Thursday, September 13, 2018

RABT Presents: Splotch by Rothman-Hicks and Hicks

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Middle Reader Fantasy
Publisher: MuseItYA a division of MuseItUp Publishing.

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Alice’s parents refuse to let her have a dog, so when Alice sees a paint stain on the sidewalk that looks like a dog, she decides that she will make him a virtual pet. She calls him Splotch and downloads a picture of him to her computer. To her surprise, he escapes from the computer and begins to act as Alice’s self-appointed protector. Unfortunately, he sees most people as potential enemies of Alice, including her teacher and the school principal, and he is not shy about giving those various enemies a bite. When Splotch starts to attack Alice’s best friend, Alice knows there is a big problem. But how will she get Splotch to stop being a guard dog and go back into the computer?


About the Authors

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Anne Rothman-Hicks is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College where, in 1969, at a college dance, she met a student from Haverford named Kenneth Hicks. They have been together pretty much ever since, getting married, having children, writing books, making art, and generally conspiring to live lives that are happy, creative, and good.

Anne and Ken’s most recent novels and stories are set in New York City, where they have lived for most of their married lives.

Their middle reader series, Alice and Friends, features Alice, a 10-year-old girl with a vivid imagination that gets her into and out of trouble. The titles are, STONE FACES, BROWNSTONE FACES, and SPLOTCH.

In Ken and Anne’s tween book, THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM, Jennifer and James find a pigeon in Central Park whose foot was caught in a bit of string attached to a fence. Only this pigeon was actually a man before he was turned into a pigeon over a hundred years earlier. Now he needs some help to be turned back into a man before a certain hawk captures and eats him instead.

A sequel, REMEMBERING THOMAS, has been published by MuseItUp Publishing in March of 2018.

“Yes. It’s exactly the kind of dog I’ve been looking for. Do you have your cell phone with you? I want to take a picture.”
Hannah took out her phone.
“He’s kind of goofy-looking, Alice.”
“Of course he’s goofy-looking. He’s so goofy-looking that he’s cute.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you get it? I’m going to post that picture on my social media page and on Twitter. I’m going to tell everyone that this is my dog because my parents won’t let me have a real one. I’m going to pretend to walk him and feed him and post all about it.”
“But won’t people laugh at you?”
“Of course not! They’re going to be like, ‘Oh, look at that poor little girl in New York City who can’t have a real dog so she’s taking care of a fake dog. Sniffle, sniffle.’”
“They’re going to feel sorry for you?”
“Yeah, and they’re going to share my posts and comment on them and like and retweet—”
“Seriously? You think this is going to go viral?”
“Of course! It’ll be so big, my parents will have to get me a dog.”
“You’re going to shame your parents into getting you a dog?”
“All’s fair in love, war, and with parents.”
“That’s not the way the saying goes, Alice.”
“It’s pretty close. Now stop being a spoilsport. Help me think of a name for my dog.”
“How about Scruffy?”
“Scruffy? That’s not a name. It’s an insult.”
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s not easy naming a splotch of paint.”
“Splotch! That’s it!”
“Splotch? You’re really weird, Alice.”
“Maybe, but I’m going to have a dog. You wait and see.”
“I just don’t think this is a good idea,” Hannah said.

“What could possibly go wrong?”


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