Hello there! I'm realy glad to be participating in the Book Blast for Spurt by Chris Miles. Check out bellow for an amazing excerpt and don't forget to enter the giveaway.
The Book
Synopsis.
Balls and all!
Jack Sprigley isn’t just a late-bloomer. He’s a no bloomer: an eighth grader, and puberty is still a total no-show. Worse yet, he hasn’t heard from his friends all winter vacation. He assumes they’ve finally dumped him and his child-like body—until he finds out it’s much worse than that. His friends are now so far ahead of him that they’ve started dating. Jack is out of luck. But then he comes up with a plan to catch up and win his friends back. And his plan is perfect: he just has to fake puberty.
Jack Sprigley isn’t just a late-bloomer. He’s a no bloomer: an eighth grader, and puberty is still a total no-show. Worse yet, he hasn’t heard from his friends all winter vacation. He assumes they’ve finally dumped him and his child-like body—until he finds out it’s much worse than that. His friends are now so far ahead of him that they’ve started dating. Jack is out of luck. But then he comes up with a plan to catch up and win his friends back. And his plan is perfect: he just has to fake puberty.
THE EXCERPT
(From pages 88 – 90)
As his mom poured herself another glass of wine, Jack brought up a browser window, swiveled the laptop slightly to the side, and typed Bigwigs past contestants.Each new link he clicked on flashed up images of photo shoots and articles and magazine covers, some showing faces he only dimly remembered. YouTube uploads of Piers Blain’s Byteface video blogs. Hope Chanders and the infamous anarchist symbol belly-button ring that had made her lose her recording contract with EMG/Platinum. Then there was Cassie Tau’s Facebook addiction. And Mickey Santini’s slightly too-choreographed wardrobe malfunction at the Teen Music Awards. And Amit Gondra’s blossoming romance with sixteen-year-old Youth Olympics swimming hopeful Jessica Grouth. And there were others: Contestants who’d become celebrity spokespeople and youth ambassadors and music video hosts and regular talk-show guests.And then there was Jack. The only one, it seemed, who’d stayed where he was. Who’d stayed normal. Stayed the same.As much as he wanted to yank himself free from the quicksand of loserdom he’d fallen into at school, this was one lifeline he didn’t dare grasp. He was afraid that if he tried to use the Bigwigs reunion to rescue his reputation, he’d only sink further into a humiliation of national proportions. Because all the producers had to do was show one clip of Jack from when he’d been a contestant on the show, and the whole country would see that he looked and sounded the same as he did in sixth grade: fresh-faced and freckled, like a woodland creature in an old Disney cartoon.The forums would melt down with hysterical disbelief. “Did you see that Jack Sprigley kid? What a goddamn munchkin!” “I know! I heard he pretends to masturbate at school or something?”And it wouldn’t just be the Bigwigs forums. The show was coming back bigger than ever. There’d be current affairs specials and newspaper columns and blogs and hashtags and comment threads all weighing in on his failure to pube it up.The fact was, even among the former Bigwigs who’d had brushes with the dark side of semifame, nothing anyone else had done was anywhere near as embarrassing as the things Jack’s body had failed to do since sixth grade. So unless he was miraculously blessed with a pube-tacular growth spurt in the next week—when the Bigwigs people were expecting Jack’s answer—he might be signing himself up for an online mauling as well as a schoolyard one.The low-battery warning flashed up on the laptop screen. The short, stubby bar showing the currently available power was completely dwarfed by the long, forbidding tube representing a full charge.Yeah, thought Jack. That about sums it up.
The Author
Chris Miles has written several books for young readers in Australia. His short fiction and other writings have appeared in publications throughout Australia. He works as a website designer and developer, and in his spare time he indulges his love of Doctor Who, LEGO®, Dungeons & Dragons, and anchovies. He is a dog person (though not literally).
Giveaway
Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter
- - 5 Winners will receive a Copy of Spurt by Chris Miles
- - 5 Winners will receive a Copy of Spurt by Chris Miles
I got a copy of this book in the mail, but it was unsolicited so I probably won't get the chance to read it! The younger YA/Middle Grade bracket isn't my thing anymore, sadly. If you read this book, I hope you enjoy it, Lis!
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely weekend. =)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!