Book Giveaway: Cleo’s Big Ideas: Onward and Upwards!

art and design created by Jennifer Ball

Jennifer Ball and I are excited to announce our newest book about Cleopatra W. Darby, Cleo’s Big Ideas: Onward and Upwards! published by Eifrig Publishing. Jennifer and I would like to offer a signed copy to two lucky winners. All you have to do to enter our giveaway is to leave a comment at the end of this blog, reblog, tweet, or share on Facebook/Instagram with a link.

Each time you share on any or all of these platforms you gain an additional chance to win. Let us know how and where you share, so we place the right amount of tickets into Cleo’s hat for you. All entries must be submitted by 11:59 PM EST on Friday, September 25, 2020. The drawing will be held on Saturday, September 26th. Winners will be posted on Monday, September 28, 2020.

Sharing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and reblogging are great ways to help to spread the word for a new book. Jennifer and I appreciate all the help you can offer!

Book Description:

In Cleo’s Big Ideas: Onward and Upwards!, it’s back to school time for Cleo and her friends, Albert and Sara. Cleo is less than excited about it. She wanted Winston, her pet tortoise, to go to school with her, but without his E. E. W. (Eco-Enviro-Warmer) in working order he’ll have to stay home. And what’s worse, Cleo’s found out that Ms. Mason (who’s never liked any one of Cleo’s big ideas) is going to be her teacher for this term. The only thing good about being in Ms. Mason’s class is that Sara is in the same class.

When Ms. Mason announces a contest for school mascot, Cleo’s begins to feel things might get better. Winston is a shoe-in to win, so Cleo thinks, though he’s up against some tough competition: Kim’s Persian kitten, Tiffany and Emmies’ hamster, King Richard.

But all thoughts of the contest are put on hold when, Albert, who has been tracking space junk on NASA TV, announces that he’s spotted incoming junk headed straight for Humble Elementary.

Even though a group of scientists from NASA have set up a space junk deflector base right in Humble Elementary, Cleo, Albert and Sara figure it’s a good idea to have a plan B, so they put their heads and inventions together and create Winston II, a rocketing robotic recycler. Will their plan B be needed? Will Winston II work?

“Zowie!” says Cleo. “Read the book to find out!”

Between chapters there’s fun DIY activities like making your own owl spectacles, creating a binary birthday bracelet and more . . .

Cleo’s Big Ideas: Onward and Upward! can be ordered at https://www.eifrigpublishing.com/products/copy-of-cleos-big-ideas-onward-and-upward as well as on amazon https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+cleo%27s+big+ideas%3A+onward+and+upward&oq=amazon&aqs=chrome.2.69i65j69i59j35i39j0j69i65l2j69i60l2.3740j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If you have any questions for Jennifer or myself, you can contact us at:

Janice Milusich: Website: www.janmilusich.com , Twitter: @JMilusich, Instagram:@janmilusich, FB: @JanMilusich

Jennifer Ball: Website: seejensdesigns.com, Twitter:@JenBallArt, Instagram:@Jenballkidlit, FB: @JenniferBallillustrator

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Doing What We Can . . .

“Although the world is full of suffering it is also full of the overcoming of it.” Helen Keller

Olivia Van Ledtje is a young girl who is a great example of what we should be doing to overcome the difficulty we’re all dealing with since our schools have closed. Olivia came up with the great idea of putting together a listing of authors and illustrators, and all sorts of creative people including astronauts, for kids to tune into via a variety of platforms, so that they can stay connected with books, and art, music and science. She calls her project Let’s Keep Reading! Keep Thinking with Interactive Read Alouds! You can find her @thelivbits and her list @thelivbitsdocs.google.com/document/d/1Mr . . .

So I was happy to add my name to the list and began a read aloud that will happen every weekday at 4:00 on Instagram @janmilusich. I started it off last Friday March 20th by reading my picture book, Off Go Their Engines, Off Go Their Lights and will follow it up on Monday with a chapter a day from my early chapter book Cleo’s Big Ideas: One Thing Leads to Another.

After a few technical difficulties, quite a few . . .

One of them being an out of date phone, followed by my having the camera the wrong way ’round and then not finding the button to save the video so I could post it to my website, http://www.janmilusich.com for later viewing. But eventually I made it through my first Instagram live event. Phew! Thank goodness my son, for whom my picture book was dedicated, was in the next room with the latest model iPhone. He came to my repeated rescue. Three times in fact.

But it was so much fun to hear that one of my students was tuned in and listening as well as friends from Stony Brook’s Children’s Fellowship and my daughter who’s now living in Ireland. Thank you for your positivity! And I want to thank my student’s mom for reaching out and letting me know how much he enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to virtually seeing him again and hopefully having less technical difficulties and more connections.

In the end, if we can learn anything from all of this is that we all need each other more than we realize.

Stay well, keep your creativity and your connections going, Jan