Welcome to Swoony Boys Podcast! This is our stop on the Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend Tour hosted by The Irish Banana . We are so excited to be a part of this tour! We have an awesome character interview and giveaway to share with you today and we can’t wait for you to get to know more about this book, its characters and author, Alan Cumyn! Are you ready to go?
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Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn Published by Atheneum, Simon & Schuster on March 22nd, 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy
Pages: 304
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Prepare to be blown away—or rather, carried away on huge muscular wings—by this blissfully outlandish, bracingly-smart, tour de force about a teen who has to come to terms with relinquishing control for the first time as she falls for the hot new…pterodactyl…at school. After all, everybody wants him!
Sheils is very pleased with her perfectly controlled life (controlling others while she’s at it). She’s smart, powerful, the Student Body Chair, and she even has a loving boyfriend. What more could a girl ask for?
But everything changes when the first-ever interspecies transfer student, a pterodactyl named Pyke, enrolls at her school. There’s something about him—something primal—that causes the students to lose control whenever he’s around. Even Sheils, the seemingly perfect self-confident girl that she is, can’t keep her mind off of him, despite her doting boyfriend and despite the fact that Pyke immediately starts dating Jocelyn, the school’s fastest runner who Sheils has always discounted as a nobody.
Pyke, hugely popular in a school whose motto is to embrace differences, is asked to join a band, and when his band plays at the Autumn Whirl dance, his preternatural shrieking music sends everyone into a literal frenzy. No one can remember what happened the next day, but Shiels learns that she danced far too long with Pyke, her nose has turned purple, and she may have done something with her boyfriend that she shouldn’t have. Who’s in control now?
Hilarious and relatable (despite the dinosaur), Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend is about a teen who must come to terms with not being in control of all things at all times, break free of her mundane life, discover who her true self is, and, oh, finding out that going primal isn’t always a bad thing.
***Character Interview***
Today we’re sitting down with Shiels and Pyke from Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend. Hi, you two! Welcome to Swoony Boys Podcast! We’re excited to have you with us, and can’t wait for our readers to get to know you both a little better. Ready to get started? Here we go…
Pyke: Not zo … Engliz yet, heh heh.
Shiels: Pyke is the first pterodactyl transfer student ever at Vista View High, and he’s shy about his English still, so he has asked me to translate for him. I’m Shiels Krane, Student Body Chair. Pyke’s biggest concern, as far as he is indicated to me at any rate, was about arriving on time. There was a big mix-up, possibly some commotion with the crows who were guiding him in, and he ended up arriving at the end of the school day not the beginning! He certainly didn’t plan to land on Jocelyne Legault, our cross-country running champ, but relations with her have been patched up, to say the least.
Pyke: Girlz, girlz! Not juzt, but.. frenli everbod Pyke.
Shiels: I think what he’s trying to say is that he has been popular from the get-go, across the board, really. Speaking for the girls, his attractiveness is, I have to say, exaggerated. I mean, there is a certain craziness surrounding him, and he does have wings, and gorgeous pecs, if you like that sort of thing. But everybody has been dreaming in pterodactyl, not just the female student body. He’s different – how can you not like someone so outrageously unusual?
Shiels: Three words? Why just three words? I don’t understand why you have to simplify everything to the point of meaninglessness. I mean, okay – how about: gob smacking? That’s just two words. Or is it one? Is there a hyphen? Pyke? About me?
Pyke: Yellow zhous. Run-run! Girlz!
Shiels: He likes that I bought a pair of yellow running shoes, just like Jocelyne Legault. But I’m not a runner. Well, I do run, more and more. But it’s not for him! I wouldn’t bend backwards, or do anything ridiculous, for a boy. That’s not my personality. Anybody who knows me knows that, OK?
That wasn’t so bad, right? Before we let you go we are going to take the pressure off of Clarke and ask Bellamy the five questions that we ask every guy who stops by our site. Ready?
***The Swoony 5***
(These are the five questions we ask all our favorite swoony boys!)
Pyke: Bugzer beef? Wha?
Shiels: That’s an extremely private question Pyke certainly should not have to answer, particularly since he is a transfer student! But, if you must know – and this is common knowledge – he just comes in his own skin, which is actually, once you get up close, covered in very fine fur almost. I think it’s called pycnofiber. It’s lovely to touch. Lots of pterodactyls have it, apparently.
Shiels: Again, where you come off asking these questions?
Pyke: Kizzer, kizzer, ya ha!
Shiels: He doesn’t even know what you’re talking about. Pterodactyls are extremely physical, if I can be frank, there’s an open aura of sexuality that surrounds him. It’s an interesting phenomenon, certainly worthy of further study. There’s a sense of wildness, and he brings things out… he brings out the primordial essence of many people. Not me, but I’ve seen how he affects others. He doesn’t really have the lips for kissing, I would have to say.
Pyke: Kull zi Vile.
Shiels: Call of the Wild, by Jack London. He loves the wilderness. Savage things. It all makes sense.
Pyke: Bed, bed?
Shiels: I think the concept is pretty foreign to him. I’m not sure where he sleeps usually, to tell you the truth. If he were in my bed… Not that he ever would be, or that I think of these things… I’m pretty sure he loves anything fishy – oysters, smoked salmon, Kipper snacks…
Pyke: Ah! Fizh, fizh –!
Shiels: Down, hey! Just relax!
Pyke: Zwoon zwoon. Juzt fly by. Heh heh. Juzt… be Pyke.
Shiels: I think what he’s trying to say… Well, when you see him in flight, when he comes in and… he has those angles. And a certain look in his eye. He knows exactly what he wants. When he looks at you… well, you know, some people connect. He’s just himself, he’s comfortable in his own gorgeous skin, and he’s kind of spectacular just to be around. That’s the theory of it, anyway. I’ve heard other people go on about him in just that way. And, you know, who else is a rock-star-football-threat combo? If you go for that sort of thing, he’s pretty easy to crush on.
***Dino Superlative***
Simon Teen came up with some super fun (dino-themed!) superlative graphics for all of us to choose from! This is the one we thought best represented us:
***About Alan Cumyn***
Alan Cumyn is the author of twelve wide-ranging and often wildly different novels. A two-time winner of the Ottawa Book Award, he has also had work shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, the Giller Prize, and the Trillium Award. He teaches through the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a past Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada. He lives in Ontario, Canada.
***GIVEAWAY***
Open to US residents only
Good luck and happy swooning!
Check out the other stops on the tour by below:
This book look so….weird? I can’t wait to read it and see if it’s as weird as I think.
This book seems weird, I agree, but with my sense of humor and choice of movies to watch, this may be the funniest, most enjoyable read yet for me. I loved the interview–you guys are awesome at making me smile and laugh. I enjoy your posts so much.
This should be interesting, in a good way.
I have to admit the first time I saw this book I laughed and quickly clicked away from it. It was the title and cover that threw me. After reading the review I found myself very curious. I love the unusual and even with my bad habit of not always reading about a book before writing it off I think this one is on my TBR now.