Today is my stop on the MTMC Tour for My Life As A Potato by Arianne Costner!
And we have to say it right now: most relatable title ever. I shall have to retitle my memoir now because that was honestly going to sum me up quite nicely. 😌
So this is a hilarious Middle Grade story about a boy forced to become the dorkiest school mascot ever, and I absolutely loved it. The whole book was just a potato-filled delight. It was adorkable and heartwarming, and had tons of awkward 12-year-old style embarrassing moments. You get to cringe and cheer with Ben as he accidentally gets roped into being the school mascot for 3 weeks. Which means he will look like a giant potato. (The costume also SMELLS bad.) Ben is trying to remake himself at his new school, be less awkward and quiet, so he doesn’t want to be known as this mascot potato who everyone laughs at. But the tangle of lies he weaves to stop anyone knowing its him behind the mask catches up to him aaaand…he makes a mess.
You just immediately LOVE Ben. He means really well, but he also gets so flustered talking to people, and he’s both trying to figure out himself + be a good person + make friends. His voice is so much fun to read. I didn’t even want to put the book down, because it goes so fast and I loved every second with Ben and his friends Ellie and Hunter. Also the humorous moments were excellent and wholesome. Plus it had really nice messages, nothing preachy or overbearing. Just how it really is worth being brave enough to be you and finding friends who support that.
Total recommend from me! Although Ben would happily never see a potato again, but sorry but *I* love potatoes and am not inflicted by a potato curse and kind of am dreaming of chips right now brb.
I have a little game and a giveaway below! so keep reading. 👀
Now the truth is: we all kind of relate to the potato. So let’s talk about if bookworms were potatoes, what type of potato-bookworm would you be? (This is a very scientific study by the way, very serious.) I was going to make this an interactive quiz but couldn’t this time, so make sure to comment and tell me what kind of bookworm-potato you relate to most!
1. The Roast Potato
You’re the dependable kind of reader, the one who always has a book in hand and who fits all the bookworm cliches (yes, you drink tea and cozy rainy reading days and wear glasses) and makes the bookworm name proud. You typically read backlist books and are well acquainted with the library. Also you LOOK like a bookworm. You just…have that bookishness about you.
2. The Mashed Potato
You are the tired bookworm. Your TBR has fallen on you (more than once) and this one time you lay down to read and dropped the book on your face. But you still love books!! You keep collecting them!! Your bank account is mashing your dreams, but pfft, you have GOOD INTENTIONS to read everything. Do you have an organisation or reading list or action plan to get on top of your TBR? No. You are a mess. 😚
3. The Potato Chip
You read the hyped books, the famous books, the renown books! Harry Potter? You love it. Narnia? Your childhood. Lord of the Rings? …okay well you’ve seen the movies at least. You’re the kind of reader who likes working through a good long series (you can’t just eat ONE potato chip after all) and you’re very into the fandom life. Book memes, bookworm tee-shirts, book quotes on your walls: you do it all.
4. The Fried Potato
You’re the bookworm who likes NEW BOOKS. Hot off the press, the latest crunchy and fresh editions (you really couldn’t resist that Barnes & Noble edition or the Six of Crows collectors edition), and you have quite a few preorders out at the moment which you’re sitting in your mailbox waiting for. When you have bookish opinions, they’re pretty loud and solid. No one is dissing your ship in your presence!!! You are a potato with crisp power.
4. The Potato Salad
Look when it comes to potato salads, people have questions. What’s actually IN it? And does anyone know who put this on the table?? The potato salad bookworm has very peculiar and direct tastes and nobody quite understands them. Your interests are niche, the kind of books you look for aren’t hitting bestseller lists, because they’re warm and peculiar and excellent. People have called your tastes in books weird. (They are missing out.) You write long detailed reviews. You hype up small releases. You have a book rec for everything.😚👌🏻
In the book Ben actually loves Harry Potter and is a bit of an adorkable nerd, so I think he’d be a Potato Chip. I am probably the mashed potato. 😂
THANK YOU TO MTMC TOURS FOR HAVING ME!
My Life As A Potato by Arianne Costner is available March 24th from Random House Children’s Books.
Ben Hardy believes he’s cursed by potatoes. And now he’s moved to Idaho, where the school’s mascot is Steve the Spud! Yeah, this cannot be good.
After accidentally causing the mascot to sprain an ankle, Ben is sentenced to Spud duty for the final basketball games of the year. But if the other kids know he’s the Spud, his plans for popularity are likely to be a big dud! Ben doesn’t want to let the team down, so he lies to his friends to keep it a secret. No one will know it’s him under the potato suit . . . right?
Life as a potato is all about not getting mashed! With laugh-out-loud illustrations throughout, hand to fans of James Patterson, Gordan Korman, Jeff Kinney, and Chris Grabenstein!
My Life As A Potato | Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble
About Arianne Costner
Arianne Costner is a past English teacher who lives in the middle of the desert with two toddlers bent on destroying her house. When she isn’t writing, she can be found playing the piano and composing music. She was a Pitchwars mentee in 2017, and a Pitchwars mentor in 2018. Her debut, MY LIFE AS A POTATO, is being published by Random House in Spring 2020, with a second novel to follow in 2021.
INTL Tour-Wide Giveaway!
Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win a hardcover copy of My Life as a Potato! You can also stop on by all the other creative tour stops for more My Life as a Potato content & extra chances to win.
March 23
@paperfury – Blog
March 24
@nerdgurll – Bookstagram
March 25
@thereaderandthechef – Blog
@magic.within.pages – Bookstagram
March 26
Books, Tea, Healthy Me – Blog
@mom.always.reads – Bookstagram
March 27
Sahar’s Blog/Little by Little – Blog
@bookish_nerdy_ – Bookstagram
March 28
@bookriot_anjedah – Blog
@wanderlustandliterature – Bookstagram
March 29
@octothorpereaderleorak – Bookstagram + Blog
March 30
@sophiesreadingcorner – Bookstagram + Blog
March 31
@agingerlyreview – Bookstagram
April 1
@caveat.lectors – Bookstagram
I usually blog about YA around here, but there are too many good MGs that I can’t miss too 😍 tell me some of your favourite MG books! And which kind of bookworm-potato did you relate to most?!
Yes, I love potatoes.
I like Potatoes. This sounds fun and interesting. I’m Potato chip bookworm. I read and love popular books.
The different types of potatoes are perfection!! They correspond to reality so well?? (And I am so totally the potato salad ;’D) Apparently bookworms really are potatoes. I always knew it was true.
Also this book sounds so cute ^.^
I’d be a mashed potato chip XD
This book sounds purely adorable- I’m adding it to my TBR ASAP
I hope you have the March of your dreams!
I prefer sweet potatoes, but do enjoy roasted red potatoes and curly fries.
I’m the potatoe chips lol XD
I am DEFINITELY a mashed potato. Can I add it to my already Couch Potato status? It’s fitting and I love it. (Also love your post!!! ♥)
I’m definitely a mix between The Mashed Potato and Potato Salad. Potato Salad describes me REALLY well . . . but my TBR is huge and I screm softly at it all the time. Potatoes in general are gREAT though! 😅
Love potatoes, my mum says I used to play with potatoes for hours in my playpen ( :/ )
I’m the potato chip for sure! And side note–potatoes are my life. The number of times potatoes have shown up in my current WIP is a serious problem. I don’t know why they’re there, or what significance they have, but we’re just going to go with it.
I like them as a potato chip or a french fry. 🙂
This title speaks to me spiritually, I relate to it so hard
Also I am a fried potato and pRoUd
Potatoes! My foodie love! This book looks so cute and I funny, I definitely have to read it now. I think I am like 80% The Roast Potato because I am very much the classic bookworm, with the glasses and the love for tea included, but I’m also at least 20% The Mashed Potato since my Tbr has fallen on me and I’m currently trying to climb out, but then I see a new release about every ten seconds and I slip a little back in.
Some of my favorite MG books are
Eventown by Corey Ann Haydu, very mysterious, like if The Giver was a contemporary with magic realism,
Out Of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, about a girl with cerebral palsy and the struggles that she has to face when she is moved out of her special ed class for the first time,
Other Words For Home by Jasmine Warga, a novel in verse about a girl immigrating from Syria to the U.S.
Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams, which I’m reading right now but is too amazing not to recommend,
and lastly Pie By Sarah Weeks, which is full of food, friendship, mystery, and about a dozen literal pie recipes.
I’m a mashed roast potato. And I agree that there are so many amazing middle grade books that are kind of just missed!
I do like them, mostly in the form of potato chips and French fries.
This book sounds great! 😁 Think I’m a combo of roast potato, mashed potato and potato salad😅 if that’s allowed😂 great quiz👌😁🎉
This post is SO much fun! Love the idea of bookish people being different types of potatoes. I think I have to confess to being a mashed potato, though some of the other ones sound like me too. Weirdly, I have a habit of calling people potatoes anyway, so I guess I’m ready for this book! 🙂
This is SO CUTE. My daughter is reading your post with me because she is like, hermetically sealed to me at this point, and she thinks it looks really cute too and wants it. So your post has succeeded! I personally am a mashed potato, no question. I am a mess and I am fine with it and also I love mashed potatoes so I feel like it works out all around!
I have drawn a silly potato love story once upon a time. I love potatoes ♥
Haha, so fun! I don’t know if I am more of a mashed potato or roasted…?
Anyway, another middle grade book that I still love is The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars. XD (There is also a small mention of potatoes in there, too, if I recall correctly!)
Very cute book. Love potatoes!