I’m so excited to get to be a part of this awesome tour! I’ve been telling people that authors are my rockstars for such a long time! Probably since I first joined into the whole Twitter and blogging universe, and got to talk to them, and even occasionally meet some of them! When I was notified that I got to host Gina Damico, I was really excited! I’d tried for awhile to win her book on Goodreads.com, but never won. Then I got to meet her at BEA this summer, and get the book autographed! I had put off reading it, as I kind of set up a little schedule with trying to read ARCs before they came out. But when I found out I was hosting her, I picked Croak right up to read. And I LOVED it! You can read my review here. I got a top 5 list from Gina to share with you, I hope you enjoy it!!
All summer long, I’ve been working on the third and final book in the Croak series. It’s been wonderful and fun and difficult all at the same time (emphasis on the difficult when my house decides to turn itself into a sauna), but lately I’ve been thinking about how I used to spend my summers when I was a kid: not writing, but reading. More specifically, going to the library and checking out the same books over and over and over until the librarian had to call pry them out of my freakishly strong little hands. So here are the top five picture books I loved as a kid, in no particular order:
–Herman the Helper, by Robert Kraus
This charming little ditty is about an octopus named Herman who loves to help. It’s his favorite thing ever. Get stuck in a web of seaweed? Herman’ll help you out. Ocean traffic jam? Herman will use all of his legs to direct traffic. DWI charge? Herman’s the best lawyer there is. (There is a chance I’m remembering this story wrong.)
–Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? by Dr. Seuss
This is one of those books that I loved so hard, I memorized it. Which is a difficult thing to do with a Dr. Seuss book, in my opinion, with all those made-up words. It’s a gorgeously drawn book that tells you that even if you are stuck in a desert and sitting atop a cactus (as a wiser cactus-sitter is telling our narrator), there’s a whole bunch of crap that can happen to you that’s a whole lot worse. Like poor Mr. Bix – every morning at six, poor Mr. Bix has his Borfin to fix!
-Peter and the Penny Tree, by Thomas James
I’m not sure this was one of my favorites, actually, but it definitely was the first book I ever read. I was only three at the time, and I remember sitting at the kitchen table while my mom was drying dishes or something, and I was looking at the book, and then the words just came plopping out of my mouth. Mom freaked out and I got scared. But then once I realized what was happening we all had a hearty laugh and a celebratory round of Goldfish. Thus began my career of reading and getting paid in processed cheese snacks. My book advance consisted solely of Doritos!
–Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault
The story is about how all the letters of the alphabet get together to climb up a coconut tree, and then it gets a little too crowded up there and they all fall out – which, now that I am seeing that all typed out, is actually pretty horrible. But I dare you to read this book and not start saying “Chicka chicka boom boom” to yourself for the rest of the day, or perhaps the rest of the month, driving anyone within hearing range to insanity with your nonsensical ramblings.
–Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst
I know I’m not alone in loving this book, and I think it’s because kids are just so darn convinced that they are constantly going through the worst possible things that could happen to them, when meanwhile they have no idea how much harder life is going to get. Hey Alexander, I bet you’ll stop whining about the ice cream that fell off your cone once you get audited by the IRS. Good luck whining your way out of THAT one. Sure, you can move to Australia like you keep threatening, but you know what? THEY WILL FIND YOU.
I have to say I definitely agree with the last book on that list. It is one of my favorite books EVER! I find myself quoting lines from it even when I’m having a bad day.
And in going with the top 5 list and the theme of these books, I’ve created my own top 5 Grim Reapers list, like above, in no particular order.
- Lex from Croak
- Georgia Lass from the Showtime series Dead Like Me
- Sam Oliver from the CW series called Reaper
- Tod Hudson in the Souls Screamers series by Rachel Vincent
- And a classic, the one from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
And to all of you out there, let me say that I wish I could enter the contest I’m sponsoring today!! Gina Damico is offering a copy of the 2nd book in her Croak series, called Scorch. A book I really can’t wait to read now! So, make sure you enter the giveaway below, so you can be the lucky owner of this book. And it is open to US entries only.
Check out the rest of the Authors Are Rockstars Tour HERE.
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Love the lists (both yours and Gina's)!! But one book I haven't read, and it sounds so cute I've got to remember to look for it at the library – is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day 🙂
Mary DeBorde M.A.D.
You definitely need to read the Alexander book. It's the best!
This was such a great post by your author. And I love that you got to meet her at BEA and sorry that you did not get to win her book on Goodreads. But yay for getting the chance to read it and love it!
I have not read any of those five books, though I have read one or two of your top five reaper books. I am super excited to have "met" this author through the event and can't wait to check out her books.
She sounds like a total rockstar. (I just happen to be a huge fan of all things reaper.)
Thank you so much Lisa for being on our tour, for hosting Gina. We're so glad we could match you up with this rockstar author!
You definitely need to read her books! They are so good! The characters are so realistic, well at least in my circles, with their sarcasm anyway. 🙂 Thanks for letting me a part of the tour, and matching me with Gina Damico, she is a total rockstar!
awesome list! chicka chicka boom boom all time fav!!! great post btw and thanks 4 the giveaway!!
Everybody seems to love chicka chicka boom boom, and I picked it up and looked through it, and just didn't get it. I guess it is fun to read out loud.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of my favorite reads when I was little. I now share my book with my little sister, that doesn't know how to read yet, but loves going through the pages and saying "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom".
Love your book, Croak, Gina and thanks Lisa for the giveaway! – Emilia
That's what I think is so great about the book, it's fun to read? I guess for little kids that is fun!
LOVE the list! I went nuts when I read Croak, so Lex, of course, is my favorite grim reaper ever. Driggs and Uncle Mort are up there, too, haha but Tod found a way onto my list as well.
Thanks for the opportunity to win Scorch, I'm DYING to read it!
Oh yeah, gotta love Driggs and Uncle Mort too!
I love the list even if I didn't read all them when I was younger. Thank you for a great stop.
It's always fun to see what books others read as kids.
So glad to see you chose Gina Damico as your author rockstar! I loved her book, so very good choice 🙂
Umm,I don't think I've actually read any of those books, so I can't put much of my input in that…
Thanks for the giveaway!
I was very excited to get her as my author, especially once I finished the book!
Tod should be first!! <3
Well, I did preface the list with the fact that they were in no particular order. 🙂
Gina's list made me smile. I still remember chanting Chicka Chicka Boom Boom as a kid in elementary. Fun times. I feel the urge to re-read it now.
Thank you for the post and giveaway!
Lilian @ A Novel Toybox
I'm wondering if Chicka Chicka Boom Boom wasn't out when I was a kid? Because I don't remember it. Of course I was reading on my own at the age of 3, so I didn't really get into a lot of those kinds of books I guess.
Out of the books on that list that I've read (3 of them) – I loved them! Such great memories 🙂 I think I owned every single Dr. Seuss book and probably had about half of them memorized. Thanks for the giveaway!
It is fun to look back at the memories of kids books. And now that I have my first niece, I get to have fun buying all the books and reading them to her!
You can never go wrong with Dr. Seuss and I absolutely loved Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I used to read it to my 9yo all the time! One of my favorites:)
This was such a great guest post, thanks so much for being a part of the tour!
-Patricia
I'm so happy I got to be a part of the tour! Such awesome authors, and I'm so glad I got to have Gina as my rockstar guest!
I love her top 5. I completely forgot about Georgia Lass from Dead Like Me. I loved that series!
Me too! My sister introduced it to me after the 1st season and I was hooked! I hated that it ended so soon. Did you see the movie they made?
Great list!! My favorite is Tod for sure!!! Love him 😀
I haven't quite read far enough in the series to know how much others like him, but I'm moving along!
Gina is hilarious and I love her. That is all!!
That is true! I love the humor in the book.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! Always one of my favorites to recommend to kids to read when I worked in the children's dept. at the library 🙂 Good list too! There are some that I've never read or heard of!
I know my sister-in-law loves it to read to my 6 month old niece. 🙂
Love her top 5… fun and nice post by Gina… 🙂
It was fun to get to host her!
I have never read any of those books 🙁 I wasn't big on reading when I was little.