Throughout Pop! Goes The Reader’s nearly four year history, I’ve been fortunate enough to have been given a number of really wonderful opportunities for which I’m immensely grateful, and today’s post might be one of the most special ones yet. Today, I have the honour of hosting the exclusive cover reveal for my friend and regular Pop! Goes The Reader contributor, Katherine Locke, and her 2017 Young Adult debut, The Girl With The Red Balloon. Katherine has been gracious enough to write pieces for the blog several times over the last four years years, work that has exemplified the characteristic insight, passion and empathy for which I’ve always respected her, both as a writer and a person. I’ve been eagerly anticipating her YA debut for as long as I can remember, and to have been able to help with this moment in her journey to be publication means the world. Coming to a bookstore and library near you September 1st, 2017 from Albert Whitman, The Girl With The Red Balloon is a book that combines the cold war, magic, time travel (and, yes, kissing!) as the author reimagines and reinvents history in exciting, inspiring new ways. Please read on to learn more about this magnificent YA release, including the exclusive cover reveal and a personal note from the author about the novel’s origins and inspiration, as well as an opportunity for one lucky reader to win an annotated advance reader copy of The Girl With The Red Balloon!
The Girl With The Red Balloon has been a labor of love and my heart book for four years. Seeing it come alive into a real book, one that I can hold in my hands and you can read, is really a dream come true. The book is about Ellie’s quest to return home, but also about her grandfather’s loss of home and escape to freedom, and about Kai’s choice to leave home and protect his sister. It’s about history, and family, and hope, and magic, and choices we make, for better and for worse. I hope you love Ellie, Kai, Mitzi, Benno, and Sabina as much as I do.
About Katherine Locke
Katherine Locke lives and writes in a very small town outside of Philadelphia, where she’s ruled by her feline overlords and her addiction to chai lattes. She writes about that which she cannot do: ballet, time travel, and magic. When she’s not writing, she’s probably tweeting. She not-so-secretly believes most stories are fairy tales in disguise. The Girl With The Red Balloon (The Balloonmakers #1) is her Young Adult debut.
Title The Girl With The Red Balloon
Author Katherine Locke
Pages 256 Pages
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
To Be Published September 1st, 2017 by Albert Whitman
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon.com (Hardcover) ● Amazon.com (Paperback) ● Amazon.com (Kindle) Other retailers coming soon!
Ellie Baum feels the weight of history on her when she arrives on a school trip to Berlin, Germany. After all, she’s the first member of her family to return since her grandfather’s miraculous escape from a death camp in 1942. One moment she’s contemplating the Berlin Wall Memorial amidst the crowd, and the next, she’s yanked back through time, to 1988 East Berlin when the Wall is still standing.
Nobody knows how she got there, not even the members of the underground guild – the Runners and the Schopfers – who use balloons and magic to help people escape over the Wall. Now as a stranger in an oppressive regime, Ellie must hide from the police with the help of Kai, a Runner struggling with his own uneasy relationship with the powerful Balloonmakers and his growing feelings for Ellie. Together they search for the truth behind Ellie’s mysterious travel, and when they uncover a plot to alter history with dark magic, she must risk everything – including her only way home – to stop the deadly plans.
As an extra, exciting bonus, Katherine has been kind enough to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win an annotated advance reader copy of The Girl With The Red Balloon! This wonderful prize will include notes from the author herself regarding her favourite scenes, musical inspiration, fun facts, inside jokes and much, much more. This contest is open internationally and the prize will be distributed once ARCs become available. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter!
4 Responses
Oh my! Thank you both so much for this opportunity to win an annotated ARC, this is so exciting!
Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres and especially WW2. So from the first few lines of the synopsis this book had me interested!
Also, that cover is beautiful, can’t wait to see it IRL if I win or in September!
Yay! I’ve watched the author talk about this project for ages. I’m so glad it’s finally on its way to my bookshelf!
Can’t wait!
I saw this cover on GR, a bit ago, and I just noticed the couple inside on the balloon and now, my infatuation for this book has triplicated!
peach @ rebelle reads recently posted…Review: You’re Welcome, Universe