Snap! It's a Magical Blog Tour

You know how when you visit friends, some are super organised and have the coffee and cake ready but others, although just as welcoming, are still trying to find where they put the coffee and whether there are any biscuits left in the cupboard that will do instead of cake? Today, as a blog tour host, I’m the latter.

But being a little behind in my preparation helped me uncover something I didn’t know about Angela Sunde. When I visited Kids Book Review, the first stop on her Snap Magic blog tour, I discovered Angela is also an illustrator and she did the illustrations for the title page and front cover.

Snap Magic is the sequel to Aussie Chomp Pond Magic and continues the magic-plagued adventures of twelve-year-old Lily Padd.

I wondered whether Angela imagined herself as a future author or illustrator when she was Lily Padd’s age. So I asked her:

I liked to write poetry and song lyrics at 12 and desperately wanted to be an artist/illustrator. I tried writing a novel at 12, but set it in the USA, because I didn't think anyone would want to know about a NZ kid. So I failed that one, as I knew nothing about the US.

A Review: Snap Magic by Angela Sunde

Lily Padd has problems and they’re much bigger than her embarrassing name. First there’s the hair on her chin and the others that soon follow.

She’s on the run from Rick, the bra-strap snapper, but it’s not the painful flick that bothers her. It’s anyone discovering that she doesn’t even wear a bra yet.

Her beautiful dress for the Halloween Dance is ruined by her terrible twin 6-year-old sisters. Mrs Swan, the witch next door, offers a solution. Lily’s had trouble with magic before but she’s willing to take another chance.

It gets worse. When Mum becomes a seller for Snap ‘n’ Pack, Lily has to dodge mean-girl Ellie Middleton at school and in the Middleton home, when Mum drags her there to help with a party demonstration.  

Still the hair keeps growing. Other people around her are looking a little hairy too.

Lily knows it’s magic. Ellen has worked it out too and she’s going to tell Lily’s secret at the Halloween Dance and destroy her chances with the new boy.

That’s the biggest problem of all.

Told in easy to read short chapters, Snap Magic is perfect for tween girls. Lily is a feisty character who refuses to be defeated by the troubles and challenges thrown at her. Even magical ones. With the help of her best friend, Maureen, she faces them all.

While Snap Magic deals with mature themes such as bullying, trust, friend and parent relationships, developing adolescence, and preoccupation with physical appearance, it does this with gentle and sensitive age-appropriate humour. This book could be a starting point for first mother-daughter discussions.

Check out the other blogstop on the Snap Magic Blog Tour

Monday 13 Oct  Kids Book Review 

Tuesday 14 Oct   Sheryl Gwyther 

Wednesday 15 Oct   Robyn Opie 

Wednesday 15 Oct   KarenTyrrell 

Thursday 16 Oct   Alison Reynolds 

Friday 17^th Oct   Chris Bell – From Hook to Book  

Saturday 18 Oct   Boomerang Books Blog 

Saturday 18 Oct  DimityPowell 

Sunday 19 Oct   Sandy Fussell - Stories Are Light  

Sunday 19 Oct    The reading Stack

Monday 20 Oct    Aussiereviews 

Tuesday 21 Oct   Dee White 

Wednesday 22   Angela Sunde’s Blog Tour Wrap Up 

Welcome to the Pond Magic Blog Tour

If you listen closely you can hear the sound of champagne fizzing and crackers crunching. I’ve even decorated my blog in pond slime green. I’m having a party and everyone is invited.

I’ve had the pleasure to be involved in a number of wonderful blog tours in recent times. It’s particularly exciting today to welcome Angela Sunde with her debut novel, sure to be the first of many. Pond Magic is an Aussie Chomp and as any writer will tell you, it’s very, very hard to be published in Penguin’s prestigious Nibbles, Chomps and Bites series.

Pond Magic didn’t start life as an Aussie Chomp and when the first draft finished it was at least 3,000 words over the guideline limit. Some good advice from a Queensland Writer’s Centre editorial consultation saw the story polished to fit and the rest is the stuff fairy tales are made of. As you read my review below you will see Pond Magic is a fairy tale too! While I am in fairy tale mode (yes I have a princess dress on!), I’m going to send you on a quest. Drop in to Angela’s blog here and read her very own personal fairy tale, where her dream of becoming an author is realised

Pond Magic by Angela Sunde, Penguin Aussie Chomps series, rrp $12.95

Poor Lily Padd. It’s bad enough to have name like that but now she’s turning green. She’s a rocket in the pool with her newly webbed feet but her burps are causing sever embarrassment and the wart on her face is the last straw. It’s hard hiding the changes from the kids at school but now her best friend is acting odd and mum has invited a French exchange student to stay.

A fair maiden turning into a frog! There must be magic in the air. When the elderly neighbour admits she is a witch and Lily learns her hide-out in Mrs Swan’s shed has exposed her to some ‘not quite right magic’, the solution is obvious. But where is Lily going to find a handsome Prince?

I love fairytales. There’s something timeless and classic about their stories. Pond Magic is proof of this – a thoroughly modern setting and cast with a familiar ring of magic and message. Lily has problems common to most twelve-year-old girls – irritating siblings, annoying boys and a falling out with her best friend. Life is almost ordinary - except that she needs to kiss a Prince to stop turning into a frog.

This story is fun. The urban fairytale plotline will allow less confident readers to predict and enjoy while competent readers will race through to discover what really happens at ‘the kiss’.

To find out more about Pond Magic visit Angela’s website and drop in at Read and Write With Dale  to continue on the blog tour,