The O.W.L.: Spurt by Christ Miles Blog Tour: Top Ten List and +GIVEAWAY

Today I welcome Chris Miles to The O.W.L. to promote his new book Spurt and share a Top Ten Guest post!

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.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Praise for SPURT

“Hilarious, addictive, brilliantly-warped... like Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen crossed with Diary of a Wimpy Kid” -- Stuart Gibbs, New York Times bestselling author of the Spy School series

“Funny, heartfelt, and likely to appeal to reluctant readers, especially boys on the cusp of puberty” --School Library Journal

“A refreshing take on body image, acceptance and the need to fit in. The novel’s moments of profundity are subtle yet powerful, and masterfully balanced with humour. Spurt is appealingly naughty.” --Books+Publishing

ABOUT 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).

WEBSITE: http://www.chrismiles.com.au/
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/248340.Chris_Miles
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/chrismilesauthor

I was able to ask Chris to create a Top Ten List for this post. I asked:

What are the Top Ten ways you procrastinate when writing!

Here's what he said:

Doing the laundry
Doing the dishes
Eating cereal (and therefore making more dishes, see number 2)
Reading books and articles about writing instead of actually writing
Tweaking the settings on my word processor
Obsessing over finding the right names for things
Making wish lists of LEGO® sets I want to buy
Taking photos of my dog
Googling for reviews of my book
Composing emails to Google asking why there aren’t more reviews of my book (see number 9)

I LOVE #7 and I know many of my students would too!!! Thanks for sharing these Chris!

I'm going to keep this short since this post is getting a little long!

Very cute, real, funny book. This is a topic that not many books out there take on! At first I was a little leery, but in the end it was all good. I liked Jack a lot. He was real, likable and believable. That was important because you had to buy into him if you were going to run with the rest of the book!

I will admit I'm curious how kids the age of the characters in the book will react to it. The cover alone will catch their attention, but I'm curious what they'll think of it beyond that. If they decide to read it, I think they'll enjoy it!

In short - Give Spurt a try! I think you'll like it!