Having toured the U.S. last year, Australian author John Flanagan isn’t coming stateside for the release of The Siege of Macindaw (Philomel), the sixth book in his Ranger’s Apprentice series. Soon readers in 27 U.S. cities will be able to see a theatrical performance entitled “Escape to Araluen,” based on the first Ranger’s Apprentice book, The Ruins of Gorlan. A tour bus will travel throughout that month to schools, libraries and bookstores, starting at New York City’s Books of Wonder and visiting sites in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Three actors from the Striking Viking Story Pirates ensemble will perform scenes at each visit; videos from the tour and other interactive features will be available at the Ranger’s Apprentice Web site, which is being relaunched on August 4 with a brand-new design. “We wanted to create an ‘authorless tour’ that would rival the popularity of John Flanagan’s 2008 U.S. tour,” said Emily Romero, v-p of marketing for Penguin Young Readers Group. “We’d seen impressive fan videos reenacting Ranger’s Apprentice scenes online and we thought, why don’t we reenact these scenes live? We also wanted the tour to visit cities and towns off the beaten path. By sending the actors in a tour bus, we’re able to visit places such as Campbell, Ky., Wichita, Kans., and Edmond, Okla.”
