Review: 20 Easy Ways to Save the Earth

It is becoming more and more popular to become “green.” Not only are more and more families making wiser decisions, it is also becoming a popular topic of conversation in classrooms. My daughter did a major unit last year in 3rd grade on “the 3 R’s” – Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. Over the summer, she was a part of the summer reading program which included a Recycling Art Project contest to be turned in at the end of the session.  20 Easy Ways to Save the Earth is a children’s book that focus on simple things that children can do in their goals of implementing the 3 R’s in to their lives.

The book is authored by Pedro Rita, who is a husband and father in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Part of his parenting duties, included coaching youth soccer. One afternoon, while walking along the soccer field, he noticed the amount of trash laying around, and knew that most of this was left around by the children on his team.  He wondered how he could get them to realize just how wrong this was, and thus the birth of 20 Easy Ways to Save the Earth.

20 Easy Ways to Save the Earth focuses on how kids’ actions can affect thir homes and communities or offers them easy-to-use, Earth saving tips to protect the environment.

What I Liked About the Book

1. The graphics/colors.  It is so colorful and eye appealing that you want to read it.
2. The language – The book is in both English and Spanish.  Not only is this great because both English and Spanish speaking children can read it, but for older children (like my 9 year old) it is a great tool for them to go back and forth and learn a little more of the other language.
3. The tips. While some are more challenging (like planting trees), many are very simple and easy actions that we could all incorporate into our lives such as picking up others and throwing away your trash, not giving animals human food, turning off the water when you are not using it, turning off electrical stuff when you aren’t using it, and using rechargeable batteries.

Review: The Friday Night Knitting Club

Surprise, tears, and the desire to share. After being an avid reader forever, I find that I usually see an ending coming. I’ve usually recognize the foreshadowing and even though I enjoy a book, it’s rare that a book actually totally surprises me at the end. It’s even rarer for it to surprise me with tears. The Friday Night Knitting Club did just that though. I had read good reviews for the book so I purchased it one day on a whim, and I’m so glad I did.

I’ll be honest and tell you that I started this book three times before I actually read it though. There was something about the beginning that seemed slow, and I had a hard time getting involved; however, after the first few chapters I was anxious to get to know the characters more. By the time I made it halfway through the book, I did not want to put it down. I was so anxious to continue the story. And then when the end took such a surprising twist. I was SHOCKED! Kate Jacobs truly did an amazing job of coming up with a real shocker.

The Friday Night Knitting Club is the story or Georgia Walker and her yarn shop, Walker and Daughter. Georgia is a single mom to a teenager in New York City. She’s raised her daughter on her own (maybe one of the reasons that this book appealed me as I’m doing the same?) – only having the help of store employees and customers who have become friends. The group of friends forms The Friday Night Knitting Club as a time to bond (and for some to knit). One amazing quality of the club is that they don’t even all knit well. It’s more of a social bond – a connection.

Of course, then things go crazy – each of the women seems to have some major issues in their personal lives – from an unexpected pregnancy, Georgia’s daughter trying to find herself, an ex love coming back into the picture, children who think they should make decisions for elderly parents, and a divorce – it’s a roller coaster of emotions. However, The Friday Night Knitting Club presents a place for each of the women to find an escape and ultimately because of the friendships formed a peace with their problems.

I enjoy most books I read.  I just have an appreciation for reading.  However rarely do I read a book that I start telling everyone I know that they need to read it too, but this is one of those books.  I’ve already passed it on to my grandmother who read it and enjoyed it because she said “it was so realistic.”  I’m passing it on to a coworker next and then another friend of mine that loves to read.

The book has a sequel, Knit Two, that I have already purchased and will be reading and reviewing soon.

Review: Halfway to Each Other

I tend to not like many nonfiction books. I like a story. I like fiction. In Halfway to Each Other, I didn’t get fiction, but I did get an amazing story. In fact, Susan Pohlman wrote it in a style that actually could have also been a first person fiction book. This made it a very enjoyable book for me.

Halfway to Each Other is the story of Susan and her husband (Tim)’s attempt to salvage their marriage. Some of us try sitting down and talking when we are at odds with our significant others. Some try marriage counseling. Susan and Tim had a completely different approach. They left everything they knew (their entire lives) behind and moved themselves and their children to Italy for a year – a place where they didn’t know the customs or the language – where they only had each other to turn to – where they were forced to communicate. Where they moved in Italy, technology was not anywhere like what they had here in America – not only did Tim and Susan begin turning to each other, but their two children stopped the constant arguing and also started playing and entertaining each other.

That kind of moved proved to be stressful – there were moments when I wasn’t sure if the move was going to save the family or tear them apart even more. However, they did make it. This “disconnection to reconnect” worked for them in amazing ways.

Divorce has become so common – the idea of working on a marriage foreign to so many that it was enlightening to read about a man and woman who would go to such extremes to save their marriage, and knowing this book was true made it that much more impressive.

About Susan Pohlman
Susan is an educator and freelance writer. She and her family now live in Scottsdale, Arizona. Halfway to Each Other is her first book.

Giveaway: Fairy Godmother Academy Party Pack

As I mentioned previously, there’s an exciting new book series and online world for little girls on the horizon – The Fairy Godmother Academy. My daughter loves to read. I would hate to calculate what we spend on books in the average year.

Our newest book arrived yesterday, and I’m happy to say it was free. Yesterday we received a Fairy Godmother’s Party Pack that included the first book in the series (Birdie’s Book), iron on transfers for the girls at the party to make their own Fairy Godmother’s shirts, a music CD, handouts for the girls to research their lineage (I’m thinking pre-party – maybe of sending these with the invitations), wisdom cards, stickers, and then a nice customizable book for recording everyone’s lineage.

As I stated, I just received this party pack yesterday. I’ve just started the book so I can’t tell you much about it yet, but will come back and post a more thorough review after I finish it. However, I have great news for you. The company has been generous enough to not only offer my daughter a party pack, but also a party pack for one lucky reader! This contest will be a live contest.

Here are pictures of our Party Pack:

Live Contest Rules

1. Comments will be opened  at 7:00 pm CST
2. The comment number of the winner will be announced prior to comments opening.
3. Topic will be announced at beginning of contest.  All posts must be relevant to conversation.
4. No duplicate comments.
5. You may comment as often as you like – as long as all comments are relevant.
6. No comments back to back.

See you Monday!!

Contest Time!

Topic: Conversation must begin about who you will throw this party for, ideas of how to use everything, and other activities you might include.

Conversation can evolve from this however comments should make sense with everyone’s current conversation or be on the original topic.  No off topic, no duplicate comments, spam, etc just get the comment numbers up. The same person CAN NOT post back to back.

One extra comment per person per day allowed for follwing me on Twitter and tweeting this live contest. Must post link to your tweet in contest. (this can be back to back with another of your comments)

One extra comment per person for blogging about this contest and posting the link. (this can be back to back with another of your comments)

Comment #123 will win.

I will go back through comments and delete off topic comments if necessary so final winner will not be announced until previous comments are reviewed.

Contest will continue until comment #123 or August 30th. If we do not have 123 comments by the end of the night, one comment will be randomly selected.

Support the TSC!!

Today I want to do a shout out and ask for everyone’s help in supporting the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex in Silver Springs, Maryland. I got this request from Carissa who has a little one with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. One charity will win up to $10,000 and how great it would be for us to support this charity. So I’m asking you to help me help Carissa and the TSC.

Head over and enter the I Love Christie Cookies contest and nominate the TSC.

Charity Name: Tuberous Sclerosis Complex

Charity City: Silver Springs

Charity State: Maryland

Charity Contact: Jenny Smiley

And spread the word and ask everyone you know to vote too!! And if you vote for the TSC, I’ll give you 10 entries into any contests for the entire month of August hosted here or at Southern Girl Reviews! Just be sure to put 10 comments on the contests after you vote!

Winner: Adventure at Brimstone Hill

It’s time to recognize a winner here at A Novel Mind.  It’s time to announce the winner of the book Adventure at Brimstone Hill.  And here’s the winner:

Yep….the 9th person to comment was the winner…Oh wait? You want to know who that was?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Congratulations to Colleen at The Princess and the Monkey!

Colleen, send me your address within 72 hours and I’ll get this book in the mail to you ASAP!

Review: The Diary by Eileen Goudge

I bought The Diary by accident to be honest. I’m not sure how it ended up on my booklist at Book of the Month Club, but I must have been looking at it and clicked “add” somewhere along the way because sure enough it came in the mail a few months ago. I knew I’d need a couple books for my trip to Chicago so I threw this one in my bag for the trip home. I had read the summary a couple times, but it didn’t really get my attention so it kept being placed further down in the stack. I’ll even admit that I only put it in my suitcase knowing when it was the only book in my suitcase, I’d have to read it.

So as soon as I took my seat on the plane, I pulled out The Diary and started reading – bound and determined to successfully finish it so it could be moved to the “finished” stack. Imagine how surprised I was when by the third chapter I was really into it and loving every page – daring the man next to me to speak and distract me from my book (luckily he was reading too) or the stewardess to ask if I wanted a drink or snack.

The Diary is the story of two sisters who recently lost their father and their mother is now on the verge of death herself. They are going through and cleaning out the family home when they discover their mother’s diary from when she was in her early twenties. It is then that they discover that their mother once had a life (imagine that!), but not just any life – a pretty dramatic life. She professes to have only truly one love and the man is not her father. They have no doubts that her mother and father loved each other, but in her 20’s her mother loved another man – and this is devastating news to the girls. How did their mother make the decision to “settle” for the father? They don’t know as the diary ends with all those decisions left unsaid.

Eileen Goudge does such a good job pulling you into this book, that you too are flipping each page hoping to find the answers to all the questions left unsaid in the diary that the sisters are searching for themselves. Will they find a follow up diary? Will Mom wake up from her stroke and finish the story for them? As I flipped each page, I was anxious for those answers, but never saw them coming from the source that Eileen provided. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the messenger and the message.

The Diary may be the ultimate love story – a reminder of what “genuine love” is, how hard it is to make decisions between your heart and your mind, and that our parents are real people with real emotions now matter how we’ve looked at them as we grow up as infallible.

Review & Giveaway: The Unexpected Gift

When I was asked if I would like to read/review/giveaway The Unexpected Gift by Meaghan Gonzales Wagar and Michelle Bulmer Atha, I clicked over and read the summary and knew from the beginning that I would love this book.  And I have to admit that I was not disappointed. It’s a thin book so I chunked it in my carryon bag when I was leaving for Blogher thinking it would be nice to have something lightweight to add to my bag.  I arrived at the airport super early Thursday so I pulled it out and started reading.  I was so involved that time flew while I waited on my plane.

As soon as I loaded on the plane, I pulled it back out, anxious to see what happened next. By the time the plane landed, I only had two chapters left to read.  The book is about two remarkable women. The first is a recently divorced wife and mother who is looking to find herself and raise her children alone.  Still loving her husband ex-husband makes this a challenging road. She’s also now needing to make her entrance back into the full time work world. The second woman is a young pregnant girl living in poverty, but working hard to make a better life for herself. The two meet by chance when the divorcee donates baby clothes to the young girl.  After a couple more chance meetings, they start to build a friendship that becomes quite strong and helps each of the women become strong and conquer the issues in their lives.

I’ve been both of these women to some degree – the young pregnant girl without much money (though my life was much easier than the girl in this book) and the single mom trying to raise her children so I felt so connected to each of them as I read it.

Does The Unexpected Gift sound like something you’d like to read? If so, you might be in luck as I have three copies to give away.

Required Entry:

Who in your life came to you unexpectedly and has made a difference?

Bonus Entries:

**To earn these entries you must first complete the REQUIRED ENTRY**
**For each extra entry, you must leave an additional comment**

1. Place my button in your sidebar (Grab it on the right sidebar) or add a text link
2. Subscribe to my feed. You can still enter if you already subscribe.
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this contest out! (you must leave a link to the tweet – already a follower, just tweet and let me know)
4. Add me to your Technorati favorites (leave your username)
5. Blog about this contest (WORTH 3 ENTRIES – LEAVE 3 COMMENTS) linking to this post.
6. Enter any other contest here or at Southern Girl Reviews through the duration of this contest. You may have an entry for every contest that you enter between now and then.

The Fine Print

• Must be a US Citizen
• Contest ends Sunday, August 16 at Midnight CST.
• You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address.
• All entries will be verified before naming the winner.
• Winner has 72 hours to claim prize and then a new winner will be selected.

Don’t want to wait until the contest ends? You can buy it now for $11.01 at Amazon.

The Seven Rays – Win a Kindle.

Jessica Bendinger, screenwriter of Bring It On and Stick It, has written her first teen novel, The Seven Rays, to be released in November.  In celebration of its release, you can win an Amazon Kindle.  I don’t know about you, but I would love to have one of these (though I just can’t pay the price for it).

About The Seven Rays

When seventeen year-old honors student Beth Michaels starts receiving gold envelopes with messages like, YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE, she thinks that a crazy person might be stalking her. When she begins seeing people’s thoughts, feelings, and personal histories on their electromagnetic fields, she thinks that she might be a crazy person. And then when the hottest boy in town, Richie Mac, kisses and becomes obsessed with her, she knows that something’s up.

But she can deal with all of that until her mom gets freaked out by her erratic behavior and sends her to a psychiatric institute for observation. It is here where Beth finds out that she was adopted under mysterious circumstances and perhaps has supernatural powers. Now all she has to do is break out of the ward – with Richie’s help – and road trip to New York to discover who she really is and why all this is happening to her…

Is it possible that Beth might be more than she thinks she is?

The Sevens Rays is a paranormal coming-of-age story that delves into love, friendship, family and the supernatural.

About Jessica Bendinger

Jessica Bendinger is an acclaimed Hollywood screenwriter. She launched onto the scene with her original script Bring it On, which debuted at #1 in the box office. Bendinger was also a writer on the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning Season Four of Sex in the City. Her other screenwriting credits include The Truth about Charlie, First Daughter and Aquamarine. Most recently, she wrote and directed the teen gymnastics hit Stick It. Jessica currently lives in Los Angeles with her two dogs.

Read more about the Kindle.

The contest is hosted at She Knows. Enter today!! Ends August 23rd.

Tuesday Teaser – July 14

I can’t believe it’s been 3 months since I participated in Teaser Tuesday.  I am back though!

This week I’m Reading What Looks Like Crazy by Charlotte Hughes.  I had to order this book after reading the second book in the series, Nutcase. Of course I didn’t realize it was a series, or I wouldn’t have started with book 2.  Now I’m playing catchup.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading, where you

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

I popped up the book to page 104-105 and found these two sentences:

Obviously Bitsy had not taken my warning seriously. “My neighbor doesn’t like me,” I said.

Yes…there’s some neighbor rivalry going on.

If you are reading right now, you should participate in Teaser Tuesday. Be sure to go over to Should Be Reading and post your link too.  I’m also putting Mr. Linky here (if it works) and you can leave your link here at A Novel Mind (must comment to leave link).

Trying MckLinky for the first time….

Next Page »