Baby Chomper Blog Tour & Giveaway

Look For The Sunny Side! Book Releases November 7th!

       I'm excited to share about a book coming soon in partnership with The Children’s Book Review and Nuggies Inc. It was a lot of fun to open the box to find the book, and then to find more than a book. There were sparkly pom poms and bath bombs, just perfect for little ones who want to have "real" or "pretend" bath fun!

       For the youngest children, an adorable puppy gets into some stinky trouble with a puddle and a skunk. His story by Jeff Minich is Baby Chomper's Bath Time! It's number six in the Nuggies series, and Renan Garcia's bold and bright pictures show Chomper's puppy antics as he sneaks out the doggie door and not only greets a large mud puddle, but also an angry (or scared) skunk. He is stinky, in fact this time, he's the "stinkiest." That means A BATH! Many kids think bath time is fun. Playing in water is the best, and with bubbles, even better. Not Chomper! He hides; he resists, but the bath must be, and Chomper chooses a new thought, imagining all the fun this bath can be. From diving to swimming and playing with toys, imagining he's a ship's captain or a surfer in the waves, bath time for Chomper becomes a delight. And after, the softest towel and warmest blow dryer makes everything just right. Chomper has shown how trying new things with a new attitude makes life a whole lot better! 
      The use of words in several places in the story will make this book such fun to read aloud. From stink, stinkier, and stinkiest and so fresh, freshy fresh, and the freshest, kids will want to repeat what's read to them again and again. 

            Enter to win an autographed copy of Baby Chomper’s Bath Time, by Jeff Minich—plus a Dyson Supersonic hairdryer!

One (1) grand prize winner receives:

• A Dyson Supersonic hairdryer
• A complete autographed set of the Nuggies series
• A copy of If I Could Climb Trees: Nuggies: Vol. 5, signed by Jeff Minich
• A copy of Oui Oui Gigi: Nuggies: Vol. 4, signed by Jeff Minich
• A copy of  A Very Scary Pumpkin: Nuggies: Vol. 3, signed by Jeff Minich
• A copy of  All the Other Nuggies: Nuggies: Vol. 2, signed by Jeff Minich
• A copy of  Daddy Forgot My Dinner: Nuggies: Vol. 1, signed by Jeff Minich
• A copy of Baby Chomper’s Bath Time, signed by Jeff Minich

Value: $518+

Two (2) winners receive:

• A copy of Baby Chomper’s Bath Time, signed by Jeff Minich

Value: $19.95

Giveaway begins September 26, 2017, at 12:01 A.M. MT and ends October 26, 2017, at 11:59 P.M. MT.

Giveaway open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older.

Prizes provided by Jeff Minich

How To Enter

• Fill out the required fields in the form below. It may take a moment to load.
• You can also gain bonus daily entries.
• US and Canadian addresses only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jeff Minich is the author of the Nuggies illustrated children’s book series. Created in collaboration with illustrator Renan Garcia, the series includes Daddy Forgot My Dinner (Vol. 1); All the Other Nuggies (Vol. 2); A Very Scary Pumpkin (Vol. 3); Oui Oui, Gigi! (Vol. 4); and If I Could Climb Trees (Vol. 5). You can learn more about the Nuggies book series by visiting: GetNuggies.com

TOUR SCHEDULE

The Children's Book Review	https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/weblog/2017/09/baby-chompers-bath-time-by-jeff-minich-awareness-tour.html	9/26
My Momma's Heart	www.tynealewis.com	9/26
Mommy Ramblings	http://www.MommyRamblings.org	9/27
Crafty Moms Share	http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/	9/28
Jrsbookreviews	https://jrsbookreviews.wordpress.com/	9/29
The Fairview Review	http://fveslibrary.blogspot.com	10/2
icefairy's Treasure Chest	http://icefairystreasurechest.blogspot.com	10/3
Word Spelunking	wordspelunking.blogspot.com	10/4
the review wire	www.thereviewwire.com	10/5
It's Fundamental	http://itsfundamental.info	10/6
TeacherDance	http://www.teacherdance.org	10/10
Little Miss History	http://Littlemisshistory.com	10/11
Bumbles and Fairy-Tales	http://bumblesandfairytales.blogspot.com	10/12
Tales of A Wanna-Be SuperHero Mom	https://wannabesuperheromom.blogspot.ca/	10/15
LitPick	https://litpick.com/	10/17
Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers	http://insatiablereaders.blogspot.com	10/19

Monday Reading - Book Joy

              Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to discover books you'll love! Thanks to Jen, Kellee and Ricki who share so much from their own reading lives and support this meme, too.

         

           REMEMBER, IF INTERESTED, CYBIL'S NOMINATIONS LAST FROM OCTOBER 1ST TO THE 15TH. GO HERE TO NOMINATE!

               More books to share! I've had my granddaughters all weekend while their parents had a great trip to celebrate their anniversary. But, I just could not finish Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Heuiser Hill. It's very long, and I have loved reading it, will review when I can! This time next week I'll be at the Highlights Foundation for a poetry workshop with Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich. I am excited, will be reading lots of poetry this next week, and writing!

                                                 tweet #IMWAYR

        Winter is upon us, at least today here in Colorado and it's snowing and blowing. It's a great time to share this next book. If you are in an area with four seasons, you will appreciate that it can be 70 plus degrees one day, and then wake to 30 degrees and snowing. Kenard Pak has written and illustrated a poetic book about this very thing. The transformation page by page in his book is fabulous. The narrator says "hello" to a variety of things, like leaves and deer, setting sun and North Star, then lets each one tell what is happening in this seasonal change. As this happens, showing people, trees, towns and a broader scenery, Pak's paintings transform the scenes bit by bit, from autumn to winter! He's included wonderful towns and country scenes with lots of people and animals. It's just right for discussing the various changes in seasons with younger children.

        You know Kim Krans from her marvelous books ABC Dream and 123Dream. Now Kim is taking us on a beautiful journey starting with a cat’s question: “Whose moon is that?/asked a curious cat.” Page by beautiful page, several others answer poetically that the moon belongs to them, like a tree and a bird. But there is an answer by the moon itself at the end, and then, a surprise ending. With black and white pen and ink sketches surrounded by the colorful beauty of a night sky, Kim Krans has created another gorgeous story. One fun thing in the opening page shows a “This book belongs to ____________” label with ‘book’ crossed out and replaced by ‘moon’!

Poetry Friday - Reading Pleasure

      
       Poetry Friday is hosted today by Violet Nesdoly at Violet Nesdoly/Poems. No matter the topic, her words always inspire. This time, she has shared a memory of a year ago and a loving ode to autumn's popular crop, the pumpkin. Thanks, Violet, and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

A recent discovery of a "tree jack o' lantern"
on a nearby street,
readying for Halloween.

       I'm going away this weekend, across town to stay with my granddaughters, Ingrid and Imogene, while their parents fly off to celebrate their anniversary. That's one of the definitions of grandparents, right, to offer some time to remember that parents are also a couple, not only parents. 
       I know that the grand-girls and I will have a great time. There is a new dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Nature and Science. We might find a playground to play on for a while. The weather is supposed to be warm, with cold not coming until Monday.
       And we'll read. There has been more and more talk recently about the best way to help children become good readers, to love to read. That best way is to read, to allow slow time to read, to read as adults for children to see!  I've pulled out a few books to take, mostly our favorite Halloween books, and a new short chapter book that re-tells some old favorite fairy tales. The girls own lots of books themselves, so we'll revisit some of those too. 
        There are many poems written about children, and a favorite of mine is one read to me long ago by one of my grandfathers. Let us celebrate today's, yesterday's, and tomorrow's Children's Hour! I cannot state that I am "an old mustache," but I will "put (them) down into the dungeon/In the round-tower of my heart."

         The Children's Hour

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Between the dark and the daylight, 

      When the night is beginning to lower, 

Comes a pause in the day's occupations, 

      That is known as the Children's Hour. 

I hear in the chamber above me 

      The patter of little feet, 

The sound of a door that is opened, 

      And voices soft and sweet. 

Time for A Field Trip?

        Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  From Alyson and others, you will discover terrific nonfiction picture books!

     Many of you may know these long-time collaborators, but Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom are new to me. They are British picture book award winners and you can discover their books published over a lot of years HERE! Some are available at my library, but not all. I imagine they are good, like this one I read this week, introducing the collection of the British Library.

       With filled-to-the-brim pages of collaged art that includes original cut-out drawings, small illustrated added information overlayed by copies of actual book pages, the depth and breadth of the library shine. There are so many parts, I can imagine a class taking individual topics to research further. It is inspiring to read a bit about the amazing works the museum owns, and I did want to know more, more, more!

       From the earliest bound book, The St. Cuthbert Gospel found first in St. Cuthbert's coffin, about 687 CE, traveled around with the coffin and removed about 1100 where it fell into private hands, then bought by the museum for nine million pounds! This shows you just one of the astounding millions of books, prints, maps, drawings, stamps, etc. in the library. There are some so rare they are housed in a bombproof room. This library was built between 1988 and 1998, is the largest new public building in the U.K. It has 400 miles of shelves, 150 million items. Despite that fact, the authors acknowledge that the U.S. Library of Congress claims their collection is even larger, with more than 162 million items! It is fascinaing to search the database of the Library of Congress and now I know to search the British Museum, too.

         After the oldest books, the tour moves to showing some of my favorites, like this page above about Alice In Wonderland. Do you recognize those early illustrations? There is Shakespeare of course, Dickens, Austen, the Brontes, the Brothers Grimm and Conan Doyle. Also, Manning has not forgotten non-fiction, including pages about cookbooks, medicine, da Vinci and early issues of The London Times. The page presentations by Granstrom are varied and fascinating, highlighting some parts, pulling the reader in to discover favorites, introducing what is not as readily recognized. 

         Included are a table of contents, added information about each subject, and a glossary. I'm glad that I discovered this book. Now it's time for a field trip!

        

It's Monday - Great Reads Again

              Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to discover books you'll love! Thanks to Jen, Kellee and Ricki who share so much from their own reading lives and support this meme, too.

          Those affected by the hurricanes, earthquakes and forest fires are still in need, and perhaps especially Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. I hope you're finding a way to help! 

           REMEMBER, IF INTERESTED, CYBIL'S NOMINATIONS LAST FROM OCTOBER 1ST TO THE 15TH. I'M THRILLED TO BE A POETRY JUDGE AGAIN, BUT WE'LL HAVE NO BOOKS TO READ IF YOU DON'T NOMINATE! FIND OUT MORE HERE!

               I've read quite a few books since I last posted, so am sharing just a few, but still, sorry for the long post. Here are some I loved!

                                                 tweet #IMWAYR

Fiction

        

         During my time as a teacher of middle-school kids, I had one student who had a terrible accident during the summer (I had students for two years.) and he had to have one arm amputated. The year before that, I had read aloud Christy Brown’s My Left Foot to the class, not knowing how valuable the discussions we’d had would be that next year. I would have loved to have such a book as Insignificant Events in the Life of A Cactus by Dusti Bowling to read with students, too. Aven is a charming, smart middle-schooler who happens to have no arms, and also happens to have great friends she’s grown up with. Unfortunately, her parents have decided to move to Arizona to manage Stagecoach Pass, a western theme park.          

       After this move, Aven meets more struggles than how to learn to put on a bathing suit or eat certain things like turkey deli sandwiches. She must face new kids, which doesn’t go so well, causing a lot of eating in the bathroom. Finally, she finds that eating outside can be better, and meets one new friend, Zion, also lonely, also avoiding the social unpleasantness of the cafeteria. In the library, Aven discovers that another boy keeps “barking” at her, and when she confronts him, discovers he, too, is hiding out. This boy, Connor, with Tourette’s syndrome, becomes one more friend, who with Zion, makes Aven consider more of the way she’s running her life than ever before. Connor and Zion have some re-thinking about their own lives, too. Can Aven do anything? Well, maybe not basketball, but she hasn’t tried it yet! The story winds its way through the feelings of these three young teens. While Aven leads the way because of the way her parents have helped her learn how to do so much without arms, the boys help her learn more about being a friend, too. And then there’s the mystery of that locked shed, and a picture discovered that looks a lot like Aven. The story is about being handicapped and making one’s way in the world anyway. And it’s about friendship and sometimes secrets, a good one for reading aloud today, and discussing often. I loved that Dusti Bowling had Aven reading Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli during one scene in the book, another story about keeping strong beliefs about who you are, and who you want to keep on being.

       There is a contented boy who lives alone at the End of The World. He seems content. He finds things in peace. Then, a strange man arrives, a visionary who puts up a sign: CONSTANTINE SHIMMER'S GALVANO-MAGICAL END OF THE WORLD TOURS. FUN ALL THE TIME! True it is that from then on, the priority is to have fun, and while more and more “things” are built to attract those who want “fun”, and while the boy meets some other kids from the city and they play at all sorts of things, one day the boy notices something. He can no longer hear the wind. Fun is not his only priority, but discovering things is. Kevin Hawkes illustrates the boy’s world of simplicity and the fantastical world that of busy! It’s a story like all Anderson’s stories, it poses questions. Perhaps a read aloud with a group will discover answers?