#tommyvcancer

Why I’m Standing with TommyvCancer

Me and My Incredi-Mum

UPDATE: The last few days have been horrid! But Tommy has turned a tiny corner over night – you can read about it here. In the meantime,   every spare good thought you have, please send it his way, and see below for other links to help out, now, where was I…

So today is my turn on the TommyvCancer blog tour! And I’m going to talk about ME!. Well, kind of…When I was nine, my…

Hello all! I’m very proud to be part of the Tommy V Cancer blog tour today.

Tommy Donbavand is the author of the Scream Street series as well as Zombie!, Fangs, Uniform and loads more, and has also written the How To Books - Quick Fixes For Kids’ Parties, and Making A Drama Out Of A Crisis (Network Continuum). 

He’s also written a shed load of plays that have been performed to thousands of children in places such as Nottingham Playhouse and The Hackney Empire. And he’s an actor. And he writes for The Beano. And he plays blues harmonica. And he can make a balloon poodle.

 I’m a little (well, more than a little) in awe. (Although I can make a balloon poodle!)

Here’s how (NB NOT ME!!)

In March this year Tommy was diagnosed with inoperable throat cancer; he set up a blog to raise awareness and for people to follow his journey. It’s an inspirational read - well worth popping over - and I wish Tommy and his family all the very best.

Following on from this, Viv Dacosta of Serendipity Reviews and Faye Rogers set up this blog tour - again to help raise awareness, and also to help raise funds. It is so heart-warming to see the blogging and author community come together to help and support someone at their time of need.

It’s sometimes forgotten that even when someone is ill, bills still need paying, and other expenses (such as petrol to hospital appointments) leap up from nowhere. As Tommy says in his blog, much of an author’s income is made from school visits and workshop, but if you’re too ill to do those, then that income disappears.

If you’d like to help, have a look here for different things you could do.

So for the blog, I had a look through Tommy’s book history, but deciding what to read was so hard because there are so many and they all look fantastic. 

Finally though, I settled on this one –

The first of the Scream Street series, it starts at a ripping pace (quite literally for one character!), introducing schoolboy Luke Watson, G.H.O.U.L., Resus Negative, Eefa the witch and the concept of Scream Street. And what a fantastic concept it is – a street where vampires, werewolves, witches and all manner of others are sent – but what a scary place that would be to find yourself if, like Luke’s parents, you were normal.

The story is fast-paced, full of action, adventure and a touch of gentle black humour and very entertaining even for someone like me who’s well over the intended readership age.

I love the cleaning spiders, the black hairspray one vampire has, the ‘Bill and Ted’-esque zombie...so much! As Darren Shan’s quote on the front says - ‘I wish I’d been able to visit Scream Street as a kid!’

This has since been made into a children’s TV series on CBBC and I can see why. This is funny stuff, perfect for kids to have a good laugh after a long day at school.

You can watch an episode here –

I LOVE the take on the Mission: Impossible!

Blog Tour: The #tommyvcancer tour in aid of Tommy Donbavand

As you may or may not know Tommy Donbavand is a children’s author who recently began to undergo treatment for cancer. This month long blog tour devoted to him and his books. I’ve added all the details about the tour and how you can help Tommy at the end of this post.

Review: Just Bite

Synopsis

Sally Hagen dresses in black, buys expensive purple candles, and hates the fact that her Mum orders…

Tommy and his friends Vs Cancer

Something will get us all in the end, for 1 in 3 of us it’s most likely to be cancer. In the case of far too many of my friends, cancer has been playing the meanest of games. It makes me want to  scream,

“Not yet you greedy dastard, not yet.”

My own Mum ( my second one for those who know a bit of my history) is a cancer survivor.  I have an older sister, a younger sister and a brother. When we…