A Winter Escape

pipe men

 

Mary G. Thompson’s new middle grade sci-fi pubs with Clarion Books this June, but she’s offering one lucky MUF reader a signed ARC now.

From Amazon: Thirteen-year-old Ryan Hawthorn has spent his life on display as a human exhibit in the multi-eyed Pipe Men’s intergalactic zoo. When his father is accidentally poisoned, it’s up to Ryan and his seven-year-old sister, Becky, to scour the universe for the antidote. Along the way, they encounter many strange creatures—from the doglike Hottini to the spindly-legged, hairy Xaxor—and learn that the Pipe Men (or, as Becky calls them, “overgrown drainpipes”) are not kindly overlords, as they had been led to believe. It’s not only the humans who are planning to rebel! A wildly imaginative middle grade space-travel adventure.

Mary stopped by to tell us a little about how she came to write “Pipe Men”:

“I’d had the idea in the back of my head for a long time  to do something about an alien zoo. I just love aliens! When I got started, I realized that I not only love aliens, but I also love portals and spaceships and adventure.  I also love looking at things from unusual perspectives. My first book, Wuftoom, deals with a boy who is turning into a wormlike creature. At first it’s horrifying, but then he starts to understand where the “monsters” are coming from. This book is very different because the tone is much lighter, but I liked the idea that these kids lived most of their lives in the zoo and were uncomfortable being outdoors on Earth.  I hope kids and kids at heart will love this stuff as much as I do.”

Thanks, Mary. For the chance to win an ARC, please leave a comment below.

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Tricia Springstubb
writer
Tricia is the author of many books for middle grade, most recently "Every Single Second" (HarperCollins) and the third book in the Cody series, "Cody and the Rules of Life" (Candlewick Press). A frequent speaker at schools, libraries, and conferences, she lives in Cleveland OH. You can find out more about her and her work at www.triciaspringstubb.com
7 Comments
  1. I am sooo in favor of more excellent MG science fiction! I reviewed Fellowship for Alien Detection on my blog, and would love to have another great one to feature and share with my students.

  2. I’m glad to see more MG scifi being published. I think this is a genre that isn’t as well developed as it could be.

  3. My husband and I are genuine science and sci-fi geeks. So now that two of our grandsons are old enough to really share in our passion, we’re actively seeking good appropriate reads that will send their imaginations off into the beyond. I can’t wait to read EFTP.

    An ARC would be perfect to share with the kid’s reading group at the library and at the school where I sub.

    Thanks so much for sharing.

  4. I would love to win the ARC! It sounds fun and my 7th grader would love it!

  5. Love mg sci-fi! Congratulations to the author.

  6. This sounds like fun: aliens and a zoo. The cover art really grabs me too so its very eye-catching. Win-win. Congrats to the author and thanks for the offer of a giveaway.

  7. Mary,
    Who doesn’t like going to the zoo? This book gives readers a whole different look at zoo exhibits. Sounds like a fun read with lots of adventure and sci-fi fun. I would love to read it and pass it along to one of my grandsons. I wish you much success. Thanks for the post, Tricia.