Rural Mama's Sandbox: Book

Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts

My little girls LOVE books! Whether it is a book from the library or an eBook on our tablet, they love when Mama reads to them. I am sure there is a ton of research out there on the benefits of reading to young children but I don't need it. I can see the benefits as I watch my girls play and interact each day.

My girls and I were given the awesome opportunity to review several eBooks from author Julia Dweck. I received a copy of these EBooks complimentary in exchange for a fair, honest, non-compensated review. I hope you all enjoy the reviews and perhaps decide to read them to your little ones!

Mary Had A Sleepy Sheep
If your children are familiar with the nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb," they are going to LOVE "Mary Had A Sleepy Sheep"! This new story of Mary's sheep is very creative, cute, and funny. It was written so that you can sing the words to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" as you read. My girls got a huge kick out of Mary's sheep falling asleep EVERYWHERE! Poor Mary! There are also some fun activities at the end of the book which were very entertaining as well. My oldest loved flipping back through the story looking for the cat on each page! Julia Dweck did a great job writing this book and the illustrator came up with beautiful and creative ways to bring the story to life. Overall, I would highly recommend this book for children of all ages!

Blucy: The Blue Cat
Blucy is a great story for young children. Our family is actively involved helping shelter animals and this was a great story illustrating importance of adopting a homeless animal no matter how different it is. I like how even though Blucy had her naughty moments Mandy was able to over look them and love Blucy anyways resulting in a sweet perfect cat in the end. It has a wonderful message between the rhyming lines. Kudos to Julia Dweck for incorporating a lovely message into a sweet childen's book. The illustrations are beautiful as well and really help tell Blucy's story. We also loved the special games and facts at the end.

Humpfree: The Humpless Camel
Both of the girls were glued to the tablet screen as I read Humpfree: The Humpless Camel by Julia Dweck. The first time I read Humpfree to my girls, I had to stop for a moment to grab something from across the room. Big Sister yelled,"Wait I want to hear more about the Camel" and when HumpFree was sad both my girls kept kissing the screen on our tablet to make him feel better! I think this was their favorite Julia Dweck book so far! I love the lesson this book teaches, even though you may be different than others you are special just exactly how you are! The illustrations are adorable and entertaining, the illustrator did a wonderful job portray Humpfree's journey to find his humps! I highly highly recommend this story for children!

Julia Dweck has written several other children's books besides the ones above. You can check them out by visiting Amazon's Julia Dweck Page.

Have a wonderful day dear followers!

"Jacob felt as though he’d been punched in the face and chest simultaneously. The wind was knocked out of him, and he fell to the floor. Bright flashes of light burst through the room, and he closed his eyes, trying to block them out. His blood was on fire, burning every inch of him as it coursed through his veins. He rolled onto his side, his body convulsing in pain as he gagged, trying to get enough air. His muscles cramped, and tremors ran through his body.
He heard hundreds of sounds all at once and was no longer able to focus on just one. They were so loud, they pulsated in his brain like a migraine. Opening his eyes, he gasped as the bright lights flashed again, alternating with blackness. Thousands of people moved through the room at once. His body was on sensory overload. Even the temperature seemed to be fluctuating.

He tried to stand and right himself, but barely managed to lift his head. The walls around him would not stop spinning. He struggled to stay conscious, almost failing several times. The thought kept entering his mind that he had to remain alert—he couldn’t let the Lorkon win." -Excerpt from The Key of Kileyna

The Key of Kileyna is a captivating tale of a young man named Jacob and his journey through a different world to recover a magical key that was stolen by the evil Lorkon. But the Lorkon are not the only evil beings Jacob has to worry about. Along the journey, Jacob is faced with many trials both physically and mentally. With the help of new friends and his own bravery and determination , Jacob is able to press on through each trial and reach the Lorkon castle.

The Key of Kileyna is Book One of the Kilenya Series, which is targeted towards young adults, but as a grown woman I thoroughly enjoyed the book and can not wait to read more of the series. Readers will be on the edge of their seat wondering how Jacob and his comrades are ever going to get out of the messes they find themselves in. The author, Andrea Pearson, does a wonderful job helping the reader jump into the new world with Jacob, by including wonderful details and descriptions of each character, place, and situation. The Key of Kileyna was a very easy read, contained no fowl language, and included age appropriate interactions among characters. I highly recommend this book for young people interested in action filled science fiction adventures!

After reading The Key of Kileyna, I had a couple questions for the author, Andrea Pearson. I put together a short interview to help my readers learn a little more about Andrea and her book. Check out what she had to say:

Kelsey: What or Who inspired you to decide to write a book/series for Young Adults?

Andrea: My younger brother! I told him the ideas I had, and he told me I'd better write them down and make a series of it. He was 12 when I started getting things together. He was 18 by the time The Key of Kilenya (Kilenya Series 1) came out, but loved it just the same.

Kelsey: Are any of your characters based off of real life people? If so, who? And why did you choose that person?

Andrea: The Fat Lady is based off of a character from the movie Matilda. Though the Fat Lady is a nice person, and the character from the movie isn't. I choose that woman because of her gruff exterior and very abrupt mannerisms. I loosely based a lot of my characters off of people I know - mix and matches of my siblings and friends. It's much easier to use real people, since you'll know your characters better.

Kelsey: There are so many unique names and places in your book, how did you come up with them?

Andrea: On a lot of the names, I'm not sure, actually. It took a while to get the story written, and the names had been in my head for a long time. For some names, I used baby name websites, found ones I liked, and either used them as they were or changed them somewhat.

Kelsey: What do you think "makes" a good book?

Andrea: There are a lot of things, and it really depends on the reader. For some, if the book is cleanly written (not a lot of typos or grammatical errors), then it's a good book. For others, they don't care about the grammar just so long as the story is compelling and the pacing is good. For me and many

readers, both are important. If a book has too many errors, I put it down in frustration, and if the story isn't going anywhere, I won't finish it.

Kelsey: If you could give one Tip For Successful Book Writing, what would it be?

Andrea: Learn to self edit! And don't over edit or you'll remove yourself from the writing. I did that at one point (you can ask my editor. We had to go back several versions in my manuscript to find the right one). There's a fine line, and it took me a while to learn it. It's different for everyone. Also, learn as much as possible about the publishing world, read a lot, and let your imagination flow! Every kind of writing requires imagination. Except maybe computer science books. Those are a little difficult to get through.

You can connect with Andrea Pearson and learn more about the Kileyna Series by visiting the following sites online:
Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrea-Pearson/307996157738
Blog: http://andreapearsonbooks.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/andreapearson2
Andrea Pearson's Website: http://www.kilenyaseries.com

Interested in reading The Key to Kilenya? You can purchase print version for $12.99 as well as the eBook version for $1.99, on Amazon!

Andrea Pearson would like to give 5 of my readers a FREE eBook of The Key of Kilenya, all you have to do is enter using the Rafflecopter form below!

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