The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls Blog Tour & Giveaway
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand – Blog Tour & Giveaway
Guys, I am so thrilled to have Claire Legrand on my blog today. She’s awesome, plus she gave me a cockroach hair pin at BEA, AND she’s sharing these hilarious scans of her first book on my blog today. I died looking at them and I know it’s going to have the same effect on you!
So don’t miss this post OR the giveaway at the end, and be sure to check out the other blogs on The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls blog tour, the full list is here!
Also, click on the scans to see the bigger image!
Amazon | Goodreads | Indiebound
At the Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, you will definitely learn your lesson. A dark, timeless, and heartfelt novel for fans of Coraline and The Mysterious Benedict Society.Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster—lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does too.)But then Lawrence goes missing. And he’s not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out…different. Or they don’t’ come out at all.
If anyone can sort this out, it’s Victoria—even if it means getting a little messy. – Goodreads
Claire’s First Books (or, Apparently All I Could Write About Were Horses)
by Claire Legrand, author of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls
So far, none of the books I’ve sold have featured horses much. I think a pair of carriage horses makes a cameo appearance in the opening pages of Winterspell, but that’s about it. No unicorns come to Victoria’s rescue at the Cavendish Home with a few thoughtful zaps of their horns or thunderous cries of virtue and justice. No pegasi fly her and Lawrence out of danger’s clutches. There are no sparkling hooves or majestic wings in Cavendish, no flaring nostrils or perfectly coiffed tails. (But I kind of think, even though she would never admit it, Victoria would totally be into unicorns. Maybe she even has a secret unicorn stash!)
This is a picture I drew in elementary school. Is it a unicorn? A pegasus? NO. PEGACORN. Or . . . UNISUS. No, definitely pegacorn. Also, MAJESTIC HAIR.
But when I was little? Horses are all I could write about. Check this out, my 3rd grade magnum opus:
The original of this included full-color illustrations, but the only copy I could find was this black-and-white one. (I made several, of course, and gifted them to my 1st-grade teacher and my elementary school librarian. You see, I was convinced I’d be a bestseller by 13, so obviously they’d want the first writings of the next literary wunderkind, right? Obviously.)
You can see that, from an early age, I was horribly obsessed with commas. I also dropped into this story as much as I could about the politics of horse herds, about which I was obviously an expert after devouring every Marguerite Henry and Black Stallion book I could find. Oh, and playing hours of this.
The logistics of Cinnamon and Ghost’s argument make no sense to me. Ghost wants to kick out Cinnamon, who’s still basically a teenager, but not one of the older horses? Because she, the younger and more virile, is somehow less beneficial to the herd? Wha? Also, I just realized that this is kind of a YA novel starring horses. This scene in particular screams adolescent angst. Also, gunshots! Drama!
Third chapter in (and mind you, these chapters are like two pages long, max), and Cinnamon’s already fallen in love. Girlfriend doesn’t waste time!
Two chapters later, Cinnamon and lover Dust have escaped, and then Dust dies of thirst! My love of not pulling punches, even to save beloved characters, begins. Consider yourself warned, general populace. Also, her tears are dripping off the end of his TAIL. This is tragic in so many ways.
The Journey concludes after many more adventures for Cinnamon, including being attacked by a panther, being caught in a tornado, and finding an orphaned filly (and according to my narration, that’s a baby girl horse) in a pile of flowers. Eventually, she makes it home and Ghost apologizes for being a jerkface.
I wrote The Journey in 3rd grade. I wrote this next book in 5th grade. It’s called Stranded! Please note the exclamation mark.
I bet I thought these chapter titles were so clever. LORD.
See how much I love spouting equestrian knowledge at my readers? In the first paragraph, no less! You can’t say I’m not informative.
Fully illustrated once again! My, this plane is remarkably intact.
Natasha and Alex spend the next few chapters making beds out of reeds and surviving wildfires. Then, one of the handlers from the airplane reappears! He and Alex proceed to wow the reader with exceptional dialogue. I mean, really stellar.
Sometime later—after Alex found a golden retriever puppy and named her Lady!—they spot a rescue helicopter! I like how Alex says the animals were “aroused by the commotion.” Mmm! The whir of helicopter blades. I mean, that’s certainly what gets me going.
(By the way, Lady was the name of my childhood dog, who dug out and ran away. My mom told me after I got home from school that day and gave me a Milky Way bar to placate me, which, let’s give credit where credit is due, was a good plan. But I didn’t eat it; instead, I walked around the neighborhood in tears, leaving pieces of Milky Way bar behind me like breadcrumbs in hopes that it would bring Lady home. To any dogs reading this: Don’t dig out and run away like ungrateful turdbuckets. You’ll break some kid’s heart.)
By the way, Alex and Natasha (and Lady!) were rescued. And Ben, who had committed suicide after showing up earlier in the story, to which Alex had no reaction whatsoever (I just . . . wow), showed up at the racetrack as a ghost and gives Alex a trophy just for making it back alive.
If that’s not quality storytelling, I don’t know what is. Also, check out these acknowledgments:
Yeah, guys. For those who don’t know what a “Trekkie” is. GAWD. Muggles. (That, by the way, is non-magic folk. You noobs.)
Also, my favorite food is definitely still pizza, but I’m not sure I ever actually saw all of 2010. I probably included it here to sound smart. As if Star Trek wasn’t enough.
All About Claire Legrand
Claire Legrand is a Texan living in New York City. She used to be a musician until she realized she couldn’t stop thinking about the stories in her head. Now a full-time writer, Claire can often be found typing with purpose on her keyboard or spontaneously embarking upon adventures to lands unknown. The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is her first novel, due out August 28 from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. Her second novel, The Year of Shadows, a ghost story for middle grade readers, comes out August 2013. Her third novel, Winterspell, a young adult re-telling of The Nutcracker, comes out Fall 2014.
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Giveaway of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls
To win a hardcover copy of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, fill out the form below! Contest is U.S./Canada only. Ends September 12th.
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I’m so excited about this book! Only a couple more days until it’s wild and free!
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This guest post is hilarious! I was laughing during the acknowledgements/”about the author” part. So cute! And wow, those illustrations show some serious skill. Not sarcastic at all.
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Haha I love the drawings of horses. :D And the titles of the chapters.
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so cute the story <3 :)
hi claire!!
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Hahaha, I love this! I was cracking up throughout the whole post. And those are pretty awesome drawings. My horses would (and still do) look like dogs with tall legs.
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Those horses are definitely a lot better than anything I could draw! Haha. I’ve reverted to just drawing stick figures and stick animals. -shaaammeee-
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Claire, it was so awesome hanging out with you at BEA, and this post is hilarious! The Acknowledgements/About the Author remind me of my own at that age, except I was trying really hard to pretend I wasn’t a big nerd. If I were telling the truth back then, I’d have included how I watched Xena. We probably would’ve been friends.
So excited for Cavendish!
Donna Gambale recently posted..Friday Rewind: The Disney Princess Hunger Games!
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Claire, I have to say how envious my younger self is of your art skills. Also, had we been in the same elementary school at the same time, we would have been freaking besties. I too was entirely obsessed with horses. I read all of those Walter Farley and Marguerite Henry books AND I had that board game. In fact, since pretty much no one ever wanted to play the actual game with me, I invented one with the cards, which was basically writing a melodrama using those horses as characters. This horse married this horse; the donkey was grumpy. Oh good times.
Plus, you can’t forget about the collections of My Little Ponys (old school), Grand Champions and Breyer horses. You know how most little girls would play with their barbies and make up stories about dates with Ken. I played with my toy horses forever and did the same thing. Of course the two most beautiful horses always had to get together and a have an adorable foal. OH MY!
Christina (A Reader of Fictions) recently posted..Love Will Tear Us Apart – Calexico
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Awesome, Claire. Don’t you just love how our grade school selves were so uber confident. Spelling everything out for posterity… You’re lucky you can draw – back then, I resorted to telling sticker stories, with fuzzy or shiny or scratch-n-sniff stickers in the place of strategic words…
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I was so obsessed with horses when I was younger. I never could draw, but I wrote countless stories about them. Also, I read Marguerite Henry’s books like 5,000 times.
Thanks for the chance to win! Can’t wait to read Cavendish!
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Honestly, I LOVE this post. The first books you wrote Claire are AWESOME. You have better artistic skills than I ever will, lol!
Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books recently posted..TGIF (37): Back to School Reading
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I have a crush on Desert Dust. :D These are sooooo amazing. Those drawings are incredible! You drew better than me in 3rd grade! Horses are so hard to draw!! I heart you Claire;)
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Claire (and Tara), This is absolutely one of the best blog tour posts I’ve ever seen! First of all, I would love to see a picture of said cockroach hair pin! (Tweet it?) I loved everything about it, particularly the Pegacorn. These illustrations are awesome. I am the worst draw-er EVER. I’m amazed at these skills.
I love these early books, Claire! So great. I’m so glad you shared them. They’re awesome. Thanks, ladies!
Asheley (@BookwormAsheley) recently posted..Let’s Talk…on Three of My Favorite Book Series
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Claire – Your commentary is hysterical! Can’t wait for Cavendish and luckily I don’t have to for much longer.
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Hi Claire! I enjoy your sense of humor on Twitter. I look forward to reading your first book. Good Luck with the tour.
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This is probably the best guest post ever. I love it so much. So so so much. i am laughing so hard.
fakesteph recently posted..Book Blogger Hop – August 24
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I’m really eager to get my grubby hands on this book!! Can’t wait.
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Hi, Claire! This is a really cute post. I love that you included pictures as well as explanations. :) Can’t wait to read Cavendish. It comes out very soon!!!
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Hi Claire. Thanks for the giveaway.
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OMG, this is too amazing! I can’t remember I have laughed so much from a post! I love your narration of the stories that you wrote, Claire. And I love the stories too. They are so cute, in a strangely morbid way. haha
I can’t wait to read Cavendish!
Thanks for sharing Tara :)
Michelle @ Book Briefs recently posted..{ARC Review+Excerpt+G!veaway} Inbetween by Tara Fuller
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Thanks for the great story. Even back then you had more artistic talent than I’ve ever had. Sorry about your runaway dog, what a jerk!
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can’t wait to read it!!
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Hi! I’m really looking forward to reading this book.
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I’m really impressed by her art skills at such a young age! I STILL can’t draw like that, and I’m a teen! xD
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Hi! Thanks for the chance to win!!
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Hi!!
Thanks so much for the giveaway. This novel really sounds great and the old school cover is to die for =D
-Becky
Becky recently posted..Follower Appreciation GIVEAWAY!!
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Um, yeah. I love this. <33 ahah. And "HI CLAIRE!" *waves*
Thanks so much for this awesome giveaway.
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Hey! Thanks for the giveaway, it’s awesome! ♥
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Hi Claire!! *waves* Thanks for the great guest post! Love seeing things you wrote and drew when you were younger! How fun : ) I cannot wait to finally read this book!!! Thanks for the giveaway!!
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Oh my gosh! A Pegacorn! I’ve always wanted one of those ;) Those drawings were so cute <3
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Hi Claire :) I hope I win, thanks for the giveaway! I’ve been hearing good thinks about this book!
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Lol @ this interview I never went on to be a professional author but in grade school I became a self published writer of all things wonderfully obscure including horses (more accurately Pegasus and Unicorns) I was quite proud of myself and I think my sixth grade school still has a copy of Naomi’s Adventures in Equestrian World what a awesome title huh ;) Dedicated to my niece. This post made me nostalgic and I love the look into Claire’s earliest works such a great way to get to know an author :)
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This is one of the best blog posts I’ve ever seen! I love the early childhood writings. I have some that I’d never ever want to show anyone :P
Jasmine Rose recently posted..Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker {Review}
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That post had me giggling like I was the age Claire was when she wrote the books! I used to do the same thing, and this brought back so many fun memories. I can’t wait to read your books, Claire!
Kayla B. recently posted..Cover Reveal: Naturals (The Lost Souls #2) by Tiffany Truitt
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The book sounds kind of creepy… AWESOME :)
Hwa Sun recently posted..[REVIEW] Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
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None of the books I tried to write as a kid had drawing that awesome I must say!
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You are so brave to share your juvenalia with us. Not everyone would be willing to exhibit their childhood “literature.” Excellent illustrations for a third-grader!
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Hi Claire,
I am really excited to read your book :)
Sara T recently posted..Top Ten Tuesday
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