Blog Tour - New Book and A Giveaway!

         I'm excited to share this new book in partnership with The Children’s Book Review and Justine Avery, the author.

         According to their bios in the back of the book, both Justine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk are adventurers and travelers. Justine has jumped out of airplanes and off high bridges; Liuba is happiest while traveling with a small box of watercolors! When I read the book, with Justine's words of inspiration illustrated in such varied ways of what "thinking outside the box" can mean, I knew that it would be a book to use throughout a school year or with one's child (or grandchild) at home. You can discover more about Justine on twitter @Justine_Avery and here! I found Liuba on Instagram - liobiko and in an art studio here.

         In poetic phrases, when faced with a problem or discovering that ways of living can be confusing, don't always worry about the regular path, but "think outside the box"! Rules at times can be broken. One needs to use one's brain to "think" and wander many different paths to come to workable solutions. 
        Some examples show the opposite of what is often imagined as a solution. Coloring "outside" the lines, walking on one's hands instead of feet, or eating an ice cream cone from the bottom up are some of the fun examples. 
         Relaxing while thinking can help, too. One can "Close your eyes, cover your ears. . . And wait for the ideas to come to you." It is lots of fun to view the creative graphic-style illustrations by Liuba Syrotiuk. You can see by the cover that she also creates "outside the box"!

         For all those who want support because they take different paths, love to create and invent, to discover what else can solve a problem, find this book!

The Giveaway - also 'outside the box'!

Enter for a chance to win a Think Outside the Box prize pack!

One (1) grand prize winner receives:

• A hardcover copy of Think Outside the Box.
• A pair of Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablets.
• A Creative Thinking in a Jar set.

Ten (10) winners receive:

• A hardcover copy of Think Outside the Box.

Ten (10) winners receive:

• A paperback copy of Think Outside the Box.

Giveaway begins June 15, 2020, at 12:01 A.M. MT and ends July 15, 2020, at 11:59 P.M. MT.

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It's Monday - Blog Tour & Giveaway!

         I'm excited to join a blog tour in partnership with The Children’s Book Review and HarperCollins!

             From Sara Pennypacker, writer of the beloved Pax, comes a story of introverted, only-child Ware, whose parents want only for him to have friends, lots of them! They're working double shifts to gain enough money to buy their home so Ware, again, is expected to give up his dreams of a summer on his own and go daily to the 'rec center' where mobs of kids only show Ware how alone he is. Despite his parents' expectations, he likes being alone! But then he spies an abandoned church early one day, and sees a girl doing What??? -- making a garden of papayas. This adventure sometimes seems a bit farfetched, but dreams, even outlandish ones, can become real, and Ware, with new, maybe friend Jolene? and a welcome intruder, bird-lover Ashley, might help Ware be re-born? Ware follows the knight's creed about fighting unfairness and with help from the girls and a few adults that come into his life, too, plus his own self-awareness begins to like who he is, at last! I imagine there will be kids who say, maybe secretly, that's me!

            Thanks to HarperCollins Children's Books for the advanced copy!

Enter for a chance to win a Sara Pennypacker book prize pack!

Five (5) winners receive:

• A hardcover copy of Here in the Real World
• A paperback copy of Pax

Giveaway begins January 21, 2019, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends February 21, 2019, at 11:59 P.M. PST.
Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, who are eighteen years of age or older in their state or territory of residence at the time of entry. Void where prohibited by law.

HarperCollins is responsible for prize fulfillment.

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A New Bedtime Story for Spring!

         Today, December 21st, the winter solstice arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest day and the longest night of the year, a time to enjoy winter evenings inside, reading special books to loved ones at bedtime.

#dontwakethedragon

       I'm happy to share this new book coming next April, one that will be needed in spring with daylight lingering, making it harder and harder for those young ones
                                                                                                   to go
                                                                                                             to
                                                                                                                   sleep!


I'm reminded of the poem, "Bed in Summer" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Here's the first verse:

In winter I get up at night 

And dress by yellow candle-light. 

In summer, quite the other way, 

I have to go to bed by day. 

The rest is here!

            This book from Clever Publishing gives a new look at bedtime as Bianca Schulze, in her debut picture book, tells the story of a rascally dragon that just will not go to sleep. It's an interactive book that follows the dragon page by page. Shh! Be very quiet, you might wake it up! Then turn the page, oh no! The breeze blew the door shut with a BANG! Did that rascal wake up again? You'll have to get the book to discover what happens next, and next!

             This is only a preview, but I already can see that Samara Hard's illustrations are going to be wonderfully bright and colorful for young readers.

Pre-order links are here:

Amazon

IndieBound

Barnes and Noble

Bianca Schulze is the founder and editor of The Children's Books Review - a resource devoted to children's literature and literacy. Bianca is also the bestselling author of 101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up, an Amazon "Book of the Month" in 2016. She is a reader, reviewer, mother, and children's book lover. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, Bianca now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado. 

Clever Publishing's site can be found here!



             Bianca has shared a fun dot-to-dot for us to print, a reminder about this new book on its way: Don't Wake The Dragon!

             Congratulations, Bianca! I'm looking forward to reading your first picture book!

The Splendid Baron Submarine -- Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Yes! A second book about the Baron family! The Splendid Baron Submarine, the Bizarre Baron Inventions by Eric Bower was published in mid-November and it's sure to please a lot of young middle readers.

       The tour is in partnership with The Children’s Book Review and Amberjack Publishing.

        Sometimes it's a challenge to get into the minds of middle-grade readers, but Eric Bower has succeeded in this book about W.B. (Waldo) Baron, a middle-grade boy who has started a new school year in the classroom corner wearing a dunce cap. He has just read some of his summertime adventures to his class, and his teacher is convinced he's lying.         
        Only those of us who have read this whole story realize that no matter the outrageous shenanigans W.B. told, it is true life for a young boy. At first, I too wondered how a boy whose family lives in the horse-drawn carriage age, whose parents, world-class inventors, can possibly already be "flying" an Air Oh! plane, shrinking things, and using a submarine to find treasure with a pirate's curse? Then I believe I understood. Young readers' inner imaginations are like this. They wish they could have these crazy adventures instead of their often-boring daily lives of school and soccer, music lessons and home. Yes, a good life, but not even close to as exciting as Waldo's. 
       In the corner, Waldo manages to whisper about his summer to a group of mice, also in a corner home and we readers get to listen, too. There are those unique inventions (a steam-powered submarine!), secret meetings, and a rude monkey one this journey.

Blog Tour & Giveaway - Dewey Fairchild!

          I'm excited to share about a book coming soon in partnership with The Children’s Book Review and Amberjack Publishing. Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver, will be available August 8th!

         It may have started when eleven-year-old Dewey's friend Seraphina came to him at lunch one day, exasperated about her mom. It seems that her mother was one of those helicopter moms who still held Seraphina's hand when they walked across the street and then all the way into the classroom. Other things were happening too, and that's how Dewey became a "Parent Problem Solver". Within the story, Dewey manages to solve more than one problem and is so busy he's asked his next-door neighbor and elder friend Clara to be his assistant. Fortified by Clara's cookie baking and welcoming the clients with cookies set out through a secret passage to Dewey's attic, his "secret" life becomes busier and busier. Dewey has older and younger sisters, a mom who's often cold and a dad who's a dentist, but the story evolves into his own family problem. And Dewey is not sure he can solve that one.

         I wasn't sure I would enjoy this book. It seemed a bit fantastical to me, yet Dewey's fun sense of humor that intertwines with the serious tone he takes when helping other kids won me over. I believe there is a part of every child who would love the power to do the things Dewey manages and helps his friends manage, in order to "fix" a parent problem. I can hear the giggles while reading about the sleuthing that occurs and see the nodding heads in agreement about parents whose habits aren't always to their children's liking. Lorri Horn's writing shows she knows about children's deepest wishes for some power to change things in their lives.

Enter to win a Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver themed prize pack!

One (1) winner receives:

• A copy of Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver, by Lorri Horn
• A Dewey Fairchild themed gift pack. Includes items such as cookies, gum, notebooks, pens/pencils, Tootsie Rolls, Monopoly game etc.

Giveaway rules:

• NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
• Enter between 12:00 AM Mountain Time on August 1, 2017 and 11:59 PM on August 31, 2017.
• Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older.
• Winners will be selected at random on or about September 3, 2017.
• Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Prizes provided by Amberjack Publishing.


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