things got hard, and I thought no one would buy my book. More than that, I’m so grateful that all the pieces fell into place. I’m grateful to my family for eating late or leaving me home alone so I could spend a few more buy klonopin minutes working. I’m grateful to my writer pals who didn’t let me turn into a cuckoo hermit and who forced me out of my writing cave. I’m grateful to my dear friends who support my crazy dreams even when they don’t understand what the challenges are. I’m grateful to the readers who leave fun reviews like this one who lists the five things to like about Joshua and the Lightning Road
or this who say it’s “an adventure of epic proportion.”

And all I have left to say is…

Yeah, so mostly I am a big old crazy mess so I’ll just leave you with this teaser…TW Size book 7

YOU SHOULD PROBABLY GO BUY IT TODAY!!! Here are some helpful links for you!

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Need more of Joshua? Follow along the blog tour from May 18 – 31!
There are fun interviews, guest posts, reviews and giveaways.

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THANK YOU!!!

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Lover of doughnuts, Doritos, and adventures (not so much authority figures). Does that make me a kid? Read More…

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