Blog Tour: Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn Playlist + Giveaway

Title: Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend

Author: Alan Cumyn
Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Publication date: March 22, 2016
Genre(s): Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: From publisher

Pages: 304

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Prepare to be blown away—or rather, carried away on huge muscular wings—by this blissfully outlandish, bracingly-smart, tour de force about a teen who has to come to terms with relinquishing control for the first time as she falls for the hot new…pterodactyl…at school. After all, everybody wants him! Sheils is very pleased with her perfectly controlled life (controlling others while she’s at it). She’s smart, powerful, the Student Body Chair, and she even has a loving boyfriend. What more could a girl ask for? But everything changes when the first-ever interspecies transfer student, a pterodactyl named Pyke, enrolls at her school. There’s something about him—something primal—that causes the students to lose control whenever he’s around. Even Sheils, the seemingly perfect self-confident girl that she is, can’t keep her mind off of him, despite her doting boyfriend and despite the fact that Pyke immediately starts dating Jocelyn, the school’s fastest runner who Sheils has always discounted as a nobody. Pyke, hugely popular in a school whose motto is to embrace differences, is asked to join a band, and when his band plays at the Autumn Whirl dance, his preternatural shrieking music sends everyone into a literal frenzy. No one can remember what happened the next day, but Shiels learns that she danced far too long with Pyke, her nose has turned purple, and she may have done something with her boyfriend that she shouldn’t have. Who’s in control now? Hilarious and relatable (despite the dinosaur), Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend is about a teen who must come to terms with not being in control of all things at all times, break free of her mundane life, discover who her true self is, and, oh, finding out that going primal isn’t always a bad thing

How insane does this book sound? I need a playlist to go with that story and today we have Alan Cumyn, the author of Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend here to help set the musical mood. These are the five songs Alan chose to represent Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend!

1. "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie – Pyke, the pterodactyl, gets everybody in a whirl

2. "Extraordinary Machine" by Fiona Apple – what's playing in the subconscious of Vista View High's Student Body Chair Shiels Krane

3. "Wild Thing" as performed by Animal, of the Muppets – the drumbeat to the whole book 

4. "Love Hurts", the Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris version – for the breakup of Shiels and her near-perfect boyfriend, Sheldon Myers 

5. "I'm Alive" by the Screaming Iguanas of Love -- gotta love the band name

Thank you, Alan! It was so much fun to have you on the blog today.

ABOUT ALAN CUMYN:

Alan Cumyn is the author of twelve wide-ranging and often wildly different novels. A two-time winner of the Ottawa Book Award, he has also had work shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, the Giller Prize, and the Trillium Award. He teaches through the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a past Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada. He lives in Ontario, Canada.

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Words to a Certain Tune (2): Blind Spot

There are times when I'm reading a book and I'll find a song that I start relating to it. This happens to me a lot when I read a very emotional book. This is a meme where I share a song I  think relates to certain book.

Tomorrow is the release date for Blind Spot by Laura Ellen and while I was reading this book I stumbled upon the song The A Team by Ed Sheeran. As soon as I heard the song I pictured the characters in the book, especially Tricia Farni. I think the song relates so well to her story in the book.

There’s none so blind as they that won’t see.
Seventeen-year-old Tricia Farni’s body floated to the surface of Alaska’s Birch River six months after the night she disappeared. The night Roz Hart had a fight with her. The night Roz can’t remember. Roz, who struggles with macular degeneration, is used to assembling fragments to make sense of the world around her. But this time it’s her memory that needs piecing together—to clear her name . . . to find a murderer.
This unflinchingly emotional novel is written in the powerful first-person voice of a legally blind teen who just wants to be like everyone else.

Both this song and this book have incredibly powerful messages and convey so much emotion. If anyone has read the book, what character did you like the most? I think Tricia's character was so intriguing. She was so different. There were many levels to her actions and motives and I think that relates with the girl from The A Team. You guys will definitely want to pick Blind Spot up as soon as it hits stores tomorrow. It's a powerful and emotional ride!

Words to a Certain Tune (1)

A lot of times when I'm reading a book I'll find a song that I start relating to it. This happens to me a lot when I read a very emotional book. I've been wanting to create some more features on the blog and this has been in the back of my mind for a long time. So I was thinking that I would share the songs I relate to certain books when I stumble upon them.

So this week I want to share with you the song and book I ALWAYS relate to each other when I think of one or the other. I was on vacation in Dominican Republic and I was reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and the song I had on replay on my iPod was Slipped Away by Avril Lavigne.

What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.
The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing. 

Let me know what you think and I hope you guys enjoy this new feature on the blog. If you guys have any ideas to make it better please leave them in the comments below :)