Adventure at Brimstone Hill

Who doesn’t love an adventure? I know I have always loved adventures and mysteries so how happy was I when Carol Ottley-Mitchell asked me to review her book, Adventure at Brimstone Hill.  This is a children’s mystery – the first in the Caribbean Adventure Series.  I originally passed this book on to Cameron to see her reaction, and as she started telling me about her readings the first day, I had to join in and read it behind her.  After she fell asleep each night, I’d take the book off of her nightstand and read what she had read that day.  I think I may have enjoyed it as much as she did.

There’s no way that Carol could have known, but Cameron is really fascinated by monkeys right now. Her last two Build A Bear pets? Monkeys. So when she found out that this story was about 3 children – Kyle, Ingrid, and Mark and their MONKEY, Chee Chee she was hooked from the beginning.  Did I mention one of her dogs name is Chee Chee?  That was one of the first things she had to tell me about the book  - the MONKEY NAMED CHEE CHEE!! She loved to read about their adventures of the children on their field trip at Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. The adventure takes place on a tiny island called St. Kitts in the Caribbean. Maybe better than Chee Chee? The fact that the children are 9 – so close to her own age.

What did Mom like?  I loved the vocabulary in the book. The book was full of words that Cameron didn’t know that served as great spring boards into vocabulary lessons.  After the first chapter, I gave her a highlighter and she started marking any words she wasn’t sure of the meanings.  We then worked on context clues and looked up some of the words that she couldn’t guess.  The English teacher and Mom in me was proud that the book was interesting enough to keep her attention and made for a great lesson too.

Another Mom plus?  The fact that the setting is a true location that Cameron (and I) had never heard of – Brimstone Hill.  After finishing the book, we browsed the Internet to learn more about this historical location.

The story? The story begins with us meeting the 3 children and Chee Chee on the day of the class field trip to Brimstone Hill.  Chee Chee, of course, isn’t welcome on the field trip, but makes it anyways.  As the children search for Chee Chee, they are taken into the past – right in the middle of a battle between the British and the French during the 18th century. The book centers around the adventures the children have when they are taken back in time to this battle. I won’t reveal more of the plot, but if you have children between 7 or 8 and 12, I think you’ll find this to be an enjoyable story for them to read, or maybe you could read it as a family.  It has so much history throughout the book, that a great summer project could be researching the history surrounding the setting and battle after you finish reading Adventure at Brimstone Hill by Carol Ottley-Mitchell.

Want to know more about Carol and her series? Even read a preview of book 2 – Pirates at Port Royal at http://caribbeanadventureseries.com/.  You can also read more about Carol here.

And do I have great news for you!  This is your lucky day as you can now enter for a chance to win your very own copy of Adventure at Brimstone Hill.

Required Entry:
Tell me where you would go if you could go on your very own dream adventure – you can choose a past or present location!  Or maybe even somewhere in the future!

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.

The Fine Print

• Must be a US Citizen
• Contest ends Saturday, August 1 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 $12.95 at Amazon.

PLEASE NOTE CONTEST IS OVER!!!  WINNER HAS BEEN SELECTED AND ANNOUNCED!!

Dudley’s Solo

As this blog has started to take off, I’m receiving a few more books to review for you, and it is quite exciting to get a new book that I might not have picked on my own every week or so.  My daughter loves it when the books are children’s books – Dudley’s Solo was no exception.  We opened the package in the car outside of the post office, and she immediately put her current read aside to check out this book.

Dudley’s Solo is by Tiffany Alexander and Illustrated by Jeremiah Carstarphen. It is part of the Children’s Band that includes Ebenezer, Esmerelda, Dezzi, Tito, and Dudley.

As I mentioned, Cameron was reading through Dudley’s Solo before we had even gotten out of the post office parking lot.  Our rule for the children’s books we receive from authors and PR companies is that she has to read them to me so on our trip to her ball game Friday, she read me Dudley’s Solo, and then we discussed the story.

I noticed immediately just glancing over while she read it to me that the colors are super bright throughout the book.  I was anxious to not be driving and able to actually be able to look at them.  I also noticed that the font seemes to be in a bold style that makes the words pop off the pages.

But on to the story.  Dudley is a young man who can’t hear or speak but wishes to be a part of the church’s Children’s Band.  Dudley speaks via sign language which fascinated Cameron as we read since she knows that I teach The Miracle Worker and we’ve watched and discussed Helen Keller almost every spring since she was a toddler (yes, she forgets a lot from year to year).  She didn’t catch it when she read the page to me that first mentions Dudley signing that it meant sign language, but after I pointed it out, she was really excited.

Dudley wished to be like his friends (as you can imagine) and was a little upset over the band’s upcoming performance as he didn’t feel that he really was able to participate.   Once the children realized that he was upset though, they gathered together and formed a plan for Dudley to participate.  On the big day, Dudley had his own solo in the band’s presentation – a solo he signed to the congregation.

If you are looking for a fun story to read – check out Dudley’s Solo.  If you are looking for a story that teaches your children about the power of acceptance and friendship – check out Dudley’s Solo.  You will not be disappointed with the great find.  Oh, and did I mention it only costs $8?

 

Free Asthma Storybook

If reading is as important in your house as it is in mine, I knew you’d want to read about this opportunity to add a free book to your children’s collection that is not only super fun to read, but also educational – Breathless Bethany Buttercup.

Breathless Bethany Buttercup is offered by Schering-Plough Corporation and the Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) and is the story of Bethany Buttercup  - a young girl with asthma. Bethany is struggling to fit in with her friends and just be a kid because of her asthma. She learns from her doctor of a new way to treat her asthma that works and allows her to play with her friends and just be a normal child.

The story is told in a very friendly way that will help any child understand asthma more and would be especially special to any children with asthma that you may know. You can order your copy of Breathless Bethany Buttercup here.

Books are completely free (including shipping and handling), but only available in limited supply through the end of this year. There is a limit of one book per household.

Higher Higher & Baby Happy Baby Sad

I am excited to welcome Leslie Patricelli into our home. Who is Leslie Patricelli? Someone you might want to bring into your home too. Leslie is the author and illustrator of “Higher! Higher!” and “Baby Happy Baby Sad” – two lovely children’s books that I recently received. The books are so bright and colorful that you are aching to open the cover from the moment you get your hands on them.

“Baby Happy Baby Sad” is a great board book. From cats to ice cream cones, from baths to playing in the mud, this book explores many situations that make a baby happy and the opposite situation that makes a baby sad. I loved the bright colors and simple graphics that Leslie chose in this book. To go along with this board book, Leslie has also written and illustrated the following toddler books: “No No Yes Yes,” “Binky,” “Blankie,” “BIG Little,” “Quiet Loud,” and “Yummy Yucky.”These books have been a great hit with toddlers with more than 400,000 copies in print.

Because Cameron is 8, we enjoyed “Higher! Higher!” the most as Cameron immediately thought board book = baby book. “Higher! Higher!” is the story of adorable little girl in pig tails swinging and wanting her dad to push her “higher.” Throughout the book, we see just how high she goes – can Dad push her higher than a giraffe? Or even into space? With a little girl that loves to swing in my house, we really did enjoy this story by Leslie and again I loved the images that she chose for this book – it was as much fun to look at this book as it was to read it.

After enjoying both of these books, Cameron and I made the decision to take them to the public library the next time we go to town and donate them for more children to enjoy.

Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday – ENDED

I didn’t plan to offer two children’s books in a row, but with it being Sunday and all, I thought today was a perfect day to tell you about Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday by Mike Thaler (and illustrated by Jared Lee). Before receiving this book to review, I had never heard of the Black Lagoon Series (that this book is a part of), but after reading it with my daughter, Cameron, I feel confident that we’ll be adding a few more of these to our library.

As I mentioned, we received this book to review and I accidentally left it sitting out before I was actually ready to review it.  Cameron saw it and had to read it. So I told her she could if she sat by me and was VERY careful.  Oh, and she had to read it to me (what better way to review a book than to have it read to you, right?).  Well, she read it to me TWICE because she wanted to read it again, and then begged me to let her take it to our grandmother’s house so she could read it to her.  I decided I might as well turn our copy over to her so I said yes.  The following Sunday, she took it to Sunday School to read to the preacher.  Yes, Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday was that popular in our house.

Mike Thaler, author of the Black Lagoon series, has authored more than 200 books and sold more than 12.5 million copies of the Black Lagoon books. His newest set being the “Tales from the Back Pew” series starts with Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday. 

This book offered such an interesting view of a little boy going to church for the first time with his Mom.  In the beginning, he is not really that excited about going and would actually prefer not to, but by the end of the book, he is excited and ready to not only come back, but to bring his friends too. His first encounter at church includes the concept of sitting and standing (and sitting and standing), staying awake during the service, church hymns, and paying tithes.

Would you like to win a copy of Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday? Well lucky for you, I have a second copy for one lucky reader.  

REQUIRED ENTRY:

List 3 books (not counting the Preacher Creature book) in the Black Lagoon Series.

EXTRA 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
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this contest out! (you must leave a link to the tweet)
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.

But wait! I’m upping the ante. For all the contests being posted over the next week, I’ll give you TWENTY (yes you hear right) TWENTY extra entries if you head over to MomCentral and vote for my blogging friend, Trisha, to win an Electrolux washer and dryer. She’s #8 strawberryred. After you vote, come back and tell me you voted and leave your Mom Central username. You can then comment 20 times for 20 entries for each of the grand opening prizes!

The Fine Print

• Must be a US Citizen
• Contest ends Saturday, March 29 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.

Note: While you are here, be sure to enter the Grand Opening contests for a

• If Mama Don’t Laugh, It Ain’t Funny ball cap
  
• This Is the Day

….and more to come…check daily! 

This Is The Day by Nancy White Carlstrom – ENDED

Today’s review and giveaway are for your little ones, and it’s a true gem. The book is called This Is the Day! by Nancy White Carlstrom and illustrated by Richard Cowdrey.

This is a lovely children’s book about the miracles of God’s creations and the importance of preserving them.  What I found really neat about this book is it’s divided by the days of the week so that we see 7 days of creations just like the 7 days that God took to create the Earth. 

The illustrations are beautiful in this book also.  I really enjoyed the pictures as much as the story. Richard Cowdrey deserves as much recognition as Nancy for such great illustrations.

Without any further adieu – You can win a copy of This Is The Day for your child, grandchild, niece, nephew, or family friend.  This is a hard cover edition of this book worth $15.99 and it can be just for you.  So how do you win?

Required Entry:

Head over to http://www.nancywhitecarlstrom.com and tell me one thing you learned about Nancy White Carlstrom or her books.  The trick? You can’t list anything on my post or that another person enters in their comments.

EXTRA 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
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this contest out! (you must leave a link to the tweet)
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.

But wait!  I’m upping the ante. For all the contests being posted over the next week, I’ll give you TWENTY (yes you hear right) TWENTY extra entries if you head over to MomCentral and vote for my blogging friend, Trisha, to win an Electrolux washer and dryer. She’s #8 strawberryred.  After you vote, come back and tell me you voted and leave your Mom Central username.  You can then comment 20 times for 20 entries for each of the grand opening prizes!

The Fine Print

• Must be a US Citizen
• Contest ends Saturday, March 28 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.

Note: While you are here, be sure to enter the Grand Opening contests for a

• If Mama Don’t Laugh, It Ain’t Funny ball cap

….and more to come…check daily! 

Trockle

Hi! I’m Cameron. I’m 8 and I’m so excited that I get to participate in this blog. When we were invited to participate in ‘s party, I asked if we could change the focus a little and talk to  and Stephen’s mom. So I came up with my questions and Mom emailed them and below you’ll find their answers. It’s amazing how both the mom of a human and the mom of a monster are so much alike. I hope you enjoy.

Interview with ‘s Mom

1. What is the hardest thing about being a monster’s mom?
Well, the first time your little one realizes he’s the terrible, fearsome creature the child upstairs is so afraid of – that can be hard. Of course,  was afraid of Stephen, too – so not only did I have to help him understand why anyone would think HE was the scary one, I had to calm HIS fears so he could get to sleep. But I’ll tell you a secret, Cameron. We moms LOVE being moms. It’s hard work, but we enjoy it so much it seems easy, most days.

2. Why do you call Trockle “Trockle Pie?”
Didn’t your mother ever call you Sweetie Pie or Pookie Bear or anything silly like that?

3. Why do you paint Trockle’s fingers green?
They’re naturally a little grayish green. Even when they’re clean, they look a little dingy. The green goes so well with his orange skin, don’t you think? He’s been wondering what to wear for Halloween – do you think he’d make a cute little pumpkin?

4. When Stephen cleans his room and there isn’t a dirty sock, what do you cover Trockle up with?
Oh, there are always socks! That’s why Stephen’s mother always ends up with a handful of mismatched socks, you know. Six or seven socks that don’t match up to anything, on laundry day. Because I keep a spare or three handy. But if I couldn’t find a sock, I could always drag Stephen’s Superman cape under the bed, or his stuffed kangaroo. He hardly ever plays with Roody the ‘Roo anymore, and the pouch is nice and fuzzy and full of lint.

5. Does Trockle have a Dad? Where does he live?
Of course, dear.‘s daddy and I live in the coat closet under the stairs.

6. What do you and Trockle do for fun?
Trockle loves to play with Stephen’s toys. He used to have to wait until Stephen went to sleep. Sometimes, he comes out and plays while Stephen’s at school. And now, well…it’s very unusual, you know, for a human boy and an under-the-bed monster to SEE each other, let alone play together, but ever since the launch of the book…

7. What and how do you cook for Trockle?
We don’t cook. I know that you kids think we under-the-bed monsters like to eat humans almost as much as you like to eat ice cream, but it’s not true. We eat candy, soda pop, leftovers, and occasionally – as a special treat – veggies like Brussels sprouts. Trockle does love veggies. I don’t encourage it, though.

8. Where do you and Trockles go if Stephen or his mom clean under the bed?
Oh, we all scurry down to the hall closet. There are so many passages in the walls that it’s quite easy to move all around the house quickly.

9. How big are you and Trockle?
About as big as a small basketball.

10. How big was Trockle when he was born?
Oh, my goodness!  was such a tiny thing when he was born – just the size of a golf ball!

Interview with Stephen’s Mom

1. Where do you buy monster repellant?
Monster what? OH! Wal-Mart or Kroger, usually. CVS or Walgreens, in a pinch.

2. What is in monster repellant?
A super-secret, magical formula that mostly never fails. Except for sometimes. Which is a good thing, I guess. If mine had worked, we wouldn’t have Trockle.

3. What kind of stuff does Stephen say in his sleep?
Oh, he’d be so mad at me for telling you, but it’s mostly mumbling. Now and then he blurts out something like, “But Ms. Shaffer, my crocodile really did throw my homework under a bridge!” Or, “Not now! I need to wash my violin!”

4. Do you have any more children besides Stephen? If so, did they think there were monsters in their room?
Yes, Stephen has an older sister. She always insisted I tuck her feet into the sheet and the comforter as tightly as I could; she thought the monsters would reach out from under the bed, grab her by the ankle, and yank her under there with them. If she could only have seen how small they are, and how polite!

5. What are Stephen’s favorite snacks?
Stephen loves peanut butter and Nutella. He also likes Ramen soup, probably because his favorite anime character, Naruto, likes Ramen.

 

See more about Trockle by Holly Jahangiri by clicking the book title below:

Cam’s Review: A Little Bit of Faith

After finishing reading A Little Bit of Faith, I’ve asked Cameron to answer a few questions for me. I’m typing her responses up word for word.

1. Did you enjoy this book?

Yes. I didn’t know if I would, but it was really good. I thought I would read one chapter each day, but sometimes I read 3 or 4.

2. Would you like to read future books in the Precious Girls Club series?

There’s going to be more? Where? (I respond, I don’t know, but I’m sure we can find them on the Internet) Can we look now?

3. Why do you think you liked this book?

I felt like the little girl in the book last year when I was a new student. It was hard to do my work because I felt so alone. And I liked all the pictures. They were really pretty and helped me know what was going on sometimes.

4. What was your favorite part of the book?

When all the kids came to the club meeting.

5. Did anything surprise you about the book?

I thought everyone would come to the very first meeting, and I was sad when they didn’t. I thought books should have a happy ending, but it did after the second meeting.

6. If you had to tell your friends what this book was about what would you say?

It’s about a little girl who moves and she is sad because she can’t do her math homework and she has no friends. Her guardian angel Faith keeps her cheered up the best she can. And her mom and aunt give her a bracelet. Then she tries to start a club but the kids don’t come because they don’t know her. Then when she starts to talk to the other kids, they like her and come to her club. Now they are all friends.

7. What did you learn after reading this book?

That you have to not be shy and go ahead and talk to the kids if you want to make friends with them.

8. What did you learn about God?

I didn’t know He made the rainbow to tell us He wouldn’t ever flood it here again. I’m going to tell my Sunday School teacher about that next week.

There you go – Cameron’s first blog review. She really did enjoy this book. I was surprised at how much she remembered each day. Before we started reading, I would ask her what had happened last, and she could tell me almost everything all the way back to the beginning. It stuck with her. We will be investigating to see about continuing to buy these as the new ones come out.

A Mom’s Review – A Little Bit of Faith

As promised, I want to provide you with my review for you the book, “,” from this mom’s perspective. As mentioned previously, I thought it was a great book, and we’ll be purchasing future books in the series for sure.

One of the first things I really liked about it is that it is a chapter book so it will in fact push my 8 year old daughter as it’s not something she will sit down and read in one sitting. So she’ll have to retain the story until our next reading session to be able to follow the story.

Another thing I liked is that while it is on her reading level (and in fact I was surprised that she knew some of the words as she was reading it to me), it does push and occasionally throw in words that are not common to her so we get to chat about them and I can see if she can tell meaning by context clues (which thanks to the great writing of Cindy Kenney) she was. Some of the words that threw her right off the bat were the names of some of the states. She had not heard of Kansas or Nebraska so she didn’t quite get them right. (Later after reading that night, we discussed that Mommy actually lived in Kansas for a little while when she was little). Another word? Sternly. She pronounced it fine, but something about the way she said it, I knew she didn’t know what it meant.

Third – the inclusion of God and guardian angels in the storyline. I loved that not only was it mentioned as part of everyday use but also that it was used on such a great age appropriate level – that we are all special in our own ways. When I first realized that there would be some mention of God in this book, I admit to being worried. I didn’t really want this to turn into the focus of the book as I knew that would probably not keep my daughter’s attention for long. I was so relieved to see how it was just used here and there and in very appropriate, non-religion specific ways.

Fourth – short chapters. With a young daughter who wants to love to read but is still trying to decide if she actually is, I was thankful for the shorter chapters. We frequently define our reading by chapters. I stop her at each chapter to quiz her about her understanding. Sometimes we take turn reading chapters so that she doesn’t get too worked up in the reading and missing parts of the story. And with chapters that are only 7 pages of actual writing, that was a very reasonable task.

And finally, the pictures. While personally I wouldn’t want to read a book with this many pictures, I suspected Cameron would like them, and I was right. I immediately noticed that when we flipped a page, when there was a picture (which is very frequently) she would pause to look at it and take it in. For a reader who is just moving into chapter books, this is a great resource as it helps them with their comprehension and it keeps their interest. The artwork in this book is amazing too (see the few pictures I posted).

I really do think this is one of the best children’s books I’ve seen come out in a long time. I am hoping that enough are released soon that we can in fact read several of them before Cameron moves up in her reading level to the point that these are not interesting anymore.