New Release and Excerpt! The Lumpy Duckling #mglit #friendship #fairytales #magic
I'm very excited to share with you my newest book release, The Lumpy Duckling - Another Weaver Tale.
Lumpy is the third standalone title in my Weaver Tale series. It's about friendship and expectation, transformation and doubt. Wheezy over thinks things to the point of making them happen. Lumpy is humble, sweet and (thank goodness) persistent. If you have a middle grade reader in your life, I think you'll be happy you shared this book with them.
Lumpy may be
hefty with a misshapen mouth, but he’s funny and the most loyal friend Wheezy
could ask for. When she meets Unwanted, she casts a wish for people to be able
to see her best friend like she does. Her wish nearly kills him.
Available in hard
and soft cover and electronic formats:
What people are saying:
Kai Strand explores friendship, perception, and the
consequences of wishes in this fast-paced read. –Amazon Customer
This
is a wonderful story of loyalty and friendship. It also shows how one’s fears
and insecurities sometimes sabotage the good things we have in our lives. Like
Wheezy, we have to learn to trust, to accept change, to be patient and
understanding, and to try not to jump to conclusions. The end is most
satisfying, but it’s an exciting, nerve-wracking ride getting there. The Lumpy Duckling is highly recommended
for middle grade readers. –Penelope Anne Cole, award winning author
Excerpt, Chapter 1:
“Now where has that girl
gone?” Mrs. Frickles grumbled. “Eloise Talemaker?”
Eloise popped up from
behind the lab table. A clump of frizzy red hair, an escapee from her pigtails,
rested like a veil over her left eye. She blew at it ineffectively. “Here, Mrs.
Frickles. I guess I was carrying my folder upside down, because my papers fell
out. I’m just retrieving them, ma’am.”
The teacher lifted her gaze
to the ceiling before taking a deep breath. A frequent reaction she saved for
the girl who squatted to the floor again and continued scooping up her papers.
“Very well, Eloise. Make it quick.” Glancing across the room she smiled fondly at
Wendell and checked his name off on the roll sheet.
Not one to allow an
opportunity to make fun of a less popular classmate pass her by, Tosh hissed a
tale at Eloise.
“Sneezy Wheezy—such a
klutz.
The start of class she
is prolonging,
by dropping all her
prized belongings.
She should just sit on
her…butts.”
Eloise, or Wheezy as all
the kids called her, shook her head. “Tosh, stick to horror stories. Rhyme
isn’t your thing.”
“Horror?” Tosh crossed her
arms over her chest and spun on her lab stool presenting her back to Wheezy.
Smiling to herself, Wheezy
stuffed her papers into her folder. Tosh’s usual style of Word Weaving was
actually a pretty standard storytelling voice, nothing close to horror, but
Wheezy couldn’t resist the dig at the girl’s mean personality. With all her
papers collected, Wheezy scrambled onto her own stool at the table next to Tosh
just in time for Mrs. Frickles to start the day’s lesson.
Wheezy’s next class was
history. She gathered her belongings and followed her classmates out the door.
A fresh layer of spring
snow had fallen the night before. The morning warmed enough for it to begin to
melt off, and lavender, purple, yellow, and white crocuses poked holes through
their nighttime blanket to greet the students while they walked through town
from class to class. The town of The Tales was unique in that classes were held
in people’s homes. History expert, Mr. Middy, taught class in the front sitting
room of his house. Wheezy plunked onto a cushy couch next to Harken Herald.
“Hey Hark.” Wheezy yanked
the tie off her left pigtail, recaptured the wayward hank of hair and re-tied
it again.
Hark blinked at her.
“Uneven.”
Wheezy shrugged. “Just so
it stays in this time.”
The couch cushion under
Wheezy puffed with air, launching her sideways into Hark. She giggled and
leveraged herself against his arm so she could push herself back into the
middle of the couch. The burst of air tickled her nose. She sucked in one
breath, two breaths, and finally a sneeze burst from her.
Hark grunted in frustration,
frowning at Poesy before offering a blessing to Wheezy.
“That never gets old,”
Poesy said, smirking at Hark. She set her messenger bag on the floor
unconcerned about the growing puddle of snow melting off her boots. She looked
at Wheezy expectantly.
The second and third
sneezes followed. Wheezy’s sneezes were always divisible by three.
“Bless you. Your pigtails
are uneven.” Poesy reached for the one Wheezy just fixed.
Fluttering her lids to
clear her watery eyes, Wheezy flipped her head to present the other one. “I
have a hank that keeps escaping that one, so they have to be higher.”
“Not. A. Problem.” Poesy
stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth while she worked to even up her
friend’s hairstyle.
Wheezy scowled when Tosh
sauntered through the front door, batting her eyelashes at the class
heartthrob, Edward Telling. The two popular kids didn’t even glance in Wheezy’s
direction. She and her friends were considered a non-issue unless the perfect
opportunity to tease one of them presented itself, like it had in science that
morning.
Poesy glanced to see whom
Wheezy scowled at and quickly looked back at the hair she tied into place, a
blush coloring her cheeks. It bothered Wheezy that Poesy had developed a crush
on Edward; City Word Weaving Champion, youngest to ever receive the title of
Top Tales Debater, the most decorated poet under the age of eighteen, and an
epic ego, appropriately oversized from all the recognition. Poesy with her
spiky black hair and uneven hems didn’t stand a chance against the ‘Toshes’ of
The Tales. And there were plenty of ‘Toshes’ for Edward to choose from.
Besides,
isn’t seventh grade too young to worry about boys? In that way at least. She
always worried about her very closest friend, Lumpy. She and Lawrence Nightingale
had been inseparable since she tripped over him in the sandbox almost nine
years ago. Well, inseparable might be a bit strong, since they couldn’t even go
to school together, Lumpy being a year older than
her and all.
Being
picked on wasn’t the only thing they had in common. Wheezy smiled. They both
liked…um…they preferred…um. Her smile fell away when she stared out the window
picturing herself and Lumpy together.
They had
nothing in common. He liked to watch sports and whittle wood; she liked to
create sand art and find shapes in the clouds. He chowed down steak and pan
fried potatoes, or liverwurst and ketchup sandwiches, while she nibbled pickled
zucchini spears and rye crisps. He spit into a pennywhistle, calling it music,
while she sang like a songbird.
Even their
Word Weaving was different. She weaved reports and updates of current events
while he …um…whatever his weavings were classified as, they made people laugh.
Gnawing the inside of her cheek, she searched for a
commonality in their personalities, hobbies or
interests. A reason they were friends.
An image
of Lumpy, a dirt stained baseball cap slightly askew, round face, red from
laughing, an ever present lumpy grin on his lips which sparked in his bright
blue eyes, formed in her mind, and a smile brightened her face again. It didn’t
matter that they had nothing in common. He was her best friend. That was enough
for her.
***
Again Lumpy is available in hard and soft cover and electronic formats:
Visit my website to read more about the entire Weaver Tale series:
Congrats on the new release, Kai!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kelly :)
Delete