For the second Saturday in a row here at the #MGBookVillage, we’re hosting a cover reveal! This week, it’s for SVEN CARTER & THE ANDROID ARMY, the sequel to Rob Vlock’s SVEN CARTER & THE TRASHMOUTH EFFECT!
Rob’s debut was one of my favorite reads of all last year. It had me laughing out loud, gnawing at my fingernails, and canceling plans just so I could keep on reading. Sven’s first adventure is a total blast, and I can’t wait to see what he gets up to in the second installment of his story.
Read my brief interview with Rob below, and then check out the cover of SVEN CARTER & THE ANDROID ARMY!
~ Jarrett
. . .
First of all, Rob, thanks so much for hosting your big reveal at the Village — we’re all super excited about it. As we are about SVEN CARTER & THE ANDROID ARMY! Now, the first SVEN novel was one of the wildest, craziest, most action-packed books I’ve ever read. How do you follow THAT up?
Thanks, Jarrett! You’re making me blush! To be honest, it was kind of tough to follow up the first book. I had already thrown clown snakes and murderous roast chickens and a kid who has a face where his butt should be into Sven’s first adventure, so I definitely had to get creative to keep up the craziness. But it was worth the all the effort, because there are plenty of new freakish Ticks to keep readers shaking their heads!
Before we get to the new cover, can you tell us a bit about the new book?
SVEN CARTER & THE ANDROID ARMY picks up right where the first book left off. Sven, Alicia, Will and Junkman Sam discover that Dr. Shallix’s evil plan to wipe out humanity goes way beyond Sven. There are six other Ticks out there just as deadly as Sven himself and they could extinguish the human race at any time. So Sven and his friends need to track them down and stop them before they carry out their missions.
Did you have the same illustrator who did the first cover do the second? What were your thoughts and feelings when you first saw the sketches and/or final product?
Yes! Steven Scott is the fantastically talented London-based illustrator who did both covers. He also did the art for the Sven Carter trading cards that I’ve been giving out at events. Steve totally captured both books with his cover art. I was really lucky in that I had the opportunity to come up with the idea for the second cover. And what Steve ended up drawing matches what I had in my head perfectly!
When you talk to kids about SVEN CARTER, what do you tend to hear from them?
It’s funny, when I describe the first book to kids, I see a ton of jaws drop every time! Especially when I get to the part where Sven’s arm falls off and then reattaches itself. I think they’re just surprised to hear that a grownup is writing the kind of silly absurdity that can only come from channeling one’s inner 10-year-old. Which is great for me, because that’s pretty much my maturity level (much to the embarrassment of my kids!).
Finally, I have to ask: you seem to know an awful lot about sophisticated androids masquerading as human beings. Are you, yourself, a sophisticated android masquerading as a human being?
What? No, that’s absurd. I’m just a regular human.
But wouldn’t an android posing as a human say that same thing?
Well, yeah. I guess. But I’m not an android.
Which is exactly what an android would say! By saying you’re not an android, you’re proving that you actually are one!
Wait! I… I’m… uh… you see… Illogical! Illogical! Does not compute! Does not compute! System overload! Shutting down in 5…4…3…2…1…………….
I guess that’s it for my interview with author Rob Vlock. So we’ll go ahead and share the cover now!
If you haven’t read SVEN CARTER & THE TRASHMOUTH EFFECT, hurry up and do so. And be sure to pick up a copy of Rob’s new book, SVEN CARTER & THE ANDROID ARMY, coming out October 18 from Simon & Schuster/Aladdin and available for pre-order now!
Rob is the author of SVEN CARTER & THE TRASHMOUTH EFFECT (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin) and SVEN CARTER & THE ANDROID ARMY (October 16, 2018, Simon & Schuster/Aladdin). He writes fun, funny, fast-paced kids’ books that are perfect for reluctant readers. And when he’s not writing, you can usually find him somewhere in the greater Boston area trying to make his trumpet sound like something other than a dying goose. It’s a work in progress.
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