Happy Halloween everyone and Saga of a Princess

Happy Halloween everyone!

Let's keep reading to our kiddos and make sure that they also get books along with candy this Halloween!

This month, we ran another art cover contest and we got a clear winner!

Saga of a Princess by Judith Martin -find out more about this book on her website at http://www.sagaofaprincess.com/

Maybe this will inspire your kids to read!

Until next month my friends, keep reading!

Happy Autumn and our Cover Winner for October!

Hello everyone!

Happy Autumn (well, here in New England it is anyway) along with the crisp weather (and rainy here) I am a little under the weather, and nothing picks up sick kiddos than a great picture book!

We ran another art cover contest this month and we have a winner!

"Princess Jellibean" by Cindi Handley Goodeaux

Princess Jellibean Fan page

Go read to your kiddos!  Hope they are enjoying school - my son just started Middle School!  Yikes!  Right now we're reading "The Wizard Of Oz" and it is SOOOOO much different than the movie!  

Enjoy the fall everyone, I'll be back in November with another winner :)

 

Summer is all gone and School approaches - and another winner for Promoting Picture Books

Sigh, summer is all done.  Kids are heading back to school (if they haven't done so already!).

I had a pretty busy summer myself and there was an issue with my book so, now it is no longer on the shelves (I'm still processing what steps I need to take next, but don't worry, I have other plans for another book and I might re-publish it again even if I have to self publish it).

I've learned so many things about promoting picture books and I'm proud to say that I can help in some small way to promote other folks that work hard to get their works out there.

So, the winner of the September Cover Art contest was this:

Princess Willow and the Magic Fairy Brush

Pretty huh?  I hope you all go check it out and help the kids get ready to go back to school this week!  

Happy Memorial Day - A Search and Find of Every Kind - Rosie Russel

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  I ran another cover art contest, and this was the clear winner -
A Search and Find of Every Kind by Rosie Russell

Her website is here: booksbyrose

I want to wish you all a happy Spring - and to just let you all know now that I will be super busy come July and August (in my other life, we run small Renaissance Faires here in MA).

I hope you search and find a new book for your kids to read today!
 

Birds and sweet books

Ah, the sweet sounds of spring have arrived here in New England with all the birds chirping sweetly around, which brings us to this months winner of the Art Cover Contest:

"I Dreamed I Was a Bird":By Christopher P. Stanley and art by Alex LaVasseur

I wish I was a bird too so I can fly away...into the sunset - this looks like a lovely book- here is the  Amazon link 

I want to thank all of you for your continued support!  :) 

Happy Spring! Ooh Butterflies!

Welcome to Spring!  Ah, we had a pretty good winter here in New England considering.  Last year was much worse, and hopefully I didn't just jinx us by writing it here in the blog.

I do want to thank you all for reading this blog and supporting wonderful picture books that you may or may not have heard of.

I'm all for helping and promoting others that are not in the main stream of media or not a major published book.

Please do know that I have not read any of these books but did want to inform readers about them :)

This month's winner of the art cover contest was a book by Karl Beckstrand : "Butterfly Blink: A Book Without Words"

I hope you check it out!

The Ponds of Wonder

Our winner this month is "The Ponds of Wonder", but of course, there is a story behind the story, and personally, that is my favorite - from the author:

Hi everyone, I'd like to introduce a story I wrote for young readers ages 8-13 called The Ponds of Wonder. A story which had taken root when I was in grade 7 and held a special place in my mind for a good number of years until I finally sat down and fleshed it out back in 2011. I felt it was the right time to do so and had placed a special dedication to my son, Eric, who was born with Mowat Wilson Syndrome and had fought through a number of medical issues in the first five years of his life. He lives with a severe visual impairment and shows me with each passing day the true meaning of being a father.

My wife and I are readjusting our place of residence to suit his needs and one such project will involve a new therapy room for him. Since I also believe in promoting healthy reading habits with the children of today, I would like to offer this story for your consideration. Any proceeds collected from the sale of the digital copy will be going towards helping to fund Eric's therapy room.

Here is the link to Eric's story and where we are today with our fund raiser. It would give me great pleasure to give the gift of reading to other children and, in turn, be able to help my son.

http://classroomideas.wix.com/parentappeal

Thank you in advance.

Brian Abela

Happy New Year (okay a little belated) and our winner for this month!

Hello everyone and Happy (belated) New Year!

I sure hope you are reading and buying picture books for your kids or for kids that might not get a chance to read picture books!

Here is our winner for this month!

These two picture books are really great as they are bi-lingual and give kids a chance to learn Spanish or English (depending on who is reading the books).  I think it also gives young kids a chance to learn another language even if it's not their main language.

A lady I work with informed me her young daughter (age 4) was watching a movie in Italian even though her main language is English and her daughter was just entranced by the movie.  

I personally love watching foreign movies with sub-titles but then my friends who do speak that language always inform me that sometimes the translations are a little incorrect or that the language is so different that the Americanized language of terms can't be translated into another language.  I know for example in my book "Journey to Jazzland" there is a lot of terminology that can't be translated.

Congrats goes to Maritza Martinez Mejia this month!  Well done!