Interview + Giveaway: Lisa, Chad, & Chase Olivera authors of Chase Danger Super Spy Series

I am super super stoked to have some really cool people here today doing an interview for me and all of you.  As all of you know I have four kids, who love to read as much as I do,  and we have been lucky enough to find one of the best children's book series that we have ever read.  These books are filled with so much action, comedy, suspense, and the cutest little spy you will ever meet!  

Let me give you a little background information on these wonderful books:

Book 1: Chase Danger Super Spy and Mystery of the Special Sauce

Chase Danger is a boy just like your son: He loves his family, friends and pizza. He is also easily enraged by bad guys, who he quickly hunts down and defeats.

In his first adventure, he fights a giant octopus, pilots a flying saucer through space, builds his own flying car, and visits Paris, where a "special sauce" is brewing to take over the world.

Along the way he befriends Ali Bali, a mysterious girl with secrets of her own.

Book 2:  Chase Danger Super Spy and Pirates of Pineapple Island

7-year-old super-spies Chase Danger and Princess Ali Bali must think fast when they discover pirates have stolen Zalezgon's magical pineapples. But that's not all! Ali's little brother Aiden has been kidnapped by the dreaded pirate Captain Looney, who is planning on taking over the world with his newly invented Weather Rockets!

But this isn't just a book!  It also comes with a read a long cd too!  And this is award winning sound quality too.  It is just so awesome!

I am so excited to have the authors of Chase Danger Super Spy here.  Let me give you a little information on this family that writes and publishes together.

Chase Olivera and his parents Lisa and Chad Olivera are an Author and publishing
team from California. Published works include the Chase Danger, Super Spy Series:
Book #1 Mystery of the special Sauce and book #2 Pirates of Pineapple Island. Chase
is a bright seven year old in the second grade, Lisa works with young
children as a Special Circumstance Aide and Chad is a musician, composer and children’s
theater director. They live and work in Santa Clarita California. As a family they
enjoy writing books, going to the beach, watching movies and going on Geocaching adventures.

RTMHC: How did you come up with the idea of a kid spy book?
LISA & CHAD: : Chase was really into spies (James Bond, Spy Kids) and wanted to make a spy movie.  A movie is out of our budget, but thought it would be fun to try to write a read-along theater spy book as a family.  Our background is in recording and theater, so the music, sound effects, and actors were no problem.  We were very lucky to find Jack Tracksler, the narrator, after an exhaustive search.  We were also very lucky to find Adam Goodman to illustrate the books, as art is the one area we could not work out ourselves.

RTMHC: Did you have to do a lot of research for ideas or did you draw a lot of it from your life?
LISA & CHAD:  We read spy stories and watched spy movies during the first few months we were writing  Book 1.  It was fun to research as a family, but ultimately, it was Chase that came up with all the scenes, and Lisa arranged them into an order.  From our own life came Chase's love for pineapple pizza, Ali is a real friend(her nickname being 'Ali Bali' at the time), and Zalezgon is a real friend who is a great chef (whose real name is Javier Gonzalez).
RTMHC: Do you have any favorite stories/authors right now?
LISA & CHAD: We like so many but a few would be Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Zorro, Treasure Island, and so many more.  Chase is reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid right now and loves it.
RTMHC: Who is easier to write: Ali Bali or Chase Danger? Why?
LISA & CHAD: They are equally fun to write.  When we get stuck on a line for Chase, we just ask the real Chase what he would say in the situation.  Most times that's what makes it in.
RTMHC:  If you could meet one person, who would it be?  The only catch is this person has to be literary-related; fiction or not.
LISA & CHAD: Chase would really like to meet Robin Hood.  Because he seems like he could be a real hero helping out the common people and has lots of adventures.  

Thank you guys so much for stopping by and chatting with us!  Make sure to check out their links at the bottom of the page.  This is a book series you will love for your kids (and yourself) to have.  And make sure to enter the Rafflecopter below to try to win your own copy of Book 1.  

Remember it is open to US residents only.  Must be 13 and up to enter or have parent's permission.  Winner must reply back within 36 hours or a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

ARC Review: Chase Danger Super Spy: Pirates of Pineapple Island

Title: Chase Danger Super Spy: Pirates of Pineapple Island
Series: Chase Danger Super Spy book 2
Author: Lisa, Chad, and Chase Oliveria
Illustrations: Adam Goodman
Publisher: Magic Fire Music Studios
Date of Publication: August 2012
Source: received from author for honest opinion of it.
Get Your Own: website


Synopsis:

7-year-old super-spies Chase Danger and Princess Ali Bali must think fast when they discover pirates have stolen Zalezgon's magical pineapples. But that's not all! Ali's little brother Aiden has been kidnapped by the dreaded pirate Captain Looney, who is planning on taking over the world with his newly invented Weather Rockets!
Hang-gliding, jungles, giant sharks, super Roller Coasters, pirates, and a sky-dive will keep your children's attention from start to finish and give them a thirst for adventure!

Mom's Thoughts:
I just love Chase Danger!  If you just look at the cover you can tell this is one little boy who can get the tough jobs done!  But then add to the mix, a mysterious little girl and they make a great team that makes this book for both boys and girls. I love the graphics in this book.  All the different colors, the different characters  being portrayed, makes me get excited and my children are no different!  When we got book #2 in the mail, all I could hear was squeals of happiness as they ripped open the packaging to get their hands on this book.  Do you know what makes this book even more better?  The fact that it brings together all of my boys.  My nine year old twins love it because of all the action and different spy gadgets; my seven year old adores Chase and Ali Bali and loves reading it out aloud, and my four year old loves to sit among his older brothers listening to the read-along cd that comes with it; not to mention he loves sword fights.  I think this would be the perfect gift for that reluctant reader or any child that just loves a really good story! ***** stars for me!

Anthony and Conner's Thoughts:
We loved the first book but I think this one just made it even better!  When we first got our hands on this book, (we jerked out of our mom's hands-sorry Mom) all we wanted to do was just look at the pictures before we even started reading it.  Anthony and I just love the pictures!  We have even tried our hand at drawing a couple of Chase Danger scenes, but we aren't really that great at it.
Anthony: Okay hands down, my favorite part is when they ride the roller coaster and then shoot into the sky!  This is why I will not ride a roller coaster at Six Flags; you never know when this could happen!  (Okay, so it is probably next to impossible...) But it was pretty exciting reading about it.  I really like Chase but my favorite character is Ali Bali.  She is so tough and I think she makes a great friend for Chase.
This is one of those books that is great for older and younger kids, girls or boys.
Conner: We have really gotten into comic books lately.  Our dad bought us a lot of comics the other day.  That is a major reason I like Chase Danger so much.  It is written out like a comic book would be.  It is easy to follow along to and the read along cd makes all the action seem to come alive.  After listening to it the first time, our little brother, Jace, picked up a toy sword and started pretending he was Chase.  It was really funny, but even more funnier when our other brother, Mikey, decided he was going to be Captain Looney.  He does that part really well-he is kinda crazy.
I like that we have this story that all of us can enjoy.  It's something that us big kids can read, but little kids get a real kick out of all the funny scenes, like with the shark. In fact, we all kinda laughed at that one. I am a huge fan of spy movies, like Spy Kids, and this series is a lot like that.  It is funny, exciting, and has a lot of interesting different characters.  Even the villains have some cool parts; but it the most fun watching Chase and Ali put the bad guys away.
I wish we could give it more than five stars; like a hundred!  Because it is really that great!
Mikey and Jacey's Thoughts

Mikey: I think it is super cool that Chase and I are the same age.  I always like to imagine the different things I could do, like travel to outer space, but it is really fun to act out the scenes from the Chase Danger series.
Chase and I have a lot in common, but most importantly, we get our strength from eating pizza! I love pizza, though not really pineapples much.  My favorite scene was Operation Baby Safe.  I love little babies and it was funny when Chase said, "born potty trained!"  I can understand how Aiden gets his feelings hurt from his sister.  My brothers tend to do that to me and it is easy to think they don't care about me.  I am just glad my feelings can't set off rockets!  That wouldn't be good at all!  I really liked the surprise we find out in this book and I can't wait for book 3!
Jacey:  I love the sword fighting!  Yah!  I like to hear the sounds that come from the cd and I always get to turn the page too.  I am even learning which words are Chase, spy, and Danger.  I really like this book a lot and I always get really excited to hear it before I go to bed at night.  Sometimes, its fun just to listen to the cd, and other times I like hearing my mom read the book to us.  She does pretty good voices with our different stuffed animals and she can read books pretty good too.  I want to give this book as a present to our cousins for Christmas.

All in all, we have all talked and decided Chase Danger Super Spy and The Pirates of Pineapple Island deserve five stars!  This is one of those books that you can read over and over again and it just keeps the excitement level constant!

Make sure you stay tuned in the next few days because we will be having an interview with someone very special to this series.