Author Guest Post!: “Picture Books: Better Than Teddy Bears” By Dawn Marie Hooks, Author and Illustrator of Sarah and Her Twirling Toes

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“Picture Books: Better Than Teddy Bears”

I’ve always been a book lover. As a toddler, I fell asleep with my arms wrapped around my favorite book, The Mitten, like it was my teddy bear.  A picture book can be read and reread many times for many months or years and still cherished.  Kids are creative with their books.  He might use his truck book for a car ramp.  She might see if her mermaid book will swim.  That’s not exactly what I have in mind when I encourage creativity, but you can use those cherished picture books for more than reading.  Read, reread, and discover!  Do you have music lovers, math wizards, or budding scientists in your home or classroom?  You can explore those interests with a great book!

Fun activities with a favorite picture book can weave many topics and interests together. Choose the book the kids LOVE and do an internet search for an activity guide with that book.  Many websites (like my author/illustrator website, my publisher’s website, or teaching blogs) include discussion and activity guides.  Sometimes, there are printable worksheets and coloring pages. If an activity guide doesn’t fit your needs, it can spark ideas that do!  Some of you are experts at creating fully customized activity guides.  Others are thinking, “No way!”  Either way, teaching guides can inspire you to create activities for your needs using the book you choose!

When I create materials or talks, I am inspired by what I read – whether it’s the book alone, an activity guide, or an article.  As a classroom elementary teacher, I wrote lesson plans incorporating my favorite children’s books.  Currently, I have the pleasure writing and illustrating picture books and the discussion and activity guides that go with them.  Also, when I am presenting, I like to begin by reading a picture book that captures the attention of the group.  (At least, I hope it does!)  I even do this when I’m talking to parent or teacher groups.  (Don’t you think these books can be just as fascinating to adults?)  Whatever the topic, a great picture book can turn boring into captivating!

Do you have a favorite picture book?  Think of what you can do with it while reading the 14 examples geared toward my new book, Sarah and Her Twirling Toes:

1.      Reading:  Look at the cover of the book (front and back).  Ask kids to predict what the book will be about.  Read the book and check if predictions are correct.

2.      Discuss Manners:  Does it bother you when other people scream?  When is it okay to scream?  When is it bad manners to scream?  Do you have rules in your home or classroom about how loud you should be?

3.      Story elements: Discuss the setting, main character, problem, and solution.

4.      Writing:  Rewrite the story choosing one story element (setting, main character, problem, or solution) to change.

5.      Art:  Create a new cover for the book.  The book is painted using watercolor and gauche. Work with watercolor or choose something else (watercolor pencils, chalk, torn paper art, etc).

6.      Letters:  This book is full of words that begin with the letter “s.”  Search the book for the words.  Make a list.

7.      Synonyms & Antonyms:  Look through the book for the word “scream” and other words that mean the same thing.  Can you think of more synonyms?  Now think of antonyms for scream.

8.      Music and Body Concepts: Sing “Tonsils, Tummy, Heels, and Toes” like “Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

9.      Cooking and Measuring:  Sarah drank honey ginger tea to try to help her throat.  Make some and have a cup of tea.  Slice lemon thinly until you have ½ cup.  Put slices in a jar.  Slice ginger root thinly until you have ½ cup.  Add to jar.  Squeeze honey into jar until lemon slices and ginger are covered.  Refrigerate for 24 hours.  Stir contents of jar. Put one cup of warm water in a mug.  Add two tablespoons of infused honey into warm water.  Stir and enjoy.  

10.  Science:  Explore the five senses.  Give each child a slice of lemon.  Have them describe the lemon using their five senses – touch, smell, taste, sound, and sight.  Do the same with ginger and honey, if desired.

11.  Health:  Research the health benefits of honey, lemon, and ginger.

12.  Health:  Sarah had “Screamingitis Syndrome,” a fictional condition.  Look up laryngitis and compare the causes, symptoms, and treatment to what Sarah suffered.

13.  Math:  Count how many times Tiger (Sarah’s dog) is in the book.  Multiply by two to find out how many dog ears that would be.  Multiply by four to see how many dog legs that would be.

14.  History: Research the history of tea used for medicinal purposes.

Sarah and Her Twirling Toes doesn’t directly talk about the five senses, synonyms, cooking, measuring, or even good manners.  I took actions from the story (like screaming or sipping tea) and created ideas to delve deeper. 

I hope you are inspired to be creative with picture books!  Pull out the book that’s being used as a car ramp.  Rescue the one that’s swimming in the tub.  Explore those books that are better than teddy bears!  Have fun and share your ideas with others!!

sarah and her twirling

About the Book: Sarah loves how screaming makes her feel. Her tonsils tickle. Her tummy dances. Best of all, her toes twirl! But one day, Sarah’s scream disappears …

This bright picture book celebrates Sarah’s spunky and endearing personality while showing that she can still be herself, with or without screaming.

Access the “Activity & Discussion Guide” for Sarah and Her Twirling Toes here.

dawn m hook

About the Author: Dawn Marie Hooks, M.S.Ed., combines her passion for children’s literature and painting through writing and illustrating picture books. A former elementary teacher, Dawn completed her first book, “Oh, Cookie!” as the final project for graduate coursework. Since then, she hasn’t stopped working on turning more ideas into books. She is a member of SCBWI and speaks to school, parent, and teacher groups.

Dawn currently resides in Vancouver, WA, with her husband, two young daughters, and their feisty puppy, Maui. When she isn’t working, she enjoys family time, Barre3, coffee, sunshine, reading, family vacations, and wakesurfing. Oh, she placed third in Women’s Masters at the 2015 World Wake Surfing Championship!

For the activity and discussion guide and information on giveaways, promotions, and events,  follow Dawn Marie Hooks on www.DawnMarieHooks.com, Twitter: @DawnMarieHooks , Pinterest: Dawn Marie Hooks, Facebook: Dawn Marie Hooks.  To purchase any of Dawn’s books, find her on Amazon Author Central, B&N, or your favorite book retailer.

Thank you Dawn for the guest post!

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“Giving Writing a Try” by Andrea Young, Author of Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain

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“Giving Writing a Try”

A teacher once told me I should give writing a try.

Fast-forward 20 years. I was giving a horseback-riding lesson when I overheard someone say that there are not enough good horse books out there for kids these days.

Having always remembered what that teacher said and after teaching kids to ride for almost 30 years, I figured who better than me to give it a try?

Luckily (because it made it easy), I had absolutely no expectations about writing a book when I sat down at my computer and went for it.

What I found out was that I truly loved to write. I would get so lost in the story I’d not realize hours had passed. Many times I only stopped typing because my arms grew too sore. Painful limbs aside, I had found a new passion.

Finny, the heroine in Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain, finally got the horse she so desperately wanted. The description in the book of the still standing, but near dead, skeleton of a horse was exactly what I found when I was given a free horse at fifteen years old.

I was dropped off at an abandoned ranch to pick up my new horse. The plan was for me to ride it back home. After seeing her, and the state she was in, that certainty wasn’t going to happen. Fearing she wouldn’t survive, but having no other choice. We slowly began the eleven-mile walk home and the journey that would change my life.

That event was a defining moment for me. Not only did the horse survive, she thrived and turned out to be an amazing animal any kid would be blessed to have.

I hoped I could portray in my story how an event like that can bring so much happiness and change a life for the better.

There were two elements in my book that I wanted to stay true to. First, that all the equine information was accurate. I wanted anyone who read the book to also learn from it. That was very important to me because I teach horsemanship and safety around horses. I have read numerous horse books where the information is actually incorrect or misleading.

Second, I wanted to show that the good guys don’t always win just because they’re good and the bad guys didn’t always lose because they’re bad. I wanted to do that because that is how the world works. Another lessons kids should learn.

Finny gets a horse named Sky. Her dream is that someday he’ll become a champion jumping horse. As their story progresses, she has to modify her plans since Sky is proving to be so difficult. I didn’t want this to be a crushing end to a dream, just the beginning of a new one. I wanted my readers, like I do my students, to learn the journey is the joy, not the ribbons from the show arena.

Joe, the male hero in the story, is already years ahead of Finny when it comes to being set as the person he is. His background has been tough, but the sense of self he has gotten from working with horses is enough to get him through the bad times. Finny sees this in him, and admires him for it.

Ultimately, my characters absorb their life lessons from their experiences with horses and each other. All the bad thrown their way, they handle due to the strengths they’ve gained. I hope my real life students can achieve that, too.

 

Finny cover copy

Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain

About the Book: Against the backdrop of the high-stakes and intensely competitive equestrian sport of show jumping, Finny, a fifteen-year-old girl in California, adopts an emaciated, untrained horse without her parents’ knowledge. Soon after adopting Sky, Finny meets Joe, a sixteen-year-old, who has run away from his cruel uncle in Montana. His love for horses and desire to be a trainer matches Finny’s dream of competing in the show jumping arena—against rich girls on fancier horses—and together, they train Sky to become a first-rate show jumper.

But the path is fraught with danger. Sky is not like other horses and is so destructive and difficult he gets them kicked out of the barn where Finny has been working and training. Helped by a kind woman who owns a horse rescue, Joe is able to prove both his and Sky’s incredible talents. When Joe is kidnapped by his violent uncle, Finny and Sky are the only ones who can save him. In a breathtaking finale, Sky and Finny must enter the underworld of the rodeo circuit, an after-hours, illegal race, where they will risk their lives to save the boy they love. Young demonstrates a masterful ability to set a breakneck pace and keep it up until the end of the novel. Finny and Joe are enduring characters who are sure to appear in upcoming sequels.

About the Author: Andrea Young is a highly respected riding instructor at Elvenstar in Malibu, one of Southern California’s top hunter-jumper barns. Her innovative work has been featured in Practical Horseman, Hunter/Jumper magazine,Show Circuit Magazine, Chronicle of the Horse, and others. She is currently writing a trilogy featuring Finny and Joe, the boy from Horse Mountain. She lives in Simi Valley, California.

Thank you to Andrea for this honest post. We hope it will inspire readers and writers!

Thank you to Cheryl from Sky Pony Press for connecting us with Andrea!

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Author Guest Post!: “The Star Wars Effect: Bringing Teens to Space” by Ava Jae, Author of Beyond the Red

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“The Star Wars Effect: Bringing Teens to Space”

When I wrote the first draft of Beyond the Red back in the summer of 2014, I didn’t dare to imagine that non-dystopian Sci-Fi would become a Big Thing in YA. I hoped, of course, alongside every other YA Sci-Fi writer, but the truth was it hadn’t happened, not really. And with Dystopian novels taking the spotlight front and center, many were already predicting a downturn in YA Sci-Fi once readers got tired of dystopic Sci-Fi worlds.

I knew all that, but I wrote Beyond the Red anyway. It was the book I wanted to read, but wasn’t already out there—it was aliens, and monarchies, and clashing cultures, and endless crimson sands in a faraway world outside our solar system, but within our universe. It was a place where Earth was a legend, even to the humans whose ancestors emigrated from there. It was, ultimately, the book I wanted for myself, so I ignored the trends altogether and when people whispered that YA Sci-Fi was a hard sell, I shrugged and kept writing.

Everything is a hard sell, I reasoned. I’m going to write this book for me. 

So I did. And eventually I got an agent, and my agent said those words to me—YA Sci-Fi is a hard sell—but she also said, I love this book and I’m going to do my best. 

We went on submission. Heard the book was “too Sci-Fi” in rejections. Kept submitting anyway. And celebrated when it sold.

Even months after it sold, my YA Sci-Fi writer friends told me their stories—how their books weren’t selling, how YA Sci-Fi was so hard to move. Of the new sale announcements, YA Sci-Fi were in the minority—a couple here, a handful there in a sea of incredible-sounding Fantasy stories. Pirates and time-travel were in. Sci-fi was…there. Floating. Barely.

And then Star Wars: The Force Awakens was announced. And then Divergent mega-author Veronica Roth announced her next book: a Star Wars-ish Sci-Fi YA due in 2017. And then super Sci-Fi-ish Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Asher became a big YA buzz book. And then Star Wars: The Force Awakened sold a bajillion tickets and basically blew everyone’s expectations out of the water.

YA Sci-Fi isn’t a Big Thing—not yet—but with the massive success of Star Wars, and a super huge author writing a Star Wars-like YA, it’s not hard to imagine that we’ll see more teens in space over the next couple years. Readers who watch Star Wars are walking away and craving that same kind of adventure in a book. They want aliens, and extrasolar planets, and advanced technology, and complicated, alien politics. They want characters who have grown up in a technological world far away from our own—they want space travel, and vivid settings that remind them of that movie theater experience.

YA Sci-Fi authors like myself, who never could have predicted the existence of another movie in a galaxy far, far away, had no idea that we were actually writing our spacey books at exactly the right time. We had no idea that teens in space would be exactly what readers would be looking for after getting their movie fix. But despite the uncertainty, the books we wrote for us—the books we were told would be too hard to sell—have now become exactly the stories that Star Wars-loving readers are asking for.

Sometimes when the book idea of your dreams comes knocking at what seems like the wrong time, the timing is more right than you ever could have known.

Beyond the Red 9781634506441

Beyond the Red
Author: Ava Jae
Published March 1st, 2016 by Sky Pony Press

Goodreads Summary: Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule.

Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human alike for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity—a secret kept even from him.

When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public execution. But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide.

Jae, Ava -- Beyond the Red

About the Author: Ava Jae is an author, blogger, YouTuber, college student, and assistant editor at Entangled Publishing. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a BA in English in April 2016, Ava will probably find a bookstore to live in, where she can write her next novel surrounded by the smell of new books and coffee. She can be found on Twitter at @Ava_Jae or at her website avajae.blogspot.com. She resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Thank you to Ava for her fun guest post!

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**Thank you to Cheryl at Skyhorse Publishing for setting up this post!**

 

Blog Tour, Author Guest Post, Giveaway, and Review!: Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee

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maybe a fox

Maybe a Fox
Author: Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee
Published: March 8, 2016 by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Goodreads Summary: A tale about two sisters, a fox cub, and what happens when one of the sisters disappears forever.

Sylvie and Jules, Jules and Sylvie. Better than just sisters, better than best friends, they’d be identical twins if only they’d been born in the same year. And if only Sylvie wasn’t such a fast—faster than fast—runner. But Sylvie is too fast, and when she runs to the river they’re not supposed to go anywhere near to throw a wish rock just before the school bus comes on a snowy morning, she runs so fast that no one sees what happens…and no one ever sees her again. Jules is devastated, but she refuses to believe what all the others believe, that—like their mother—her sister is gone forever.

At the very same time, in the shadow world, a shadow fox is born—half of the spirit world, half of the animal world. She too is fast—faster than fast—and she senses danger. She’s too young to know exactly what she senses, but she knows something is very wrong. And when Jules believes one last wish rock for Sylvie needs to be thrown into the river, the human and shadow worlds collide.

Writing in alternate voices—one Jules’s, the other the fox’s—Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee tell the tale of one small family’s moment of heartbreak.

Ricki’s Review: I read this entire book in one sitting because, quite simply, I could not put it down. I sobbed through the entire book because I connected so strongly with these characters. As a mom, I couldn’t imagine my son experiencing the pain that these sisters felt from the loss of their mother. As a sister, I can’t imagine my own sister disappearing. These two connections, along with the stunning portrayal of character and story, made this book feel deeply personal for me. While younger students won’t be moms, and thus, won’t have this personal connection I had with the text, they will be sons and daughters. Regardless of a reader’s point of view, they will connect with this book because it is written so beautifully. I won’t forget this book, and I don’t think other readers will forget it, either.

Kellee’s Review: This book is one I’ll be talking about for a while. I will say it is probably the saddest book that I’ve ever read; however, it is beautiful. It is very hard to explain unless you’ve experienced because it gives hope while also being so terribly sad. The characters, animal and humans, are so thought out and detailed that as you read you feel with them and for them. I was also in awe of the way Kathi and Alison were able to tell such a unique story without the reader ever feeling like it was an odd scenario. Whenever I try to describe this book to someone, they give me quite a weird look, so I just stop trying and tell them they should read it because it is a heart print book. There is no other way to describe it. Like Ricki said, every reader will feel for someone in the book. And every reader won’t be able to deny how beautifully written the prose is. 

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: As you will read in Kathi and Alison’s guest post below, point-of-view makes this story quite powerful. Teachers might ask students to consider the varying perspectives of this story and how they work together to form a cohesive whole. The teacher might provide other examples of texts that feature different points-of-view to compare and contrast authors’ styles. Students might then try their hand at writing in various, connected points-of-view and subsequently analyze how this enhances a narrative.

Discussion Questions: How do the authors unfold the plot in the narrative?; What predictions did you make while reading this story? How might the story have turned out quite differently?; How does Senna’s point-of-view enhance the story for you?; Were there any allusions within the text?; What theme do you take away from Maybe a Fox?

We Flagged: “The baby girl fox, Senna, came into the world in darkness, thirty feet below ground in the end dug out of cool brown earth. She was the middle child, born between her older and younger brothers, the three of them separated by minutes.

The first thing she knew was the feel of her mother’s tongue. Shhh shhh shhh, cleaning her off, licking her into life and warmth and love and safety.

The second thing she knew was the feel and smell of her brothers’ bodies pressed against hers as their mother nursed them, their front paws kneading her belly.

The third thing she knew was that there was someone waiting for her, someone she needed to find.” (p. 75-76)

Read This if You Loved: The House of Purple Cedar by Tim TinglePax by Sara PennyPacker, Counting Crows by Kathi Appelt

Recommended For: 

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Giveaway!
A Guest Post from Kathi and Alison about Point-of-View

Finding the best possible point of view for a story is one of the most important choices that a writer can make. The point of view, more than any other aspect of literature, dictates the distance created between the character and the reader. When we embarked upon this story, Alison chose to write from the fox’s story and she decided early on that she wanted to write from an omniscient point of view. This allowed her to place Senna deeply within the pocket of her fox family, and to give our readers an intimate sense of their world. It gave her a way to present the fox-world via the senses of all five members of their family, and put the readers squarely inside of the natural landscape.

When we were first drafting, Kathi chose to write Jules from a first person point of view. However, it didn’t take long before she realized that the first person was too limiting. Yes, first person is quite intimate and there are good reasons to use it, but in this case it felt as though it created too many blind spots. Jules needed a bigger canvas and so Kathi switched to third person. That allowed her to broaden the scope of Jules’ experience, and to let Jules, as well as the omniscient narrator, experience the events as they unfolded.

We always knew that Sam’s point of view would be from the third person too, and he stepped into the story in a way that let the reader get a more objective perspective. We also hoped to show that even though Sylvie’s death primarily impacted Jules and her dad, her loss was felt strongly by the entire community. As well, Sam’s earnest desire for the return of the catamount helped to create a sense of possibility that the other characters couldn’t, simply because of their closeness to Sylvie.

The landscape also gave us a perspective. The woods and rocks, and of course the Slip itself with its local legends, provided not only a backdrop, but its own wild voice, a voice that spoke to each of our characters—fox, Jules, Sam, Elk, Sylvie, Zeke, Dad, and the catamount—in a way that only a wild place can speak.

All this to say that the multiple points of view hopefully helped to create stories within stories that, when woven together, made a single story that was enriched by the viewpoints of each character.

Kathi and Alison.

About the Authors:

Kathi Appelt photo 2015_credit Igor Kraguljak

Kathi Appelt is the New York Times best-selling author of more than forty books for children and young adults. Her picture books include Oh My Baby, Little One, illustrated by Jane Dyer, and the Bubba and Beau series, illustrated by Arthur Howard. Her novels for older readers include two National Book Award finalists: The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp and The Underneath, which was also a Newbery Honor Book. In addition to writing, Ms. Appelt is on the faculty in the Masters of Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in College Station, Texas. To learn  more, visit Kathi’s website at kathiappelt.com.
Alison McGhee photo 2015 credit Dani Werner
Alison McGhee is the New York Times bestselling author of Someday, as well as Firefly Hollow, Little Boy, So Many Days, Bye-Bye Crib, Always, A Very Brave Witch, and the Bink and Gollie books. Her other children’s books include All Rivers Flow to the Sea, Countdown to Kindergarten, and Snap. Alison is also the author of the Pulitzer Prize–nominated adult novel Shadowbaby, which was also a Today show book club selection. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and you can visit her at AlisonMcGhee.com.

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See Another Guest Post by Kathi Appelt Here!

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**Thank you to Barbara at Blue Slip Media for providing copies for review and the giveaway. Also, thank you to Kathi and Alison for the wonderfully insightful guest post!**

Author Guest Post!: “Visiting Schools” by Iain Reading, Author of The Dragon of the Month Club

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“Visiting Schools”

I know, I know… it’s been said a hundred times before…  One really great way to get kids in schools interested in reading is to invite some authors to come in and talk to them.  But at the risk of beating a dead horse by raising this topic again for the hundred-and-first time, let me just say that one of my absolute favourite things in the world is visiting schools and talking about my books and how I ended up writing them.

When I visit schools I have a checklist of things that I always bring with me:

– Many copies of my books to give away. Check.

– Dragon of the Month Club membership cards to give away. Check.

– Trading cards for each of my books to give away. Check.

– Wristbands for my books to give away. Check.

– Pendants from designs from my books to give away. Check.

(As you can see, I always bring lots of stuff for giveaways.  Kids love it.)

But even with all the free stuff the kids get I think the most memorable thing for them (although they never really show it – you know how kids are) is when the story in the books I’ve written actually take place right there in their own hometowns and neighbourhoods.  One of my own most memorable visits was to a small school in rural Ireland where the kids were amazed to hear that one of the books in my Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency had several scenes that took place just a few miles away.  And they couldn’t believe that the boring tiny little village where they lived was actually one of the most favourite places in all the world of some writer they never heard of from Canada.

On visits like these I always have a great time and so do the kids and teachers too.  There are writers everywhere in the world.  And writers tend to write what they know, so they’ve probably written something about every corner of the world where there’s a school.  And I bet they’d love to come out and talk to students about their books.

And if not….  well, give me a call…  maybe I’ll be in your corner of the world sometime and I can drop in and give away a bunch of stuff.

 

Dragon book cover

The Dragon Of The Month Club, by Iain Reading, was published in February 2015 and is available for sale.

Synopsis:

The Dragon Of The Month Club is the exciting first installment in a new book series that tells the story of Ayana Fall and Tyler Travers, two best friends who stumble across an extraordinarily magical book and soon find themselves enrolled as members of a very special and exclusive club – The Dragon of the Month Club.

On the thirteenth of every month a new dragon conjuring spell is revealed and the two friends attempt to summon the latest Dragon of the Month. The varieties are almost endless: Air Dragons, Paper Dragons, Fog Dragons, Waterfall Dragons, Rock Dragons, Tree Dragons – not to mention special bonus dragons for all the major holidays, including a particularly prickly Holly Dragon for Christmas.

But one day when a conjuring spell somehow goes wrong Ayana and Tyler find themselves unexpectedly drawn into a fantastical world of adventure based on the various books scattered all across Tyler’s messy bedroom. Travelling from one book-inspired world to the next with nothing to rely on but their wits and a cast of strange and exotic dragons at their disposal they must try to somehow find their way home again.

Drawing inspiration from some of literature’s most memorable stories – from 19th century German folktales to the streets of Sherlock Holmes’s London – the adventures of Ayana and Tyler bring these classic stories to life in delightfully strange and unexpected ways. Filled with fascinating detail and non-stop action these books will spark the imaginations of readers of all ages to inspire a life-long love of reading and seeking out books that are just a little bit off the beaten track.

Praise for The Dragon of the Month Club:

“No other book bonds together so many stories in such a fashion that is actually readable and enjoyable at the same time. With the title being The Dragon of the Month Club, many might think this is a book strictly about magic and dragons, yet you will find that what’s inside this book will leave you awe struck.” – Red City Reviews

“Iain Reading has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I started reading his Kitty Hawk books and now I’m introduced to a fantastical world. This is the type of book I would have spent hours in my room, wishing I could slip into the pages and have an adventure.” – Sandra Stiles

“The Dragon of the Month Club is a very enjoyable read. I’m a grown adult and I enjoyed it. It reminded me of a Harry Potter meets Goosebumps (the part where the books come alive) meets Sherlock Holmes. I found the book to be engaging and kept me wanting to read on. This is a wonderful series for any young reader.” – sgebhard

Contest:

There is an ongoing contest for readers to win a one-of-a-kind hardcover version of The Dragon of the Month Club with their artwork as the cover.

“Draw a picture! Write a story! Take a photograph! Bake some cookies! Mold a dragon out of clay! Knit one out of yarn! Make one out of LEGO! Whatever you want! Just let your imagination run wild because anything goes – the more creative the better! Send your dragon in and then on the 13th day of every month one entry will be chosen at random and featured on the official Dragon Of The Month Club website. Each month’s lucky winner will also receive a free one-of-a-kind personalized hard-cover edition of The Dragon Of The Month Club book featuring their winning artwork (or other creative content) on the cover or inside the book itself,” says Iain.

To learn more, go to http://www.dragonofthemonthclub.com/

About the Author:

 Iain Reading is passionate about Root Beer, music, and writing. He is Canadian, but currently resides in the Netherlands working for the United Nations.

Iain writes middle grade and young adult books. His published works include the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series, The Wizards of Waterfire Series, and the dragon of the month club. To learn more, go to http://www.amazon.com/Iain-Reading/e/B00B0NGI6Q/

Connect with Iain on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

 

**Thank you, Iain, for this fantastic post!**

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A Tyranny of Petticoats Blog Tour with Author Q&As by Caroline Richmond, Lindsay Smith, and Robin Talley

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tyranny of petticoats

A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers, and Other Badass Girls
Authors: Various
Published March 8th, 2016 by Candlewick Press

Summary: From an impressive sisterhood of YA writers comes an edge-of-your-seat anthology of historical fiction and fantasy featuring a diverse array of daring heroines.

Criss-cross America — on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains — from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today’s most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They’re making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have a story to tell.

With stories by:
J. Anderson Coats
Andrea Cremer
Y. S. Lee
Katherine Longshore
Marie Lu
Kekla Magoon
Marissa Meyer
Saundra Mitchell
Beth Revis
Caroline Richmond
Lindsay Smith
Jessica Spotswood
Robin Talley
Leslye Walton
Elizabeth Wein

A Tyranny of Petticoats Blog Tour!

The authors of this anthology are as diverse as their characters, so to give readers a better sense of their diverse processes and experiences writing for this anthology, the following three questions were asked of each contributor:

1. What inspired you to write about this particular time and place?

2. What was the most interesting piece of research you uncovered while writing your story?

3. Who is your favorite woman in history and why?

Today we are happy to host Caroline Richmond, Lindsay Smith, and Robin Talley as they answer those questions for us:

Caroline Tung Richmond
Story title: “The Red Raven Ball”
Story setting: 1862, Washington, D.C.

About the Author: CAROLINE TUNG RICHMOND  is the author of The Only Thing to Fear and the forthcoming The Darkest Hour, a YA novel set in Occupied France during World War II. A self-proclaimed history nerd, Caroline lives with her husband and daughter in the Washington, D.C., area — not far from several Civil War battlefields.

Caroline Richmond

  • What inspired you to write about this particular time and place?
    • As a kid growing up in the Washington, D.C., area, I’ve always been fascinated by the Civil War. It always struck me how D.C. — the capital of the Union — butted right up against the Confederate border. The city was well-fortified, but it still must’ve been scary to live in the capital during the war, with Confederate troops looming nearby. So when Jessica Spotswood kindly invited me to contribute to A Tyranny of Petticoats, I immediately wanted to set my short story in Washington during the Civil War, and that’s how “The Red Raven Ball” came to be.
  • What was the most interesting piece of research you uncovered while writing your story?
    • Finding an old photo of my husband’s ancestors! My husband is related to a famous nineteenth-century politician named Robert Ingersoll — dubbed “the most famous American you never heard of” by the Washington Post — and I wove a few details of his life into “The Red Raven Ball.” While researching Ingersoll, I came across a photo of him with his family. It was such a treat to study their faces and know that their blood runs in my daughter’s veins!
  • Who is your favorite woman in history and why?
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, hands down! Stanton dedicated her life to fighting for women’s suffrage in the United States, and she was basically a nineteenth-century badass lady. One example of her awesomeness? Prior to her wedding, she instructed the minister to omit the phrase “promise to obey” from her vows. She also raised seven kids while working tirelessly as a suffragette, abolitionist, and social activist. She’s truly an inspiration to me.

Lindsay Smith
Story title: “The City of Angels”
Story Setting: 1945, Los Angeles, CA

About the Author: LINDSAY SMITH  is the author of the Sekret series of paranormal spy thrillers set in Soviet Russia, and Dreamstrider, a high fantasy adventure. She grew up watching far too many movies from the 1940s — from Abbott and Costello comedies to musicals to anything dazzling with old Hollywood glamour. Not one for California weather, however, she lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and dog, and writes on foreign affairs.

  • What inspired you to write about this particular time and place?
    • I’m deeply drawn to twentieth-century history — that sense of immediacy while still being at a slight historical remove is fascinating to me. When Jessica Spotswood mentioned she hadn’t gotten any story proposals set during World War II, I knew I wanted to pick that time period. The idea of a home-front drama really appealed to me because of the significant roles women got to play in the war effort that they had rarely been offered before the 1940s. Evelyn’s and Frankie’s characters just grew organically from that setting.
  • What was the most interesting piece of research you uncovered while writing your story?
    • I fell down a rabbit hole researching all the tiny details of munitions and airplane factory life for women during World War II. They could earn the right to fly particular banners over their factories, for instance, if they sold enough war bonds. All of the home-front stories I read as research were inspiring, though — that curious mix of patriotism, determination, and sisterhood these women felt as they tended victory gardens, rationed meat, and collected scrap metal for the war effort.
  • Who is your favorite woman in history and why?
    • I love disruptive women in history! Catherine the Great, Alice Roosevelt, Empress Dowager Cixi — all women who cared nothing for others’ opinions of them and didn’t let others stand in their way when they set out to accomplish their goals.

Robin Talley
Story title: “The Whole World is Watching”
Story setting: 1968, Grant Park, IL

About the Author: ROBIN TALLEY is the author of Lies We Tell Ourselves, a finalist for the 2015 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Children’s/Young Adult, as well as the contemporary novel What We Left Behind and the upcoming thriller As I Descended. Robin lives in Washington, D.C., where she enjoys being surrounded by history, though she’s glad to be living in the twenty-first century.

Robin_Talley

  • What inspired you to write about this particular time and place?
    • Nineteen sixty-eight was a time of massive protests across the United States — much like the present day. I was interested in exploring the history of antiwar protests in the 1960s and how they intersected with the ongoing civil rights movement, the burgeoning feminist movement, and the very early days of the movement in support of equal rights for LGBTQIA+ people. As an added bonus, the sixties had some truly amazing clothes, hairstyles, and slang that were fun to think about.
  • What was the most interesting piece of research you uncovered while writing your story?
    • The antiwar protests at the Chicago 1968 Democratic National Convention were crushed by what were then considered extreme police tactics, and there was a national outcry after video of the police brutality was shown on live TV. Hundreds of demonstrators were injured by police and National Guard officers who dramatically outnumbered the protestors and who didn’t hesitate to use violence against them. In my research I learned that the police tactics used were unheard of at the time, such as the use of military-style weapons like tear gas and the wearing of protective gear like riot helmets over their regular clothing. But today many police units combating protests in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, have taken much more extreme approaches, including the use of advanced military gear and weaponry. It was interesting to learn how things have progressed in terms of police tactics, and the public’s reaction to them, over the past few decades. What was once considered extreme would be considered commonplace, maybe even tame, by today’s standards.
  • Who is your favorite woman in history and why?
    • There are way too many to pick just one favorite! So I’ll name the woman who I think is the obvious choice to go on U.S. currency (preferably the twenty-dollar bill so we can get rid of Andrew Jackson) — Harriet Tubman. Through sheer determination and a lot of skill she took the biggest risk imaginable — and she succeeded, changing the lives of so many and changing the world at the same time.

Don’t miss the other stops on the blog tour!

Wednesday, March 2  A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust
·         J. Anderson Coats
·         Andrea Cremer
·         Y. S. Lee

Thursday, March 3 Charting by the Stars
·         Marissa Meyer
·         Saundra Mitchell
·         Beth Revis

Friday, March 4 Unleashing Readers
·         Caroline Richmond
·         Lindsay Smith
·         Robin Talley

Monday, March 7 Teach Mentor Text
·         Katherine Longshore
·         Marie Lu
·         Kekla Magoon

Tuesday, March 8th  YA Love
·         Leslye Walton
·         Elizabeth Wein
·         Jessica Spotswood

Tyranny of Petticoats is on sale March 8th!

Kellee Signature andRickiSig

**Thank you to Kathleen at Candlewick for having us as a part of the blog tour!**

Author Guest Post!: “Stories are Everywhere” by Wendy Terrien

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“Stories are Everywhere”

Stories are everywhere. And there’s no one right way to discover them.

This probably isn’t a profound statement to adults. But maybe, just maybe, it might spark something in a kid.

THE RAMPART GUARDS was borne out of an hour of easy-going, not-too-intellectual television viewing. Television! That which we should all spend less time doing. If we want to better ourselves, we should be reading, or writing poetry, or exercising, or calling our parents or siblings, or hanging out with friends. Those are the things that make us better, more well-rounded people. Right? Television certainly isn’t going to do the trick.

But I watched television. And then I wrote a novel.

I was already immersed in the idea of writing a novel, and I’d been busy attending conferences and workshops, and exploring the world of publishing. I had some ideas for stories I could write, but nothing excited me. And then I watched an episode of Bones, and that night’s murderer appeared to be a chupacabra. What is a chupacabra? That’s exactly what I asked myself. A moment later I heard the word cryptozoologist and again found myself wondering what the characters on the show could possibly be talking about. Off to the Google I went.

For those of you who don’t know, a chupacabra is a creature, rumored to exist, that enjoys attacking and drinking the blood of goats. Lovely, no? Because its existence is not proven, the chupacabra falls into the category of cryptid. And the study of such creatures, which also includes things like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Mongolian Death Worm, is the job of the cryptozoologist.

One Google led to another. I soon discovered that there were many unknown creatures that may or may not exist, and I was fascinated. This was the spark for me, that thing that triggered the “what if” questions, and research, and story development. And now THE RAMPART GUARDS exists.

What if I hadn’t been watching Bones that night? Would I have ever written THE RAMPART GUARDS? It’s tough to say. But if I hadn’t connected with this story, I believe something else would have found it’s way to me through some channel. My point being, it’s important for us to hold open every possible door for our kids to create, to think, to question. Yes, television can be mindless, and there are times when that, too, serves a purpose, in my humble opinion. But if we’re engaged, if we’re thinking, there is learning in everything.

By using activities and other things kids love to do every day, we can help kids stretch their minds in new ways. Ask them: what if a character from their favorite television show met someone from their favorite game? What would happen? Would they like each other? What kinds of things would they do together?

Maybe there’s a funny or unusual commercial running that everyone’s talking about. Ask what happened before those thirty seconds, or what happens afterward, or even how they might make the commercial better. (And if anyone can explain why Paul Giamatti is in that family’s home talking about Xfinity while they direct his performance, please enlighten me. I really don’t get it. At all. But I digress.)

What if iPhone’s Siri met Android’s Cortana?

What if we really lived in Candyland? What would each student’s house look like? Or where would they want to live on the Monopoly board and why?

What would happen to Bert and Ernie if Bert got a new job out of state?

What can be mixed up in their world right now, and envisioned in a different way? Can the students take a character out of a book the class is reading, and invent a new story for them? One that happens away from the story they’re reading? Or maybe it’s a person from history, or an event, or even one of those made up holidays like National Peanut Butter Day (which was January 24th, by the way)—why was it important to someone to establish National Peanut Butter Day? What is their story?

Is some of this silly? Sure. But I bet it made you think just a little bit differently, even for the brief moment when you read and wondered about National Peanut Butter Day, didn’t it? It opened you up, pushed you ever so slightly out of the box, and engaged you with a creative part of the brain that might otherwise sit dormant. Offer this to kids, too. Encourage them to be silly, and think differently about stories, and create their own new versions in the best, fun way.

As we know, learning is everywhere. And there’s no one way to discover, and love, learning.

RampartGuards_CVR_MED

The Rampart Guards: Chronicle One in the Adventures of Jason Lex
Author: Wendy Terrien
Published February 26th, 2016 by Camashea Press

Goodreads Summary: After his mom disappears, Jason Lex and his family move to a small town where he has no friends, no fun, no life. Things get worse when he’s chased by weird flying creatures that only he can see—Jason thinks he’s losing it.

But when Jason discovers new information about his family, he’s stunned to learn that creatures like Skyfish, Kappa, and the Mongolian Death Worm aren’t just stories on the Internet—they’re real and they live unseen alongside the human race. Many of these creatures naturally emit energy capable of incinerating humans. An invisible shield keeps these creatures hidden and protects the human race from their threatening force, but someone, or some thing, is trying to destroy it.

Unsure who he can trust, Jason is drawn into the fight to save the people closest to him, and he finds help in surprising places. Confronted with loss, uncertainty, and a devastating betrayal, Jason must make a gut-wrenching decision:
Who lives, and who dies?

About the Author: Wendy Terrien has been writing stories since she was in grade school. Her debut novel The Rampart Guards (February 26, 2016) is the first in her urban fantasy series.

Raised in Salt Lake City, Wendy graduated from the University of Utah and soon transplanted to Colorado where she completed her MBA at the University of Denver. Having applied her marketing expertise to the financial and network security industries, it wasn’t until a career coach stepped in that she fully immersed herself in her passion for writing. Wendy began attending writers conferences, workshops and retreats.

Wendy lives in Colorado with her husband Kevin and their three dogs: Maggie, Shea and Boon. All three of her dogs are rescues and Wendy is passionate about promoting shelter adoptions. If you’re ever in Colorado, you may even be able to spot her by her “Adopt a Shelter Pet” license plates.

Make sure to check out the rest of the blog tour!

Kellee Signature andRickiSig

**Thank you to Wendy and Sami for providing the guest post and having us be part of the blog tour!**