Calling All Readers!

Support authors, illustrators too, they need you.

Just think about it, they’ve poured all of themselves into creating that book you enjoyed. They’ve revised, reworked and fine tuned the words and images you escaped into. They’ve worked hard to get their book(s) published and made available to you.

They deserve a shout out, or a pat on the back, you know they do.

So, that book you’ve just started, or are mid-way through, or are close to finishing? Once you’re finished, use your power as a reader to share your thoughts.

Here are two super easy ways to do just that.

Give it a rating and a review.

It won’t take long. Ratings and reviews can be found on most bookselling sites as well as Goodreads.

You have the power. Books and their creators need your input. It’s a harsh publishing world out there. A little appreciation goes a long way.

Illustrator, Debi Ridpath Ohi says it all!

Your star rating and review can help new readers find and enjoy the book you loved. The more new readers that a book gets, the more likely it is that the writer and illustrator will have opportunities to publish again.

So please, take a few moments to flex your reading power. Help the authors and illustrators you enjoy have the opportunity to create more books. Your imagination will reap the benefits.

The Imaginators by Linda Scott is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0

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Children’s Book Review Lottery #2 Winner!

Thank you to all the authors who entered my Children’s Book Review Lottery. The Girl from the Attic written by Marie Prins, illustrated by Edward Hagedorn and published by Common Deer Press was the book selected from the many entered.

The opening line of the story’s prologue deftly sets the stage for this time-traveling middle grade book. The cat sat on the old windowsill, as she had off and on for a hundred years.

Immediately the reader is introduced to Shadow who will lead Maddy, the book’s main character, into the Octagon House’s woodshed’s loft and through a small rectangular door where she will begin to discover the house’s past.

Maddy’s life has recently gone through a great deal of change; change that she doesn’t like. The opportunity to time-travel offers her a way to escape her present. When Maddy first goes through the doorway to the past, she isn’t quite sure what is going on but soon gets involved the life of the people who had previously lived there. She forms closer connections to members of that family than she has with her present-day mother and step-father.

Ironically, through her visits to the past and her involvement in the lives of the people there, Maddy comes to realize she needs to appreciate her present day life.

Houses hold memories; The Octagon House built in the 1850’s close to the shores of Lake Ontario Canada is no different. If you’re a fan of history and have ever thought about the people who years ago might have walked the same street or stood in the same spot as you do in the present, then you will enjoy the detailed descriptions of The Octagon House’s past and it’s residents’ life experiences.

There is an nice twist at the end of the story, which is not completely unexpected but nevertheless satisfying.

There’s Still Time to Enter My “Children’s Book Review Lottery!”

As I haven’t received any entries as of yet, I’m extending the deadline for entries for this, my second, “Children’s Book Review Lottery.” All entries need to be in by midnight Wednesday, November 25th 2020.

On Thanksgiving, I will be selecting at random one entry to purchase and review. Entrants can be picture books, early chapter, chapter books, or middle grade books. At the end of the month I will post my review to Amazon, Goodreads, WordPress, Twitter and Instagram (story). I will only post a review if I feel comfortable giving it 3 stars or more. If I feel that the book deserves less than 3 stars, I will send my review directly to the author and ask if they still want me to post it on Amazon (only).

All that’s left for you to do is to enter. Just leave the title of your book, a link to it and a compelling blurb in the comments at the end of this post. In order for your entry to qualify you need all three requirements. I hope you take advantage of this opportunity to get your book more visibility!

You have to be in it to win it!

Looking forward to reading your books!

Children’s Book Review Lottery #2

#SupportanAuthor #WriteaReview

I’m happy to announce that I’m hosting my second “Children’s Book Review Lottery”.

Writers and illustrators all need support. Often, as writers when we think of support we think of critique groups, mentors, societies, guilds, conferences, etc. But another area in which we need support involves the giving of and the receiving of reviews. And now, with all that we’re going through, support is all that more important.

I’ve heard it said that it takes 50 reviews, good or bad, to get your title to pop up with the marketing tags of, “Customers who viewed this item also viewed this . . .” My “Children’s Book Review Lottery” is a way of offering that support.

Entrants can be picture books, early chapter, chapter books, or middle grade books. For my first lottery I only had two entrants and was able to offer reviews of both of their titles, but due to increasing time constraints I will only be able to choose one winner per lottery.

At the end of the month I will post my review to Amazon, Goodreads, WordPress, Twitter and Instagram (story). I will only post a review if I feel comfortable giving it 3 stars or more. If I feel that the book deserves less than 3 stars, I will send my review directly to the author and ask if they still want me to post it on Amazon (only). I hope to host “Children’s Book Review Lotteries” as often as time and money will allow.

All that’s left for you to do is to enter. Just leave the title of your book, a link to it and a compelling blurb in the comments at the end of this blog post. In order for your entry to qualify you need all three requirements. The deadline for entry is midnight Sunday Nov. 23, 2020. I will let you know personally if your book has been chosen.

I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing your book!

An Ingenious Gentleman

Last week I finished Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes. I had read it in Spanish class back in high school, but at that time I was so intent on deciphering the language that I didn’t absorb the content. This time reading it through I was overwhelmed by the story.

If you haven’t read it, Don Quixote is divided into two parts. The first in which Don Quixote’s most well known scenes are played out. He battles windmills he perceives as giants and sheep he takes as an advancing enemy army. To Don Quixote’s eyes the most mundane everyday thing becomes extraordinary. Simple rustic inns are seen as castles to him.

His friend and steadfast companion, Sancho Panza is at first impressed with Don Quixote’s knowledge of and devotion to knight-errantry. As time goes by, Sancho’s view teeter-totters on a seesaw of cynicism and rationalization, and yet he maintains his loyalty to Don Quixote. No longer bonded only by their roles of a knight-errant and his squire, they have developed into good friends, who have become such in spite of and more so because of their acknowledged differences.

In the second part of the book, poor Don Quixote is often duped, and his noble perceptions are used against him. Don Quixote’s imagination makes his world and the world of the reader grander, more poetical and ever full of possibilities. I found it heartbreaking when he was played the fool by characters who thought they knew better the reality of the world.

While reading the book, a friend shared with me the picture book Miguel’s Brave Knight- Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote. Poems written by Margarita Engle and Illustrations by Raul Colon.

There is so much to recommend in this book. From Margarita Engle’s dedication, “No giant or dragon is bigger or stronger than the human imagination,” to Raul Colon’s illustrations and Ms. Engle’s poems that convey the timeline of Miguel Cervantes’ learning years, as well as his emotional growth. Through her poems she takes the reader on Miguel’s Cervantes’ writers journey to the point where his dreams, and his imagination allow him, as she writes in the poem titled Imagination, to work toward telling the tale of his brave knight who will set out boldly to right all of the wrongs of this wonderful but terribly mixed up world. I hope you get a chance to enjoy both of these beautiful books.