Blog Tour (Review): Clarina Nichols by Diane Eickhoff #TLCBookTours #nonfiction #kidlit

Title: Clarina Nichols: Frontier Crusader for Women's Rights
Author: Diane Eickhoff
Publisher: Quindaro Press
Tour Organizer: TLC Book Tours
Release Date: March 1, 2016
Everyone knows about the "Votes for Women" campaign that led to the 19th Amendment in 1920. Few know just how long the struggle really was. Decades earlier, brave women began breaking the taboo of remaining silent at gatherings that included men. They began signing their names to petitions, flexing political muscle long before they had the vote. They wrote millions of words and published some of the most influential books and journals of their day. No one represents this early struggle -- the small triumphs and discouraging setbacks -- better than Clarina Howard Nichols (1810-1885), the Vermont newspaper publisher whose speeches made a powerful case for equality.

Nichols, herself the victim of a failed marriage, was a magnet to abused and mistreated women and was their advocate at a time when her sex was just beginning to speak up. And when she felt progress wasn't coming soon enough, she moved west, to Bleeding Kansas, where she would make history and show the world that feminism could thrive on the frontier.

Diane Eickhoff, who first wrote Nichols' biography in 2006 as Revolutionary Heart, has reimagined her story for all ages. Booklist declared, "The name Clarina Nichols deserves to be placed next to those of such luminaries as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton," and readers of this inspiring historical biography will heartily agree.

My Review

Before reading Clarina Nichols: Frontier Crusader for Women's Rights, I had never heard of Clarina Nichols. As a librarian and history major, I'm pretty embarrassed to admit this. Thankfully, after reading the book, I know more about her, the women's rights movement, as well as the fight to abolish slavery in Kansas. It includes lots of pictures, maps, and copies of newspaper articles really showcase that time period.

Blog Tour (Audiobook Review & Giveaway): Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard by Lars Guignard

Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard Tour Schedule



Title: Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard (Zoe & Zak Adventures #1)
Author: Lars Guignard
Publisher: Fantastic Press
Acquired Via: CBB Book Promotions
Release Date: February 26, 2013
Zoe and Zak are lost in exotic India, where gods and magic still exist. Before they can find their way home, they just have to do one little thing...

...Save a mythical creature from an ancient evil that wants to rule the world.

When Zoe Guire goes along on her mom's business trip to India, things get very weird, very quickly. An elephant god speaks to her from the bottom of a swimming pool... She and her classmate Zak get locked in a trunk and shipped off to a strange city near the foothills of the Himalayas... and a crazy snake charmer tells them they've been chosen to protect a mythical creature called the Ghost Leopard from an ancient evil that wants to take over the world.

As they travel deeper into the majestic mountains known as the Realm of the Gods, things get even weirder. If she and Zak want to make it back to their parents, they're going to have to tap into powers they never knew existed.

Because if they don't, things will never be the same for any of us ever again.

My Review
Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard by Lars Guignard is a super fun audiobook that I listened to over the course of about two weeks. It is about two kids who go to school together who happen to run into each other in India while traveling with their parents. They weren't really friends at the start of the novel, but we see the progression of their relationship. (Not THAT kind of relationship - they're eleven.) It reminds me of The 39 Clues series mixed with magical realism.

Book Blast (Giveaway): Your Mommy Was Just Like You by Kelly Bennett

Your Mommy Was Just Like You
Kelly Bennett
Once upon a time-according to Grandma-Mommy loved getting messy, wearing kooky costumes, and dragging out bedtime with just one more story. She collected bottle caps and dandelion fluff, and didn’t know how to tie her shoes. Sometimes she was a terror, but most of the time she was a sweet potato. Just like her own little girl today. Kids love to hear about what their parents were like as children, and this celebration of moms and the little girls they were will inspire lots of laughter and memories.

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository


About the Author

J is for Julia Dweck

I discovered Julia Dweck when she gifted me an ecopy of her children's book, Caarina the Cooking Fairy a while back. Since then, I have had to read the book to my six year old daughter, Bug, at LEAST once a week. I have also bought each of her ebooks as soon as they are released. The books have fantastic illustrations from great artists, and Julia is a rockstar in my house. Bug and I love her so much, hence my sharing her with you.

About Julia Dweck

Julia writes children’s stories for digital and traditional publication. Her stories span the spectrum of humor, fantasy, and edutainment in rhyme and in prose. Julia’s background in elementary education affords her the opportunity to be in touch with what children want to read about and what makes them giggle. Julia collaborates with some of the leading artists in the world of children’s literature. Julia is also a designer of educational adjuncts for children’s literature, and has worked with such notable publishing houses as Penguin Young Readers.

Find Julia Online
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Giveaway

If you are able to receive an Amazon ebook, I invite you to enter to win a copy of your choice of book by Julia Dweck. (Find them here.)
Ends at 12:01am EST on April 19th
a Rafflecopter giveaway
While you're here, you should enter my GIVEAWAY that has special entries for both A to Z Participants and BP followers!

Review: Neversink by Barry Wolverton

Along the Arctic Circle lies a small island called Neversink, whose jagged cliffs and ice-gouged rocks are home to a colony of odd-looking seabirds called auks, including one Lockley J. Puffin. With their oceanfront views and plentiful supply of fish, the auks have few concerns--few, save for Lockley's two best friends, Egbert and Ruby, a know-it-all walrus and a sharp-tongued hummingbird.

But all of this is about to change. Rozbell, the newly crowned king of the Owl Parliament, is dealing with a famine on the mainland of Tytonia--and he has long had his scheming eyes on the small colony to the north. Now Neversink's independence hangs in the balance. An insurgence of owls will inevitably destroy life as the auks know it--unless Lockley can do something about it.

Barry Wolverton's debut is an epic tale of some very un-epic birds, a fast-paced and funny story of survival, friendship, and fish.

Title: Neversink
Author: Barry Wolverton
Illustrator: Sam Nielson
Publisher: Waldon Pond Press (HarperCollins)
Release Date: March 27, 2012
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
My Review

Neversink by Barry Wolverton is the story of Lockley J. Puffin and what happens after a nasty little owl goes on a power trip and breaks the peace between Tytonia and the auks' home island of Neversink. The story is set far in the past, as described by the following passage:

The continents had formed and separated but were covered with forests. The dinosaurs were long gone. Humans did not yet roam the earth, much less rule it. (Neversink, pg 2)

Animals communicated... Okay, talked, to one another, but the book centers on the birds. The peace between Neversink and Tytonia is uneasy, with grudges still held from the Cod Wars of a previous generation. When Rozbell the pygmy owl schemes his way into becoming king of the owls, he does away with that peace and subjugates the auks of Neversink.

Review: Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

Des·tin·y: (noun) The hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate.

Eleven-year-old Emily Elizabeth Davis has been told for her entire life that her destiny is to become a poet, just like her famous namesake, Emily Dickinson. But Emily doesn't even really like poetry, and she has a secret career ambition that she suspects her English-professor mother will frown on. Then, shortly after discovering that it contains an important family secret, she loses the special volume of Emily Dickinson's poetry that was given to her at birth. As Emily and her friends search for the lost book in used-book stores all across town, Emily's understanding of destiny begins to unravel and then rewrite itself, in a marvelous new way.

In her third novel, Kathryn Fitzmaurice again weaves a richly textured and delightful story about unexpected connections, about the ways that friends can help us see ourselves for who we truly are, about the stories that shape our lives, and about the most perfect kinds of happy endings: those that happen just on time.

Title: Destiny, Rewritten
Author: Kathryn Fitzmaurice
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: February 19, 2012
Acquired Via: edelweiss
My Review

I read this book over the holidays, and it's fitting. I knew that I had to be the Grinch because my heart grew two sizes the day I finished reading Destiny, Rewritten. It felt as if it would burst right out of my chest because I was felt with such overwhelming happiness and love for the characters, who are some of my all-time literary favorites. There is not one person in the book that I did not want to scoop up and squeeze into a bear hug.

Destiny, Rewritten taught me something that I have been overlooking about myself - I LOVE stories that make references to other stories or pieces of pop culture. I found myself giggling several times throughout the book because of arguments that Emily Elizabeth Davis and Wavey St. Clair, her best friend, would have about female roles in Star Wars, Little House on the Prairie, or even paper towel commercials. This was a perfect little running joke (it has to be a joke because it was so hilarious!) to go along with Emily while she searched to find her lost book, unknown father, and herself. Emily's letters to Danielle Steele and love of romance novels' happy endings are also so brilliantly woven into the story. There are also tree-huggers, used bookstores, a cashier from Goodwill who is all things awesome, and more minor characters who kept me beaming.

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): The Cypher by Julian Rosado-Machain

GUARDIANS INC.: THE CYPHER is two stories in one. A glimpse into a multinational company that is in reality the oldest of secret societies, one that spans close to seven thousand years of existence, weaving in and out of history, guiding and protecting humanity from creatures and forces that most of us believe are only mythology and fairy tales.

The other is the story of Thomas Byrne, a young man thrust into secrets he shouldn’t be aware of and dangers he shouldn’t face but, that he ultimately will, for he is a Cypher. The only one who can steer humanity’s future.

The ultimate conspiracy theory is that Magic is real. Kept in check by technology but, every five hundred years the balance can shift and, if it does, technology will fail and those creatures we’ve driven into myth will come back with a vengeance.

To protect the present, Guardians Incorporated needs to know the future.

How to Avoid the Rejection Blues
by Julian Rosado-Machain
Ah, the rejection blues! When all the hope built up during those long, interminable weeks that pass between sending a query letter or a manuscript and receiving a response is annihilated by the simple "Thank you, but...."

I blame the "but.." God, how I learned to hate the "but...".

Book Blast: Pandora the Curious by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Pandora the Curious (Goddess Girls #9)
by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
Is Pandora about to open up a box of trouble?

One of the few mortals at Mount Olympus Academy, Pandora is famous for her mega quizzical nature—not that she thinks there’s anything wrong with being curious, of course!

Her curiosity kicks into high gear when a godboy named Epimetheus brings a mysterious box to school. Epimetheus is the nephew of an MOA teacher in whose class Pandora once opened another box that sent a few weather disasters to earth. Still, Pandora can’t help but take a peek inside this new box when it unexpectedly lands in her lap. What could be the harm in that, right? Little does she know that opening the box will open up far more trouble than she ever expected!

Authors Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams put a modern spin on classic myths with the Goddess Girls series. Follow the ins and outs of divine social life at Mount Olympus Academy, where the most privileged godboys and goddessgirls in the Greek pantheon hone their mythical skills.

Purchase
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Goddess Girls series


The Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams puts a modern spin on classic Greek myths. Follow the ins and outs of divine social life where the most privileged godboys and goddessgirls in the Greek pantheon hone their mythical skills.

Blog Tour (Review): There Were Dinosaurs Everywhere by Howard Temperley

Title: There Were Dinosaurs Everywhere! A Rhyming Romp Through Dinosaur History
Author:Howard Temperley and Michael Kline (Illustrator)
Publisher: KWS Publishers
Release Date: August 1, 2012
Acquired Via: JKS Communications



The phenomenon of the dinosaur is one that continues to fascinate people of all ages. A fun-filled history of the many species of dinosaurs, their eras, and interesting facts about them, this book is not only informative, but funny and captivating as well. Featuring amusing and attractive illustrations, this unique edition discusses a variety of topics, from the Velociraptor and Pterodactylus to the Jurassic Era and dinosaur extinction.





My Review

This was another review that I did with my six year old daughter, Bug, and it was a hit. The Writing of There Were Dinosaurs Everywhere is both informative about dinosaurs and catchy to an easily distracted ear with its masculine rhyme. Bug is a big fan of books with rhyming stories (I used to only be able to read Dr. Seuss books to her), and she adored this one. The book provided a wealth of information about nearly two dozen different dinosaurs (in rhyme!), as well as explained about paleontologists, fossils, and the evolution of dinosaurs. There are also laugh-out-loud parts that are sure to win over even some of the most reluctant readers. The table of contents is specific enough to take kids of all ages back to their favorite dinosaur, and there is a lovely timeline of dinosaurs at the end of the book. Even though I'm not dinosaur expert, I was surprised to learn something from There Were Dinosaurs Everywhere. I never knew that the names of dinosaurs were in ancient Greek. It made me excited to learn something new!

Blog Tour (Review): The Big Field by Anne Morddel

Title: The Big Field: A Child's Year Under the Southern Cross
Author: Anne Morddel
Publisher: KWS Publishers
Release Date: August 1, 2012
Acquired Via: JKS Communications
Beautifully illustrated, this is the charming story of a girl who spends a year with her grandmother on a farm at the edge of the South American Atlantic Rainforest. The child is from the city, but the time she spends with her grandmother teaches her about the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere and the beauty and transience of the rainforest—from the plant, animal, and insect life to the cycles of nature. Following them as they spend their days walking through the forest, lying on their backs under the trees, eating dinner outside, collecting seeds, and learning about the wildlife, this entertaining narrative is also environmentally sensitive in its approach. An illustrated, child-friendly glossary with sections dedicated to butterflies and moths, birds, bugs, and trees and plants concludes the book.

My Review

The Writing of The Big Field is great for a very young audience. The story is simple, and it slyly inserts a science lesson to its readers. Granny teaches her three grandchildren - the narrator, Chloe, and Baby - about nature around her farm. The various insects, birds, and plants of Paraná, Brazil are highlighted and discussed. As the book takes the reader through each month and the corresponding season, Anne Morddel weaves the flora and fauna that is active or in bloom into the story. At the back of the book is a glossary of the plants and animals that were featured.

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): Zuto by Udi Aharoni

Title: Zuto: The Adventures of a Computer Virus
Author: Udi Aharoni and Gil Troitsa (Illus.)
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Acquired Via: JKS Communications

Zuto: The Adventures of a Computer Virus is the middle-grade debut novel of Udi Aharoni. The story is set inside of a boy named Tom's computer and follows a Zutrog-33 virus named Zuto.

The Writing of Zuto really made reading the book a breeze. The style is definitely aimed at a younger audience with short chapters and cute illustrations every ten pages or so. There is also a "Zutopedia" in the back that defines some of the computer terms that are used in the course of the book. The characters are funny, and Zuto is charming enough to make a virus a sympathetic character. The only drawback that I saw with the novel is that it may be a little too simple for the age group it is aimed at, but this one is not a major concern because most children (like adults) like an occasional easy read, and Zuto sneaks a little educational material into the story. 3.5/5 Stars

Book Blast (Giveaway): Leslie Susskind's Kids Can Blast

It's Time for Good Manners!
by Leslie Susskind

Part story book, part practice book, all parts fun! Children will learn about good manners -- and how to tell time -- with this colorful, engaging book.

They'll spend the day with Torie, Tad, Tessa and Tyler and discover how it's time for good manners all day long. And then they'll get the chance to practice telling time -- all while enjoying the cute clock designs, and without realizing they're learning!


Praise:

"It's Time for Good Manners is a great package workbook for children ages 4-7, combining learning twin virtues of considerateness and courtesy and punctuality."

“If ever a book was needed for this time, then this is it.”

“A fun way to learn how to tell time.”

“…good book for introducing time to students in earlier grades.”

Guest Post: Jennifer Turner (My Name is Jake)

My Name is Jake is a colorfully illustrated, rhyming book for kids centered around a boy named Jake. Each page leads the reader through an activity that rhymes with Jake. Rhyming books for kids are perfect for young children, or early readers just beginning to put letters into words and rhyming them together.





The Importance of Reading to Children

by Jennifer Turner
As a parent, you have probably heard – on more than one occasion – it is good to read to children. There are many benefits cited. Some are more subjective: helping parents and kids bond and calming children down before bedtime. Potential academic benefits include increased vocabulary and a greater familiarity of reading and learning in general. Depending on your economic circumstances, easy access to children’s books may be taken for granted. However, there are many community resources available which can help bridge the gap so children’s books are more readily available to all. One group working to increase availability of books for all young children is Reach Out and Read, a national nonprofit organization.