Authors and Publishers, I am happy to receive ARCs and published children's, middle grade, and YA books for review. When I finish it, I will review it. If you need the review posted in a certain time period, please let me know and I will move it to the top of the stack. Please note: my reviews are honest, but they are my opinion. If you don't want that, please don't ask. Email Me for reviews.
About the Book: Fifo s been bitten by the travel bug! Digging up diamonds in Arkansas, looking for fossils in Kansas, enjoying a delicious bowl of gumbo in Louisiana, and even seeing a Broadway show in New York. America is an exiting place! In Fifo s second book, told in rhyme, Fifo dreams about visiting all 50 states. A colorful reference-like book, Fifo discovers the wonders each state has to offer. He learns along the way each state s capital, shape, flag, motto, and much, much more. The possibilities are endless! So, come along with Fifo and you ll soon discover the beauty of America one state to another.
My Thoughts: What a great way to share facts about the 50 states! Fifo the Bear takes children on an alphabetical field trip through each state in the United States. Each state is described, through poetry, with references to state flowers, mottos, capitals, etc. In the border of the page is the name of the state as well as the motto. The illustrations give even more information about each state. They show the shape of the state, the state flag, and other pictures that are indicative of that particular state.
I can definitely see this book being used in the classroom. Young children want to learn about the states, but there aren't many books out there that are kid-friendly. Hayley Rose has solved that problem along with her illustrator, Jessie Orlet. Kids will love this book because of the rhyme and vivid pictures. There is also a pattern to each page that young children can pick up on: "It's a wonderful place to visit, I'd like to go there, wouldn't you?" Even if they were unable to read all of the other words, they would catch on to the last lines quickly and be able to read along.
There are so many facts loaded in the pages of the books, that it is a goldmine for the child traveler! He or she, along with Fifo, will learn many things about the state they live in along with all the other states in the US. Kudos to Hayley Rose and her book; it's a winner!
Today, thanks to a post on Blogger Link Up, I have writer, Anne McCrady on the blog. Here is a little about Anne to get you started.
Anne McCrady is a writer and inspirational speaker who lives in East Texas. Her award-winning poetry collections are Along Greathouse Road and Under a Blameless Moon. Anne's poetry and creative nonfiction have been published in literary journals, magazines, anthologies and online. She is a frequent speaker at conferences, civic groups, festivals, churches and schools, as well as the founder and principal of InSpiritry, an endeavor to Put Words to Work for the Greater Good. She welcomes readers to her blog and website at www.InSpiritry.com.
Red Tag Comes Back
When I think about my childhood, it seems I was always a reader, always a writer and always a scientist. In my bedroom, paper, pencils and books shared space with stuffed animals and other toys. Often home sick with asthma, I let my mind live in a wider world and it took my heart with it!
While I had many favorite books, one that remains on my shelf between newer authors, is a simple story that captured my imagination in ways I only realized recently. The book was Red Tag Comes Back. It was written by Fred Phleger with line drawings by Arnold Lobel, and was a Science – I Can Read book published by Harper & Row in 1960.
The story is a factually based account of a salmon from its young life in a Northwest American river to its trip out to sea and its eventual return years later to lay its eggs and die. The salmon’s endeavors are witnessed by two Native American children, Aku and his sister, who understand and honor the cycle of its life.
From the first page, I wanted to join those two children, whose days included exploration in the woods beside a quiet river. I wondered about the difference in their lives and mine. I wanted to be the scientist who tagged the baby salmon. I wanted to follow it on its adventure down the river and beyond. I feared for its life among the bigger fish, ached for it in the struggle to return home, dreaded its death and rejoiced in the triumph of knowing it had spawned a new generation.
When my childhood books were packed away, Red Tag wasn’t forgotten. I survived my asthma, grew up enjoying walks in the woods alone, went on to college where I studied Chemistry and Biology and became a storyteller and writer. I developed a deep reverence for Nature and kept my curiosity about the diversity of people and places and things. I now live on five tree shaded acres that I share with fish and woodpeckers and raccoons and squirrels. As a mother, I read Red Tag with my children and have my original copy to show my grandchildren.
Recently while reading online, I discovered that Fred Phleger was a scientist of great renown as well as a writer. Knowing that, I realize he gave me more than just a favorite book. He helped lead me to pursue a life centered on the great mystery of “how things are.” Each day as I write a poem about the play of shadow or tell a story about children who are inquisitive or publish an essay about the Greater Good, I am paying homage to Fred Phleger for his inspiration.
Best of all, just last month, I finally traveled from my home in Texas to Seattle to view the arduous journey of the salmon, to see for myself how Red Tag Comes Back!
About Along Greathouse Road - This reading offers new work as well as selections from Anne’s first poetry collection, Along Greathouse Road, which won the 2003 Edwin M. Eakin Book Publication Award offered by the Poetry Society of Texas. With unforgettable characters, picturesque settings and Anne’s distinctive reading voice, this program takes audiences "back home" for a while.
I am so excited to have WOW! author, Linda Neas with me today at the blog!
Linda M. Rhinehart Neas self-published her first written work at the tender age of seven on the cardboard she gathered from her Dad’s shirts when they came back from the laundry. Since then, she has written extensively in various venues, publishing and performing her work throughout New England, including her own column in two newspapers in Southern Maine and as an online writer and contributing editor at BrightHub.com.
In February 2008, she self-published her first complete book of poems, Winter of the Soul. She recently published, Gogo’s Dream: Discovering Swaziland, a collection of poems dedicated to those who work to aid the peoples of Swaziland. Currently, she is working on several children’s books.
Ms. Neas lives in an enchanted cottage in western Massachusetts with her Beloved.
From A Children’s Garden of Verses to Gogo’s Dream
By Linda M. Rhinehart Neas
When I was about five years old, I received a copy of A Children’s Garden of Verse with illustrations by Eloise Wilkin. I fell in love. Not only did I immediately connect with the poems, but the pictures took me to an idyllic world where children could run free through green fields, stopping to make daisy chain halos as mothers watched at a distance.
My life was anything but idyllic. I grew up in the brick and macadam of the city. While I was blessed with the ocean, only three blocks from the apartment we lived in, the streets were my playground.
This book was the first of my poetry collection. My mother had recited poems to me like other mothers read bedtime stories. I was well versed in the poems of Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg, as well as, Emily Dickinson and Kaye Starbird by the time I entered first grade.
I wrote my first real poem the year after my youngest brother was born. I pictured him immortalized by Wilkin in a new updated version of A Children’s Garden of Verse. Under his portrait would be my poem, “My baby brother’s name is Matty/And he is such a little fatty./When it is time to go to bed,/He laughs and laughs and shakes his head.”
The local librarian liked it and entered the poem into the Hornbook Club children’s contest. It didn’t win, but between my mother’s cheering on my efforts to live up to my heritage (My grandmother’s name was Riordan, which in Gaelic means, “The King’s Bard or Poet,”)and the librarian telling me that I was a “real” poet, I began my journey as a poet and writer.
It is important to remember, if one wants to be a writer of any genre, that one must read, constantly. Reading and writing go hand-in-hand. Reading poetry since the age of five and writing it since the age of eleven has brought me to where I am today.
Writing Gogo’s Dream: Swaziland Discovered was a work of love for a country and a people I have yet to meet. My relationship with them is purely virtual; however, I feel kinship with them in a way that transcends reality. When I see a Gogo smile, surrounded by her grandchildren, I feel her joy, I understand her fears for her children and grandchildren. I have lived with the nightmare of poverty and disease in my own life. It is through these connections that I found the fuel to write Gogo’s Dream.
Fifty something years ago, I never would have thought, as I held my children’s book in my hand, that the dream I had of being a published poet would come true. But, dreams do come true. The book is real. It is my dream now that the book with make the Gogo’s Dreams possible.
Thank you, Linda! Here is a sample from Gogo's Dream:
About A Child's Garden of Verses - First published in 1885 and continuously in print since then, Stevenson's poetry captures the joy and whimsy of childhood and is deservedly a classic. This book is a garden of delightful, imaginative poetry, complete with fairies, animals, and plenty of fun. Make-believe that a bed is a ship and exchange pirate stories; swing from a favorite tree and feel like you can touch the highest leaves; or visit a caravan of kings. An excellent read-aloud to share with a child.
About Gogo's Dream: Swaziland Discovered - Gogo's Dream: Swaziland Discovered is the culmination of a month long challenge to write a poem a day. When the author took the challenge, she was determined to write about the people and land that had touched her so deeply. All proceeds from the profits of this book go to Possible Dreams International to help the peoples of Swaziland.
Welcome to this week's edition of In My Mailbox/Mailbox Monday! You can find these hosted by some wonderful ladies: Kristi at The Story Siren and Marcia at The Printed Page, respectively. They host these memes so that book bloggers can share the books that come into their houses. I appreciate them both and hope that you will visit their blogs.
Here's what came into my house, via the mailbox...
The Dark Divine (ARC) by Bree Despain, from Egmont - Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.
The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.
The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul.
Scones and Sensibility (ARC) by Lindsey Eland, from Egmont - Polly Madassa is convinced she was born for a more romantic time. A time when Elizabeth Bennet and Anne of Green Gables walked along the moors and beaches of the beautiful land, a time where a distinguished gentleman called upon a lady of quality and true love was born in the locked eyes of two young lovers.
But alas, she was not.
This, however, does not stop our young heroine from finding romance wherever she can conjure it up. So while Polly is burdened with a summer job of delivering baked goods from her parents bakery (how quaint!) to the people in her small beach town, she finds a way to force…um…encourage romance to blossom. She is determined to bring lovers, young and old, together…whether they want to be or not.
Still Missing (ARC) by Chevy Stevens, from St. Martin's Press via Shelf Awareness - On the day she was abducted, Annie O'Sullivan, a thirty-two year old realtor, had three goals--sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever- patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all. Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape--her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.
The truth doesn't always set you free.
Numbers by Rachel Ward, from Scholastic (a win) - Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today's number. Today's date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem's world is about to explode!
We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow, from Random House to review for Poetry Month - We planted a tree and it grew up,
While it reached for the sky and the sun. . . .
In this simple poem illustrated by award winner Bob Staake, two young families in two very different parts of the world plant a tree. As the trees flourish, so do the families . . . while trees all over the world help clean the air, enrich the soil, and give fruit and shade.
Our Farm by Maya Gottfired, from Random House to review for Poetry Month - Maya the cow, J.D. the piglet, Hilda the sheep, and a dozen more animals all speak directly to the reader, showing off their unique personalities in this wonderful collection of poems. Master watercolorist Robert Rahway Zakanitch provides a portrait that perfectly captures the essence of each creature. Together the poems and paintings add up to a picture of life on the friendliest farm around.
Maya Gottfried based her poems on real animals from Farm Sanctuary, a safe haven for injured or abused farm animals with locations in New York and California.
Once Upon a Twice by Denise Doyen, from Random House to review for Poetry Month -A cautionary tale for mice reminiscent of Carroll's Jabberwocky
Out in the open, in the clear,
Where any wisenmouse would fear,
Jam licks his paw, he grooms an ear,
And never hears approaching hisssss . . .
What will happen to the brave mouse Jam when he breaks the rules and goes for a moonlit adventure against the advice of the elder mice?
