Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm kicking off "Hero Month" with today's post. What is Hero Month? Just me, promoting my backlist title Halitor the Hero. Isn't that a lovely cover?  Title: Halitor the Hero Author: Rebecca M. Douglass Publication Info: 2014, 159 pages (paperback). Available in paper and all ebook formats Genre: Humorous fantasy Age Level: Middle grades (roughly age 8 or 9) and up   A Fair Maiden who breaks all the rules.   A would-be Hero who fails everything by the book.   It’ll be the adventure of a lifetime…if they survive past breakfast. Blurb: Halitor wants to be a Hero and ride through the world rescuing Princesses and Fair Maidens in distress. Too bad he tends to trip over his own feet and drop his sword when he gets excited! When his Hero apprentice-master abandons him at an inn in Loria, he resigns himself to life as a kitchen boy. But he’s reckoned without Melly, the young kitchen wench. She wants his help finding her father, and she won’t quit until she has it. Soo...

  Below is the cover on the edition I read. Wonder why they made those small changes, but in any case, I prefer the first one. It's hard to see any of the details on the book I got from the library. It's a nice illustration of how small changes can improve a cover. Title: Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters (Momotaro series #1) Author: Margaret Dilloway. Illustrations by Choong Yoon Publisher: Disney/Hyperion, 2016. 309 pages Source: Library Publisher's Summary:   Xander Miyamoto would rather do almost anything than listen to his sixth grade teacher, Mr. Stedman, drone on about weather disasters happening around the globe. If Xander could do stuff he's good at instead, like draw comics and create computer programs, and if Lovey would stop harassing him for being half Asian, he might not be counting the minutes until the dismissal bell. When spring break begins at last, Xander plans to spend it playing computer games with his best friend, Peyton. Xander's f...

  #M is for Melly But first, a bonus M character. Mariusz: In a nutshell: bullishly confident ruler of Castle Hattan, and head of the Wozna cola 'global' enterprise, explorer of time tunnels and places he shouldn't put his nose into.   Strong sense of right and wrong, as long as right is in his favour. Biggest secret: he's really very kind and considerate, especially with his employees, as long as they don't notice. Mariusz is from the Princelings of the East series .    Now for the featured character! In a nutshell: Melly is a kitchen-wench in a village in Duria, where Halitor meets her under difficult circumstances. She has a mission to accomplish and she’ll do whatever she must to do it. Biggest secret : her real name. (What? You think I'm giving that away?) Favorite line:  Halitor is worried that Melly might be a princess, since she's just needed rescuing from an ogre. She responds, "Princesses don't peel potatoes....

  H is for Halitor the Hero In a Nutshell: Halitor is a hero-in-training who has a terrible tendency to be klutzy. Biggest Secret: He is scared to death of girls, known to him as Fair Maidens. They make him especially clumsy. Favorite line: " The Hero's Guide to Battles, Rescues, and the Slaying of Monsters say so." Doesn't matter what's going on, Halitor expects it to match the instructions in his textbook. A Fair Maiden who breaks all the rules. A Hero who fails everything by the book. It'll be the adventure of a lifetime...if they live past breakfast! Publisher's Blurb: Halitor has failed at every apprenticeship under the Ice Castle. He figures it’s his last chance when his parents foist him on Bovrell the Bold as an apprentice Hero, and he pores eagerly over the Hero’s Guide to Battles, Rescues and the Slaying of Monsters. But Halitor infuriates his master when he drops his sword and gets rattled around Fair Maidens. When his master abandons ...