Favorite Holiday Memory Blog Hop

Running a little behind here...

Blog Hop Question: What is your favorite holiday memory?

(This includes Hanukkah, Kwanza, Yule/Winter Solstice, Christmas, etc.)

My Memory:
I have a lot of good holiday memories. I admit I love Christmas, from opening stocking in our jammies to big family dinners (and pie! I like pie!). A couple of favorite memories stand out in my mind, though. When I was about 5, my mom got creative on a budget. She sewed each of the three of us a patchwork snake (thus thriftily using up scraps of fabric, some furry, some not) and put it in our Christmas stockings. The kicker? Those snakes were 6' long! We know that, because my middle brother got a tape measure in his stocking as well, so of course we measured them.

Mom stuffed the snakes using cut-up scraps of fabric, and I remember that she was sitting around snipping the scraps into little pieces, and I got worried that she was wasting good fabric! She just gave that mysterious mom look and said she thought she could find a use for the bits :)


New Picture Book Release from Elaine Kaye!

BLURB:
On Christmas Eve, Gregory and Sammy get a special visitor—Santa Claus! Santa brings them on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure around the world and to the North Pole. Bundle up and come along for the ride!

General Age Range - Kids 4-8 (Story Picture Book)

Book Links:
Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo
Smashwords / Goodreads



PLUS, A FREEBIE!

Get Pea Soup Disaster now!
Kindle / Nook / Kobo




About the Author: Elaine Kaye is the author of A Gregory Green Adventure series. She created Gregory Green after her son, who loved her homemade pea soup.

Kaye has worked as a library assistant and teacher's assistant in elementary schools. She currently lives in Florida, but has called Michigan; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Okinawa, Japan home.

Website / Goodreads / Amazon / Instagram / Facebook

Hop around to the other blogs participating:

Dr. Mom Blog Hop!

Today we're helping promote Elaine Kaye's new picture book by participating in the Dr. Mom blog hop!

DOCTOR MOM BLOG HOP PROMPT:
Share a favorite memory you have of your mom. Or just share a picture of your mom that you cherish. Or you can do both!

Hey, this is harder than it looks. My mom is 89. I'm... uh, not 20 anymore (notice she's old enough to brag about her age. I'm young enough be trying to forget). That's a lot of amazing memories! I'm tempted to share the wonderful little book I wrote about my mom when I was in the 1st grade or thereabouts, but I don't want to distract from Ms. Kaye's adorable book, so I'll do that another time.

Instead, let me tell you about a favorite family photo (sadly, it seems to have been lost). This was back in the days when cameras not only used film, but if you didn't advance the film yourself, you could take two pictures on top of each other.

One of Dad's favorite possessions was our bright red, 17' canoe. When we kids were little, we could all 5 get it, and we enjoyed family outings on quiet lakes (Dad did some white-water, or at least whitish-water, stuff, but not with us). So Dad takes a photo up the canoe, where Mom is seated in the front. The next photo shot was of a buffalo (I have no idea where). You guessed it: a double-exposure, with the buffalo taking Mom's place in the front of the canoe. Lucky for Dad that Mom has a great sense of humor, and laughed as hard as the rest of us!

Since I don't have that photo, I'll share this one of all 5 of us, with the canoe and our VW bus, sometime in the late 60s.

And now for  the main feature!

Title: Doctor Mom
Author: Elaine Kaye
Genre: Picture Story Book
Ages: 5-8 years


BLURB:
It’s Saturday, and Gregory Green can’t wait to have fun with his dad on the riding lawnmower, but something is wrong. Sammy, his teddy bear and best friend, won’t get out of bed. Gregory is worried when he sees Sammy’s left leg is torn. This is a case for Doctor Mom! Can they fix Sammy? And just how did Sammy get hurt in the first place?


PRAISE FOR DOCTOR MOM:

"Doctor Mom is an adorable story that shows how Moms can fix anything—even a torn limb on a beloved teddy bear! Children will enjoy the lovable little bear who needs a stitch or two and his boy who plays dress-up as a doctor." – Wanda Luthman, award-winning author of Little Birdie Grows Up

“A sweet and heartfelt tale kids can easily identify with, and all of that with a wonderful touch of magic.” – Tonja Drecker, reviewer at Bookworm for Kids

BUY LINK:
AMAZON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Elaine Kaye first created Gregory Green after her son, who loved her homemade pea soup, thus inspiring the story Pea Soup Disaster. Doctor Mom is the second book in A Gregory Green Adventure series and highlights something all moms and children can relate to; a beloved stuffed animal in need of a repair.

Kaye has worked as a library assistant and teacher's assistant in elementary schools in the Sunshine State. She currently lives in Florida, but she has called Michigan; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Okinawa, Japan home.

She is a grandmother of three boys.

Website / Etsy Shop / Goodreads / Amazon / Instagram / Facebook

Now hop on around and see what other bloggers have to say about their moms!

Dr. Suess's lost stories

This isn't so much a review as a shout-out for all the fans of Seuss's wilder stories. I found the book at my library.

Title:  Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories
Author: Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel); introduction by Charles D. Cohen
Publisher: Random House, 2014
Source: Library

This volume contains 4 rather brief stories and an interesting introduction to them. The stories were published in magazines in the early 1950s, and for various reason just never got collected before. The stories are:
Horton and the Kwuggerbug (featuring Horton of Hatches the Egg and Hears a Who fame)
Marco Comes Late (featuring the lead character from And to think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street)
How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town (I think it's still Mulberry Street)
and
The Hoobub and the Grinch (featuring an early version of the Grinch, who doesn't look much like the one who stole Christmas, and is really a send-up of the advertising business, where Geisel made his living for a time).

None of these stories is very long; the last one is only just over a page. But they have the classic Seuss illustrations, and Seuss situations.

I of course enjoyed it a lot. I think my favorite was Officer Pat, which like Mulberry Street is something of a paean to the imagination (ditto Marco, but Pat goes farther and does more in this case).

So take a look at your library and if your age is anywhere between 4 and 400, enjoy some Seuss you never read as a kid!

###

I'm not sure this counts as a review, but I'll put my proper disclaimer in here. Seuss would have appreciated the absurdity, especially the part about him not giving me anything, he being beyond the ability to do so--except to give me the pleasure of his stories, as often as I care to read them.

FTC Disclosure: I checked Horton and the Kwuggerbug out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Picture Book Review: Librarian on the Roof!

Once again I have been lured from the paths of Middle Grade fiction (or adult) into the world of picture books! I saw this while looking at fellow Book-Elf M.G. King's books, and simply had to have it.

Title: Librarian on the Roof!
Author: M. G. King   Illustrator: Stephen Gilpin
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co., 2010; 32 pages

Publisher's Summary:
When RoseAleta Laurell begins her new job at the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, Texas, she is surprised that the children of the town think the library is for adults. She vows to raise the money for a children's section and spends a week living and working on the library roof, even surviving a dangerous storm. With the help of the entire town, RoseAleta raises over $39,000 from within the community and across the country.

Today if you look through the front window of the Eugene Clark Library, you will see shelves stacked full with children's books and tables and chairs just the right size. You will see artwork on the walls, and a row of busy computers. Best of all, you will always find crowds of children who love to read and learn inside the walls of the oldest library in Texas.

My Review:
As I said above, when I saw this book I just had to have it. RoseAleta Laurell is a librarian after my own heart, and one the Ninja Librarian would be proud to call a colleague!  The story is pretty simple, and fully summed up above, and it's as delightful as it sounds. It is non-fiction, but reads like a flight of the author's imagination, and is charmingly told and wonderfully illustrated. I very much enjoyed Stephen Gilpin's illustrations, and thought they complemented the story perfectly.

There is a full page (for the adults) at the beginning which tells the true story of RoseAleta Laurell's efforts to revive the library in Lockhart, Texas in 2000.

Recommendation:
I first recommend this for every librarian I know, because it's just wonderful. But I'll also recommend for anyone, adult or child, who loves books or loves their library.

Full Disclosure: I bought Librarian on the Roof! with my own money and of my own volition, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

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And...taking care of business!

Don't miss the Goodreads BookElves Anthology Giveaway!  

Also: Check out Read Tuesday next week! Hundreds of great deals of books--it's Black Friday for Books!

And last, but by no means least, be sure to enter the drawing for an ebook of Halitor the Hero!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Unpacking the new books:

Open the big heavy box!

Remove many layers of paper packing.

Ooo! Books! Pretty!

{Big Smile}

Fully restocked supply shelf! Ready to take orders! Special pre-order price is good until Dec. 10!

 

Picture book review: Moo

 

Never say never. I say that I never review picture books, but this one was so funny I just had to. I was working the desk at the library while the Storytime Lady was reading it, and thought I was going to die.

Title: Moo!
Author: David LaRochelle
Illustrator: Mike Wohnoutka
Publisher: Bloomsbury/Walker, 2013.
Source: Library

The Story:
Moo. That's the whole story. Well, of course, not really, because though the only word in the book is "moo," the story is told in pictures. To put it flatly, a cow decides to take a car for a little drive, and hilarity ensues.

Review:
You would never believe how much you can say with a single word. The story is funny, with a cow that reminds me of Minnie and Moo (Denys Cazet). Cow (Moo?) gets very excited at the idea of a car, and the expressions on her face as she drives off are priceless. But the absolutely best moment is the long paragraph of moos in which she explains it all to the police officer. Anyone who can get through it without giggling is inhuman, or possibly superhuman.

Recommendation:
This is definitely a read-aloud book, as much of the story comes in the expression you put into the various moos. If you are a person who reads in an monotone--maybe not the book for you. But if you like to throw yourself into a bit of dramatic silliness, read it to your kid! If your kid is too old, or you don't have one. . . beg, buy, borrow, bum or steal one so you can read this book!


Full Disclosure: I checked Moo! out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Now go hop around to the other participants in the KLBH--just click on the badge at the top of the page!

Writer's mechanics: publishing a picture book

This is the cover from the paperback, 8.5 X 8.5"

 

Smashwords cover.  You can see I trimmed it on the left and shrunk and moved the title.

Constructing a Picture Book with CreateSpace.com

Since I managed to print a reasonably successful copy of my new picture alphabet book, my friend Dixie Goode suggested I share what I learned about working on it through Createspace and Kindle (as well as Smashwords).  As it took me about a dozen attempts to get the file right, it does seem that I might be able to offer some insights that could smooth the way for others and save them from pulling all their hair out.  I will say that using the Createspace automatic conversion for Kindle seemed to work fairly well, though I had to tinker some.

1.  Images.  This was a huge pain, because images had to be extra-high quality and resolution for Createspace (in order to print well), and highly compressed for electronic publication.  Happily, this isn't as bad as it might be, especially if (unlike me) you do it right the first time.
    a.  Use Photoshop or similar to edit the images to the right size (actual size in inches) as well as to save them to at least 300 dpi.  You have to start with pretty high quality images for them to come out well in print.
    b.  Don't resize images by dragging the outline in the document.  If you do, you will have to fix messes when you convert to electronic.
   c.  Read the Smashwords formatting guide carefully.  The key thing, though, is to compress the file to make the electronic version.  Just as you need very large, high-quality images to print, you need small, web-friendly, quick-loading images in the e-book.  Happily, you can resize the whole lot at once by selecting the entire document, then using the "Reduce File Size" option in the pull-down menu under "File' (sorry--this is for the Mac.  The Smashwords guide shows how to do it on a PC).  Select the smallest setting under the options pull-down, and apply to "all pictures in Document" and hit okay.  This should shrink the whole shooting match adequately.  I had to do it a few times before I got it right, though.  I think it was only shrinking single pictures.

2.  Fonts.  For the printed book, great big fonts are fine.  I used huge ones for the initial letters for each page, and very large type for the rest.  That doesn't cut it for e-books.  For my Smashwords publication, I had to cut the size of fonts down to 18 pt. or less, so I used 18 for the initials, and 12 for the rest of the text.  If people want it larger, of course, I think all e-readers allow them to enlarge it.  The best way to do this is to redefine the styles, since otherwise underlying styles and fonts can mess things up.  This was more trouble than it should have been.

Those two elements were the primary issues with the picture book.  Oh, and I'd chosen a square format for the print book, and designed the cover to match.  Smashwords uses a standard vertical rectangle for cover thumbnails, so I had to make a modified cover.  If you are using non-standard shapes, you will need to think about this too.  It was easy for me, because I designed my own cover, had the files, and can use Photoshop enough to make the necessary changes (see images above).

Because I had initially done my images without paying attention to size/quality, as well as doing some re-sizing in the document, I discovered an interesting quirk with CS's review process.  Basically, each time I uploaded the file, it pegged another two or three pictures as being too small (and not in any rational order, either).  I'd fix those, upload again, and be told some others were too small.  Eventually I got smart, changed all the pictures I hadn't yet done, and got past it.  I have no idea why it couldn't just tell me from the start that all my pictures were wrong.  

Finally, I am working to resolve a problem with spacing on the first picture page, which appears correct in my Word file, but puts the photo off-center in the CS version. I have examined everything I can think of to examine, and it should be correct (as it appears in the Word file).  But it doesn't.  Anyone with insights should let me know, or I'll go mad.  Meanwhile, I'm going on selling it with one picture slightly off center, in order to prove that I am human, not divine.