First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if, instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

The Rules:

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
• Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

“Despite what you’ve heard about werewolves, my least favorite day of the month isn’t when the moon is full—it’s Rosh Chodesh. The first of the month. The appearance of the full moon. Okay, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve heard all the myths and they’re very clear about werewolves turning into out-of-control monsters during the full moon. The myths get a lot of stuff wrong.

The real worst part about being able to shift from a human kid into a wolf? When your mom decides you haven’t studied enough for your bar mitzvah and puts a ban on shifting forms until you nail your parsha.”

These first lines immediately made me fall in love with this book, and I want to drum up a little more attention to a current read that I’m enjoying immensely.

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is a recently released middle grade fantasy novel.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by Deke Moulton.

The First Lines Friday book is:

Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf.

About the Book:

• Title: Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf
• Author: Deke Moulton
• Page Length: 304 pages
• Publication Date: July 2, 2024
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
• Synopsis:

Benji Zeb has to balance preparing for his bar mitzvah, his feelings for a school bully, and being a werewolf in this heartfelt, coming-of-age novel for young readers. For fans of Don’t Want to Be Your Monster and Too Bright to See.

Benji Zeb is good at keeping secrets. No one knows how badly he is drowning in his studies, not only for school but also his upcoming bar mitzvah. He’s nervous about Mr. Rutherford, the aggressive local rancher who wants to shut down Benji’s family’s kibbutz and wolf sanctuary—but no one in the family is allowing him to help. And Benji hasn’t figured out what to do about Caleb Gao, Mr. Rutherford’s adopted son, who turned into a jerk over the summer despite Benji being pretty sure they were both crushing on each other the entire previous year.

But the biggest secret of all? He and his entire family are werewolves, using the wolf sanctuary as cover for their true identities.

But it life gets harder when a new werewolf shows up at the kibbutz one night . . . and it’s none other than Caleb! He’s unable to control his shifting and refuses to go home. He needs Benji’s help. But with everything piling up, can anxious Benji juggle all of these things along with his growing feelings toward Caleb?

Links: Goodreads     

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