Falling Leaves: Book Tour: This is Not a Werewolf Story by Sandra Evans (Excerpt, Giveaway)

This is Not a Werewolf Story

by Sandra Evans

Middle Grade Fantasy

Hardcover & ebook, 352 pages

July 26th 2016 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

This is the story of Raul, a boy of few words, fewer friends, and almost no family. He is a loner—but he isn’t lonely. All week long he looks after the younger boys at One Of Our Kind Boarding School while dodging the barbs of terrible Tuffman, the jerk of a gym teacher.

Like every other kid in the world, he longs for Fridays, but not for the usual reasons. As soon as the other students go home for the weekend, Raul makes his way to a lighthouse deep in the heart of the woods. There he waits for sunset—and the mysterious, marvelous phenomenon that allows him to go home, too. But the woods have secrets . . . and so does Raul. When a new kid arrives at school, they may not stay secret for long.

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Excerpt

Gollum lands on his shoulder and skitters to the floor. She’s a long black streak, but Tuffman’s quick. He sprints after Gollum. Everyone stops screaming. Tuffman to the rescue. Then, at the exact same moment, we all notice the hunting knife in Tuffman’s hand. It’s huge. Everyone starts screaming again.

“No,” Dean Swift shouts. “Don’t kill her! She’s not that venomous.”

Tuffman doesn’t hear. Gollum darts under chairs and tables, racing for the door.

“Don’t kill her!” Sparrow shouts. “She’s our baby, remember?”

The door to the dining hall bangs open. The reading teacher, Ms. Tern, walks in with her head down and an open book in her hand. Gale force winds couldn’t make that lady pull her head out of a book. Gollum heads in her direction. Tuffman is in pursuit.

“Watch out, Nicolette!” Dean Swift yells.

Ms. Tern looks up just in time, just as Gollum slides past her foot into the hallway and freedom, just as Mr. Tuffman throws himself after her, bringing down the knife.

We all shout. I like Ms. Tern and her mouse-colored hair and her soap bubble yells and her reading and walking. I don’t want to see her get hurt. But I can’t look away.

About the Author

Sandra Evans is a writer and teacher from the Pacific Northwest. Her forthcoming middle grade novel, This is Not a Werewolf Story (Simon & Schuster July 2016), was inspired by her favorite 12th century French tale, Bisclavret, by Marie de France. Born in Washington state, Sandra spent her childhood on U.S. Navy bases from Florida to Hawaii, and returned to the Northwest as a teenager. Since then, she has lived and traveled in France and Europe, but has never strayed far for long from the Puget Sound region.

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