Title: Shucked
Author: Megg Jensen
Publication date: April 14th 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary
Synopsis
Suburgatory meets Indiana Jones...on a farm
Fifteen-year-old Tabitha has had the kind of life that
would impress even the greatest adventurers. She's escaped a croc
attack in the Amazon, walked the length of the Great Wall of China,
and earned a black belt in taekwondo in Korea. She owes her
worldly experience to her mother's career in archaeology, but
when her mother takes on a dangerous new assignment, Tabitha is
devastated to learn she can't tag along.
Instead, she's forced to live on a midwestern farm with
her grandparents where she'll have to attend a full year of public
school. It's Tabitha's greatest nightmare, because despite all
her adventures, she has no practical experience with the one thing
that frightens her the most - other teenagers.
Her math teacher is her mom's old high school boyfriend,
she can't tell the friendly girls from the mean ones, and
she develops a major crush on a boy she knows she can't trust.
And just when she thinks she'll never get the hang of this normal
teenager thing, an attack brings the danger of her previous life
right up to her midwestern porch. Who could have ever guessed getting
totally shucked would bring her face-to-face with her most exciting
adventure yet?
I peered through the overgrown
bushes, observing the beasts in their native habitat. My heart pounded, tapping
an unfamiliar beat. I’d subdued a croc after an attack in the Amazon, looked a
lion in the eye in the African bush, and swam with sharks in the Great Barrier
Reef, but nothing compared to the fear ripping through my chest, infecting
every bit of my essence with panic.
“Tabitha,” my grandmother, Mimi,
bellowed, “get over here right now!”
I backed away from the evergreens,
swinging my backpack over one shoulder. “Coming.” My whole life I’d been
surrounded by adults or kids from cultures so far removed from civilization
that American teenagers became the epitome of uncivilized behavior. I’d seen
their TV shows on the Internet. All I could hope was that reality TV wasn’t
real.
The double doors of the school loomed
in front of me. The embedded crosshatching in the windows skewed my vision of
the masses of kids opening lockers and chatting in groups. A select few were already
swapping spit. I rolled my eyes. Suspicions confirmed.
“Do I have to go in there?” I turned
around, arms folded across my chest. Mimi stood her ground, towering over me at
nearly six feet tall, a giant to my mere five foot one inch. I wasn’t afraid. Intimidated
yes, afraid no. I’d spent years cuddled on her lap reading stories but as I
grew up, I realized that she was the powerhouse in her marriage and nearly
everywhere else. No one crossed her except for my mom. I think that’s why Mom
hadn’t come back to her hometown in the last sixteen years.
“Of course you have to go in. It
wouldn’t do for you to be late on your first day of school.” She had that same
look on her face as when I’d first met her. Exasperated, annoyed, and
definitely not in the mood to be defied.
“But Mimi,” I started.
“No buts,” she barked. Her bear-like
hand grabbed the door handle, opened it and she pushed me in with the other
paw. “Have fun, Tabitha.”
I stumbled in as the heavy door
thudded behind me. How could she leave me here alone? Among some of the most
frightening creatures on earth – teenagers. I felt the bile rise in my throat
but I swallowed it. Just what I needed, to be the girl who barfed on everyone
the first day of school.
Author Bio
I’ve been a freelance parenting journalist since 2003 and began writing YA novels in 2009. I co-run DarkSide Publishing, am a member of SCBWI, and I blog about writing while juggling freelancing, volunteering, and family life. I live in the Chicago suburbs with my husband, two kids, and our miniature schnauzer, Ace.
Connect with Megg
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Giveaway
One (1) ebook copy of Shucked (Mobi or ePub only) and 3
bookmarks (1 winner per blog--the winner gets all). Open internationally.
Blitz Organized by
book i am waiting for is final crossfire book
ReplyDeleteAmy Bartol - Book 5 in the Premonition series. Can't wait! Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteLosing Hope!!
ReplyDeleteAnxiously waiting for Iniquity by Amy Bartol!
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