Blog Tour: Once Upon a Camel by Kathi Appelt

ONCE UPON A CAMEL

by Kathi Appelt

Categories: Middle Grade Fiction / Historical / Friendship / Ages 8-12 Publisher: Atheneum / Caitlyn Dlouhy Books Pub Date: September 7, 2021 Pages: 336 pages

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Zada is a camel with a treasure trove of stories to tell. She’s won camel races for the royal Pasha of Smyrna, crossed treacherous oceans to new land, led army missions with her best camel friend by her side, and outsmarted a far too pompous mountain lion. But those stories were from before.

Now, Zada wanders the desert as the last camel in Texas. But she’s not alone. Two tiny kestrel chicks are nestled in the fluff of fur between her ears—kee-killy-keeing for their missing parents—and a dust storm the size of a mountain is taking Zada on one more grand adventure. And it could lead to this achy old camel’s most brilliant story yet.

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Once Upon a Camel is a lovely middle-grade book that follows Zada and her friends through an amazing and sometimes impossible journey!  Zada is a camel living in West Texas with her best friends, a pair of Kestrals and their children.  Zada is aunt to Beulah and Wims, two Kestral chicks who are rambunctious and headstrong, like any good Texan!  When a dust storm kicks up and separates Aunt Zada and the babies from their parents, Zada endeavors to keep them safe and reunite them! 

This is a wonderful work of middle-grade fiction that blends whimsy with reality and majesty with modesty.  The author very much captures the voice of Zada and uses it to calm the chicks through the storm, while relating tales about her life in Turkey and the grand adventures she’s had.  The chapters are short, but wildly entertaining and drive the narrative forward while allowing for short interludes of various times and places.  Zada is a wonderful character that is being used in such an inventive way for middle-grade readers.  The illustrations in the book are eye-catching and you just can’t help but to keep reading once you’ve picked the book up! 

This book is masterfully written and full of charm!  I would recommend to middle-grade readers, particularly those interested in fantastic tales and Texas books!  I have a middle-grade reader at home and he gives Once Upon a Camel two thumbs up! 

I’d like to extend a big thank you to Lone Star Book Blog Tours and author Kathi Appelt for having me along on this  tour!  Grab a copy of this wonderful book today!

Kathi Appelt is the author of the Newbery Honoree, National Book Award finalist, and bestselling The Underneath as well as the National Book Award Finalist The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Maybe a Fox (with Alison McGhee), Keeper, and many picture books including Counting Crows and Mogie, the Heart of the House. She lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband and five gifted and talented cats.

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Three signed copies of the book. (US only. Ends midnight, CDT, 10/9/21)

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FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY. Or, visit the blogs directly:

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