BLOG TOUR: Friendroid by M.M. Vaughan

Welcome to the Official Blog Tour for M.M. Vaughan's Friendroid!!! Today, on our tour stop, we have an exclusive excerpt AND a tour-wide giveaway to share! Friendroid releases March 26th! So... Check it out and pre-order your copy now!!! Follow the tour, HERE!!!

Genre:

Middle Grade/Young Adult

Science Fiction

Publish Date:

March 26, 2019

Publisher:

Margaret K. McElderry Books

Synopsis:

Stranger Things meets robots in this sweet story about an unlikely friendship between two boys—one human, one android. 

Eric Young is an android, but he doesn’t know. He does know that he’s just moved to Ashland, so it’s important to make the right kind of friends—the kind that would be interested in skateboarding and the new Slick sneakers his Uncle Martin sends him.

Danny Lazio doesn’t have any friends, but he doesn’t care. Even if his classmates don’t accept him, he still has Land X, the online role play game that he’s actually really good at. But then Eric takes an interest in Land X, and suddenly Danny thinks he might have found a real friend…if he can figure out the mystery behind Eric’s sudden disappearances and strange lifestyle.

It becomes harder to ignore the weird events that happen only around Eric. But uncovering the secret behind Eric’s identity is an act that might cost them both as powerful forces soon move in around them.

This heartfelt story about friendship and what it means to be human is sure to tug at your soul—or your soul-chip if you’re like Eric.

      

  

*Excerpt*

Slick: Monday, October 22

Miss Lake asked me to stay after class today. Tyler whispered, “Man, you are so lucky,” and punched me in the arm. It was a friendly punch.

I know this because he was smiling when he did it. Tyler said this because he likes Miss Lake, in a girl- friend way. He is not the only one who likes her like this—all of my new friends were talking at lunch the other day about how hot she is. It took me a while to figure out that they weren’t talking about her temperature. I don’t understand why a kid would think an adult is hot, but it’s important to agree with your friends, or they may not stay your friends, so I agreed with them.

After everybody left the classroom, I went up to Miss Lake’s desk. She was wearing a Blise top—that’s my mother’s favorite brand of clothes. My mom only wears Blise clothes, which is how I know the collection so well.

Miss Lake asked me how it went at the fundraiser. I told her it was fine and that my mother was very pleased with the bids on the Freshen containers.

“I heard you spent some time with a boy at the fund raiser. Daniel Lazio.”

“Yes,” I said, “but his name is actually Danny.” “Danny is a short way of saying Daniel. It’s called a nickname.”

“Oh,” I said. This made sense now. “Did you make friends with Danny?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t think he likes me much.” “That’s good. He’s not a very popular child, and you don’t want to associate yourself with the unpopular kids—it wouldn’t make you look good. You should focus your time on making friends like Luke and the other boys you’ve been spending time with at school.

Luke in particular.” “Yes, Miss Lake.”

I wasn’t certain why Miss Lake cared who I was friends with, but my guess was that she was looking out for me as I’m a new kid at the school, so this was very nice of her.

“Also, I think you should consider making friends with Ethan Schwartz. Do you know him?”

“Yes. But he isn’t that popular.” I was confused. Miss Lake was telling me to make friends with the popular kids, but Ethan only has 135 friends on Kudos, so this makes him average in popularity.

“That’s true,” said Miss Lake. “But his father is very important and knows a lot of people. I think your parents would like it if you made friends with him.”

“Yes, Miss Lake.”

“Good. See how it goes, and if you need any help, let me know. I can arrange for the two of you to sit together in our next lesson if you haven’t managed to talk to him before then.”

“Yes, Miss Lake,” I said.

“That’s all,” said Miss Lake. She smiled and I smiled back, and then I left the room.

Danny: Monday, October 22

Slick and I aren’t in any classes together, and I didn’t see him until lunchtime. I was standing by my locker, and he was walking by himself. He didn’t see me until I said hi. He looked at me for a moment, then looked back ahead and kept walking. I joined him.

“So you going to lunch?” I asked.

“Yep.” He didn’t slow down. I should have gotten the hint then and there, but I knew he was kind of a weirdo, so I didn’t read anything into it.

“Did you find the safe?”

Slick stopped and turned to look at me. “Safe?”

“Yeah, it’s behind the painting of the battleship in Dame Vickers’s house.”

Slick’s eyes opened wide. “I knew there had to be something there. I went there yesterday, but I couldn’t find anything.”

“You’re going to need the code to open it.” “Okay. What is it?”

“It took me hours to get it, and you want me just to tell you?”

Slick nodded. “Yeah.”

I rolled my eyes, but I wasn’t really mad. “It’s her date of birth.”

Slick thought for a moment, and then he grinned. “It’s on her birth certificate in the drawer. Oh five two seven five oh. Awesome!”

I shrugged. “No big deal. If you want I can show—”

I was interrupted by the most annoying sound in the world, Tyler Bowdry’s voice.

“Hey, Eric!”

Slick and I both looked up. Tyler was standing with Luke, Harry, and Mateo.

“I have to go,” mumbled Slick.

He didn’t look at me, and I knew why; he didn’t want to be seen talking to me.

I felt my whole body fill up with anger as Slick walked away. I wasn’t sure who I was more mad at: Slick for being one of them, or me for thinking he might not be.

I kicked the door of a locker—hard enough to make everyone around me stop and stare at me, but I didn’t even care. I heard Tyler’s stupid donkey laugh and then the others joining in, probably Slick, too, but I didn’t look back to see. I put my hood up and walked off in the other direction. I made a promise to myself right then that I would never talk to Slick again.

Copyright © 2019 by M.M. Vaughan

Praise for FRIENDROID

"A timely parable for this generation of digital natives." ―Kirkus

"Vaughan presents another noteworthy sf middle-grade offering peppered with mystery." ―Booklist

"For middle-grade readers who are ready to fight the power." ―Publishers Weekly

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**About the Author**

Photo Content from M.M. Vaughan

The daughter of South American parents, Monica Meira Vaughan grew up in Spain before moving to London at the age of five where she learnt English by watching Sesame Street and reading every Roald Dahl book she could get her hands on. On leaving school, and after a brief stint in public relations, Monica decided to train as a primary school teacher. She spent over ten years working in special needs, mostly with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, before becoming a full time writer.

Monica loves writing after midnight, building cardboard cities and playing Lego with her daughter. She lives in London, UK.  

Stay connected with M.M. Vaughan

    

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