I'm really excited to be hosting a spot for the Blog Tour of Robert Beatty's latest release, WILLA OF DARK HOLLOW hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. I hope you'll check out the excerpt and make sure to enter the
giveaway!
About the Book:
Young nightspirit Willa discovers an ancient, powerful magic deep in the forest in the enchanting companion to Robert Beatty's instant #1 New York Times best-seller, Willa of the Wood.
This enchanting
companion to Robert Beatty's instant #1 New York Times
bestseller Willa of the Wood is perfect for any reader who
cares deeply about the natural world.
Willa and her clan are the last of the Faeran, an ancient race of forest people who have lived in the Great Smoky Mountains for as long as the trees have grown there. But as crews of newly arrived humans start cutting down great swaths of the forest she loves, she is helpless to stop them. How can she fight the destroyers of the forest and their powerful machines?
When Willa discovers a mysterious dark hollow filled with strange and beautiful creatures, she comes to realize that it contains a terrifying force that seems to be hunting humans. Is unleashing these dangerous spirits the key to stopping the loggers? Willa must find a way to save the people and animals she loves and take a stand against a consuming darkness that threatens to destroy her world.
Praise for Willa of the Wood:
"Willa of the Wood will grip readers from its first page...
Willa is... an admirable protagonist."—Culturess
"A moving, atmospheric journey of hope."—Kirkus Reviews
"Beatty conjures up a resourceful, compassionate heroine. Full of
atmospheric details and richly described magic... this well-paced tale asks
insightful questions about the relationship between nature and humans."—Publishers
Weekly
"The heroine is an appealing character... and her anguish is clear as she
wavers between frightened self-preservation and her desire to help her
friends."—School Library Journal
"Willa is a strong and likable creature of the natural world, and
seamlessly represents themes of loyalty, tradition, family, and stewardship of
the Earth in this engaging story."—School Library Connection
2018 Goodreads Choice
Awards: Middle Grade, finalist
2018 Cybils Award,
Elementary Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Nominee
Amazon: Best Children's
Books of 2018, ages 9-12
Imagination Soup: Best
Middle Grade Chapter Books of 2018
BNKids: July's Best Books
for Young Readers, selection (2018)
Brightly: 9 Middle Grade
Books for Environmentally Conscious Kids, selection (2018)
PopSugar: The Best books for
Kids in 2018, as Voted by Actual Kids and Parents Who Read Them, selection
A Mighty Girl: 2018 Books of
the Year, ages 9-12
Excerpt from Willa of Dark Hollow:
1901
The world is neither flat nor round.
It’s mountains.
1
Willa pivoted toward the sound. The sharp, popping cracks of fracturing wood rolled like thunder through the forest air. Then came the rain-like noise of a thousand snapping branches and tearing leaves crashing down. When the massive trunk finally struck the ground, the earth shook beneath her bare feet. A gust of wind swept through the forest and blew through Willa’s long bark-and-moss-colored hair. And as the realization of what had just happened sank into her mind, her chest filled with pain. The human loggers had cut down the great hemlock tree that lived at the bend of the river.
She stood frozen like a young deer.
It was a tree she had sat beside on sunlit mornings, watching the river flow past its roots, a tree she and her twin sister had curled up in on misty nights, gazing up through its outstretched branches toward the Great Smoky Mountain and the moon above. The trees of the forest had shrouded and sheltered her all her life. They had consoled her when her sister was killed. They were her earth and her soil, her sunlight and her song.
But now she heard the axmen chopping and sawing and shouting to each other, their harsh, barking words circling through the treetops like quarreling ravens. The quills on the back of her neck went up and a burst of heat flashed through her body. She knew she should flee this killing ground or blend her green skin into the leaves of the undergrowth and disappear from the coming human eyes. She must run from their tromping feet and escape their cutting blades.
But how could she run away when her friends were dying? How could she just leave them?
She had to stop the loggers, but she had no sharp claws or long teeth. She had no weapons or ability to fight. She didn’t hurt living creatures, she helped them.
The human loggers had jagged metal saws, axes, knives, guns, animals in chains, vast metal contraptions for dragging murdered trees from the forest, and black, steaming beasts that rolled on long gleaming tracks. She was a lone thirteen-year-old Faeran girl without a clan. How could she fight the men of iron?
The crash of another tree broke like a wave through the forest, the wind of it brushing her cheek.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
She knew she couldn’t protect the trees the way they had protected her. She couldn’t shroud them or shelter them or hide them from the world.
But she couldn’t just abandon them, either.
She took a few uncertain steps, her legs trembling. Her eyes watered with burning tears.
And then she ran toward the sound of the falling trees.
About Robert:
Robert Beatty is the #1 New
York Times best-selling author of the Serafina series and the Willa of
the Wood series published by Disney Hyperion. Loved by young readers and adults
alike, the Serafina and Willa books are being taught in over a thousand
classrooms nationwide and have been translated into over 22 languages. Robert
lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina with his wife
and three daughters. He writes full-time now, but in his past lives, Robert was
one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, the founder/CEO of Plex Systems,
the co-founder of Beatty Robotics, and the chairman/CTO of Narrative magazine.
In 2007, he was named an Entrepreneur of the Year. When asked about the
inspiration for his books, Robert said, “The Serafina and Willa books grew out
of my desire to write stories about unusual and heroic young girls for my three
daughters."
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads
| Amazon
Giveaway
Details:
3 winners will win a finished copy of WILLA OF DARK HOLLOW, US Only.
a Rafflecopter giveawayTour Schedule:
Week Two:
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5/2/2021 |
Excerpt |
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5/3/2021 |
Excerpt |
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5/4/2021 |
Excerpt |
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5/5/2021 |
Review |
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5/6/2021 |
Review |
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5/7/2021 |
Review |
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5/8/2021 |
Review |
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