In today’s world there aren’t many of us who can say that we haven’t been affected by Cancer in one way or another. But, did you know that many people who are directly affected experience financial hardship as a result of their diagnosis?

This blog tour is to raise awareness and hopefully inspire donations to one such individual. The author Tommy Donbavand. Huge thanks go to the wonderful book bloggers that bought this tour together.

Tommy has been blogging about his experiences with honesty and humour and you can find the link to his blog, and links to donate, below:

Website: www.tommyvcancer.com

Patreon Link: http://www.tommyvcancer.com/support/

Paypal Link: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=Nl-IE_9Fhy7jbNI-H8DqkoBnmUwmOAA9TnlRAPyO8oZz6VpeywfwY3hWxai&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8dcce3e160f5b9538489e17951d2c62172

The Man Himself

Tommy is the author of the popular 13-book Scream Street series for 7 to 10 year olds, published by Walker Books in the UK and Candlewick Press in the US. His other books include Zombie!, Wolf and Uniform (winner of the Hackney Short Novel Award) for Barrington Stoke, Boredom Busters and Quick Fixes For Kids’ Parties (How To Books), and Making A Drama Out Of A Crisis (Network Continuum).

In theatre, Tommy’s plays have been performed to thousands of children on national tours to venues such as The Hackney Empire, Leeds City Varieties, and Nottingham Playhouse. These productions include Hey Diddle Diddle, Rumplestiltskin, Jack & Jill In The Forgotten Nursery, and Humpty Dumpty And The Incredibly Daring Rescue Of The Alien Princess From Deep Space. He is also responsible for five episodes of the CBBC TV series, Planet Cook (Platinum Films).

As an actor, Tommy played the Clearlake MC in the West End musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story for over eight years, in addition to roles in the movies Zombie Love Stories (where he battled hordes of Scottish undead) and Going Off Big Time (where he was beaten up on a bouncy castle). A veteran of pantomime, he has portrayed just about every comic character from Abanazer to an Ugly Sister.

Tommy lives in Lancashire with his wife and two sons. He is a HUGE fan of all things Doctor Who, plays blues harmonica, and makes a mean balloon poodle. He sees sleep as a waste of good writing time.

Website: http://www.tommydonbavand.com/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tommydonbavand

For each stop on the tour we could pick any book of Tommy’s to review, and there were plenty to choose from – check out his list of publications on Goodreads. There were two that caught my eye so I got them both on kindle.

Fang of the Vampire (Scream Street 1)

Yes, I went for the the first volume of his 14 book middle grade series Scream Street – I do love my supernatural tales of vampires and ghouls.

This book was lots of fun and I will be checking out the others – though due to the illustrations I think getting hold of print copies might be the best way forward.

Scream Street is a place that supernatural creatures are sent to avoid them being a problem to humans, so when Luke turns into a Werewolf, him and his human parents are sent there, with no way out. Not so fun for Mr and Mrs Watson who can barely stop trembling when in a room with their vampire neighbours. Scream Street is also controlled by the nasty landlord Otto Sneer who takes pleasure in confiscating people’s things…including the electricity.

Luke makes friends with a vampire, Resus Negative and a mummy, Cleo Farr and together they start a search for a way out of Scream Street. This trio is great together and get into a number of scrapes in this first book. There is a whole host of characters that kids and adults alike will enjoy – like the farting goblins and the very laid back zombie Doug.

Great for bedtime stories.

Ward 13 (Teen Reads)

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this one where a teen, Mark Jackson, ends up in hospital with a broken leg, after a skateboarding accident. Whilst there he notices that patients who don’t seem to have any relatives visiting, don’t seem to come back from surgery. As a boy in a group home Mark fits that description and his surgery is scheduled for the next day…

This story was only 49 pages, which I didn’t realise when I bought it but that is because it is aimed at teens who are still developing their reading skill. A bit like the new Quick Reads series. Plots relevant to that age group but with slightly less challenging language. There was a nice bit of suspense and I liked the two young characters. It also made me feel queasy – in a good way?! Tommy has written a few creepy books in this series.

Do let me know in the comments which book(s) of Tommy’s catch your eye and make sure you check out the rest of the blog tour (some of the stops are hosting a giveaway) and do come and join in Vivienne and Chelley’s twitter chat on Thursday 30th June 2016 8-9pm using the hashtag #TommyvsCancer