David Inside Out Blog Tour + Contest

Contest and Blog Tour

Let's Get Beyond Tolerance

David Inside Out

by Lee Bantle

Monday, January 17th to Friday, February 4th

To prevent this from being an outrageously long post, I will provide the links with yesterday's information. For additional blog tour info and to place your entry totals, go to Let's Get Beyond Tolerance here or check my post from yesterday here. This book is a powerful way of addressing real issues that are too often left unaddressed.

Goodreads Blurb:

David Dahlgren, a high-school senior, finds solace in running with the track team; he’s a fast runner, and he enjoys the camaraderie. But team events become a source of tension when he develops a crush on one of his teammates, Sean. Scared to admit his feelings, David does everything he can to suppress them: he dates a girl, keeps his distance from his best friend who has become openly gay, and snaps a rubber band on his wrist every time he has “inappropriate” urges. Before long, Sean expresses the thoughts David has been trying to hide, and everything changes for the better. Or so it seems.

In this thoughtful yet searing coming-of-age novel, Lee Bantle offers a raw, honest, and incredibly compelling account of a teenager who learns to accept himself for who he is.
 

Thank you, Lee Bantle, for your powerful book 

and for your great letter-writing idea.

 *****
(this letter is not about David Inside Out)

Dear  Emily Rodda,

Choosing only one favorite author was not an easy task. After all, I had people like my beloved James Dashner and Brandon Mull and Cornelia Funke (who is beyond brilliant) and Patricia Polacco and William Steig (the reigning queen and king of picture books) to choose from. But no. I chose you.

Mommy love trumps all things, Emily, and I owe you truckloads and truckloads of thanks. Because of you—and you alone—my son is an avid reader. Because of you, he is a better speller and writer and reader. At the start of his 3^rd grade year, he was behind in his reading skills. He HATED reading, and for this English teacher mom, it was pure heartache. And then came your Deltora Quest series.

You were brilliant to keep each book short. It was the “thickness” that first earned his reluctant agreement. Before the end of the first book, he was hooked.  He DEVOURED the series. I had never seen him read so willingly, so often, or so quickly! Then, he read Rowan of Rin. After that, he was hooked on reading. By the end of 5^th grade that same boy was reading at an 11^th grade level and getting A’s in spelling and writing. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Emily Rodda, for helping my child love to read; for showing him that stories can be magical; for convincing him that “thickness” isn’t important. Once he’d read all of your books, he went on to Artemis Fowl and then to The Edge Chronicles and then to the Septimus Heap stories… and he’s still going.

More than that, I teach lower lever high school students who are reluctant readers and writers. The Deltora Quest series has NEVER failed to hook my students. NOT ONCE. 

Your series is one-size-fits-all, and everyone loves it—especially this particular happy mom.

Sincerely,

Shannon O'Donnell

Be sure to leave a comment and then hop over to  Let's Get Beyond Tolerance and record your point.  

Good luck!!

*UPDATE: The deadline for commenting on tour-stop posts and adding them to the Let's Get Beyond Tolerance comment thread has been extended to Feb. 4th.That gives you more time to visit, read, comment, and earn points toward the prize package!!