I saw so many fun things about his book, I wanted to share it with you. If you have kids, now is the time to some summer reading, so check it out and let me know what you think.

Queen of Likes by Hillary Homzie

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GENRE: middle grade/tween

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BLURB

Like everyone at Merton Middle School, Karma Cooper’s smartphone is almost another body part. She’s obsessed with her LIKES on Snappypic. When her parents shut down her social media account and take away her smartphone, Karma’s whole world crumbles. She has to figure out what she actually likes and how to live life fully unplugged. This book will jumpstart conversations about how social media is changing the ways tweens are growing up.

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GUEST POST

Why I named my main character Karma

Names are powerful. In the Judeo-Christian, we believe that the creator spoke the world into existence. It’s definitely not quite as quick on my end. But certainly there’s great power in a name. In fact, I spent quite a bit of time naming my characters. I wanted to make sure that names fit their personalities. In another words, I want to imbue their names with their essence.

Today, I thought I’d tell you a little bit about naming my main character of my new middle book, Queen of Likes. Before telling you why I named my character I’d like to describe her to you. Twelve year-old Karma Cooper lives in Portland, Oregon. Her parents were originally from San Francisco and discovered the Portland area while on a retreat (so they are former hippies). Karma’s a seventh grade and has achieved a certain status in her middle school because of all the followers she has on her social media account, Snappypic. By the way, this is a fictional social media platform so don’t go looking for it! I wanted to make sure that I kept the book feeling timely. After all, what social media platform is en vogue changes from year to year, month-to-month, sometimes even week-to-week. That’s why I thought it would be best to make up a site.

Karma is someone who in sixth grade was shy and didn’t receive a lot of social attention. However, when she began to post photos online, they generated some attention. She started to get more and more followers, which gave her a sense of belonging and increased her self-esteem. Unfortunately, she began to look outside of herself for validation. She viewed the number of likes she got on Snappypic as a measure of her value as a person.

I chose the name Karma because of two reasons. The first reason is because when my second son was in middle school he was friends with a girl named Karma, and I just thought it was such a memorable name. As a bonus, this girl a dynamic person and an independent thinker. I decided I’d really love to use that name from one of my books one day.

The second reason is that karma in Hinduism and Buddhism means the sum of the person’s actions in this and in previous states of existence and that sum decides your fate. Unfortunately, Karma thinks that all of her posts determine her fate. She’s not looking at the posts themselves but at people’s reactions to her posts. What she needs to learn is to look inside herself for what she likes versus what other people think of her. Her life doesn’t go the way she wants to go. At least at first. Her parents cut off her social media account and take away her phone. However, when she does a service project and volunteers in the local historical society (and takes a photography class), she learns to value herself. She stops looking outside of herself for validation. When this begins to happen, Karma’s life heads in a more positive and fulfilling direction.

EXCERPTS

Where are all my likes? I refresh the page. And . . .

Nothing.

I shake my phone as if that might help.

Still nothing.

This doesn’t make sense. I used the filter that everyone else on Snappypic is really into. It makes everything seem dreamy. But with only 45 LIKES, the sun is losing its brilliance and looks lonely and unloved.

Maybe I need to turn it off and on?

I turn off my phone and restart it. I text Ella Fuentes: Did you see my photo? I add a smiling emoji.

No response.

I know Ella’s up. It’s late morning. She’s my best friend. Maybe she’s reading or drawing, but she’s definitely up.

If she wasn’t doing something else, I’m sure she’d like my photo. I try a couple of other girls I know. Nothing. It’s late Saturday morning and all my followers have to be up by now.

As of 11:07 a.m. today, I have 12,032 followers on Snappypic. My followers are pretty much all the kids at Merton Middle School and a bunch of other middle schools around Portland. But I have two middle schools in Mission Viejo. That’s all the way down in Southern California. I didn’t know where it was until I checked it out in Google Maps. Usually between four hundred and nine hundred followers give me a thumbs-up on anything I post. So yeah, I get more LIKES than anyone I know at school.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself that this is happening to me.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links

Hillary is the author of the tween novel, THE HOT LIST (Simon & Schuster/M!X) which Booklist says “captures the angst of young teen friendships and fragile identities.” She’s also the author of the middle grade novel, THINGS ARE GONNA GET UGLY (Simon & Schuster/M!X), a Justice Book-of-the-Month, which was just optioned by Priority Pictures, and the forthcoming  QUEEN OF LIKES (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin M!X, April 2016), which is about social media, as well as the humorous chapter book series, ALIEN CLONES FROM OUTER SPACE (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin), a Children’s Book-of-the-Month Best Books for Children. Emmy-nominated Suppertime Entertainment developed the books to become an animated television series and it was sold to ABC Australia. Hillary’s young adult fiction has been published in TEEN MAGAZINE and anthologized (MUDDVILLE DIARIES, Avon Books). She has sold non-fiction and fiction projects to Klutz Press/Scholastic Books, The Learning Company and John Muir Books. With her frequent writing partner, Steven Arvanites, she has had film projects developed by Brooklyn Weaver’s Energy Entertainment. Hillary got her start performing and writing sketch comedy Off-Broadway, and was a Heideman Playwrighting Award Finalist. Hillary holds a master’s degree in education from Temple University and a master’s of arts degree from Hollins University in children’s literature and writing. Currently, she’s a visiting professor of children’s literature and writing at Hollins University. Visit her on the web at www.hillaryhomzie.com and follow her on Twitter @HillaryHomzie and visit her on Facebook.

Queen of Likes buy Links:  Amazon  /  B&N  /  Indibound  /  BooksaMillion

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER

Hillary Homzie will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

ENTER THE RAFFLECOPTER HERE 

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