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Giveaway! And Looking for Potential Children’s Authors

Sorry, this giveaway is now CLOSED.

A few days ago, MyBlogSpark.com sent me 4 children’s books: Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett, Duck for President by Doreen Cronin, When Dinosaurs Came with Everything by Elise Broach, and The Great Dog Wash by Shellie Braeuner. (My kids are really enjoying the dinosaur one.)

What do these books have in common? They are all a part of Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories. The Great Dog Wash even won last year’s New Author contest!

And I have the opportunity to give away a similar book gift set to one lucky reader!!

I’m also happy to promote the opportunity for anyone out there who has dreamed of becoming a children’s author! (If you’re interested in the giveaway but not the author part, feel free to skip the next few paragraphs.)

cheerios_spoonfuls_of_storiesOver the past seven years, Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories has given away more than 35 million children’s books by distributing them free inside cereal boxes and has donated nearly $3 million to First Book, their non-profit partner, which provides books to children from low-income families.

In addition to encouraging children to read, Cheerios is looking for anyone interested in writing children’s books. Now in its third year, the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest is a way to encourage previously unpublished, up-and-coming children’s book authors and to continue to nurture a love of reading. Entries are being accepted March 16 through July 15, 2009 and will be judged on appropriate story and content for children ages 3-8, emotional connection, writing quality, uniqueness, and read-aloud potential. More details on the contest can be found at www.spoonfulsofstoriescontest.com.

Shellie Braeuner, the first year’s winner, won for her book “The Great Dog Wash”. This nanny from Nashville won a $5,000 cash prize and the opportunity to have her book reviewed by Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing. Simon & Schuster offered Shellie a book deal – and will publish her book, illustrated by Robert Neubecker, in hardcover this summer. In addition, Cheerios will be featuring “The Great Dog Wash” free inside 1.5 million boxes of Cheerios. The book has been specially printed in paperback in both English and Spanish and will be available free inside boxes of Cheerios this spring.

Cheerios is also announcing the winners of the second New Author Contest:

  • Lori Degman, of Vernon Hills, Ill., won the top prize for her story, “1 Zany Zoo.” In addition to winning a $5,000 cash prize from Cheerios, Degman earned the opportunity to have her book reviewed by Simon & Schuster Children´s Publishing. Simon & Schuster has since offered Degman a book deal; her book is expected to be released in 2010, initially in paperback distributed inside Cheerios boxes, and later in hardcover sold in the market.
  • Cheerios also named two runners-up in the contest: Tameka Fryer Brown, of Charlotte, N.C., for her story “I’m Not Eating That!” and Joan Stradling, of Star Valley, Ariz., for her story, “Who Invites a Pig to Dinner?” Both Brown and Stradling will receive a cash prize of $1,000 from Cheerios.

Are you or someone you know an aspiring children’s book author? Then GO FOR IT!!

Now for the Giveaway part.

There are multiple ways to enter – you do not have to do all of them to be entered!

One entry each for the following comments left. Pick and choose the ones you want to do, but please leave a separate comment for each option – makes for easier random.org picking. 🙂

  • What is your favorite children’s book? (And if you’d like to state why, I’m curious about that as well…but that won’t impact your entry 😉 )
  • What is your child’s favorite book?\
  • If you could be a character from a children’s book, who would it be?

You can also get more entries (1 each) if you:

  • Blog about this giveaway/children’s author opportunity and link back to me (let me know with a comment please)
  • Tweet about this giveaway/children’s author opportunity (please let me know with a direct link in your comment)

You have until Midnight on Sunday, May 17th to enter. Random.org will choose the winner and I’ll post it on Monday the 18th.

Blog Tour: Chicken Soup for the Soul Book

twins-and-moreI’m so excited to be a part of the Blog Tour for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Susan Heim!

I am fortunate enough to be asked to review this book (look for my review at some point this month – we’ll see when I can get my act together 🙂 )

Synopsis
Chicken Soup for the Soul
is back with 101 heartwarming stories about the joys – and adventures- that twins and multiples bring.
With multiples expert, mommy blogger, and mother-of-twins Susan Heim at the helm, these stories celebrate the special bond between twins, the challenges and joys that come with raising multiples, and all the laughs and wisdom gained along the way.

Official Press Release
COS COB, Conn. – These days, it’s hard not to see twins or multiple children smiling back at us from every television screen and glossy magazine. From Jon & Kate Plus 8 to Angelina Jolie, twins and multiples are bounding into our lives from all corners. In fact, according to The Nemours Foundation, between 1980 and 2004 the number of twin births increased by 70 percent. And during the same time span, the number of births involving three or more babies quadrupled.

More people than ever are fascinated by multiples and what it takes to raise them. In Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More (Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC, 978-1-935-09632-0, March 10, 2009, Paperback, $14.95), Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Susan M. Heim offer a collection of heartwarming and hilarious stories from parents of “twins and more,” and from multiples themselves, filled with time-tested advice from those who have “been there, done that.” Twins mom and CNN journalist Soledad O’Brien lends her hearty recommendation to this book as well, saying “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More is funny and moving, insightful and inspiring. Life with twins is a chaotic, wonderful, joyful experience – and this book captures it perfectly.”

“Twins and multiples are seen as a blessing today, despite their often well-deserved reputation for ‘double trouble’ and ‘multiple mischief,’” says Heim, who is also the author of It’s Twins! Parent-to-Parent Advice from Infancy Through Adolescence (Hampton Roads Publishing, 2007). “Who isn’t moved by the sight of twin babies snuggled together in a crib, holding hands as they begin their life together?”

From sections like “Sleep Deprivation” to “Grandparenting Twins” to “A Different Path to Parenthood,” Twins and More includes 101 stories that speak to the twin and multiple experience, and how parents got there. This book also explores the “twin connection” – which is fascinating to witness.

“The bond between twins is amazing. They were meant to share their life together,” writes Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More contributor Joanne C. King of her twin daughters. “They share a friendship that will span a lifetime.” As any parent of multiples knows, twinship is an adventure for the entire family.

Inside Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More, you’ll also read about:

  • A frustrated mother of triplet girls who got great advice from the cable repairman: Toilet train them one at
  • a time by setting up a competition that included stickers and mommy’s “potty dance”
  • A mother of newborn twins, desperate for “nap time,” who tossed an expensive ham over the fence to keep the neighbor’s barking dog from waking her twins
  • Toddler twins who escaped from the bath and led their mother on a naked chase around the neighborhood, until one of the twins crouched on the neighbor’s lawn and used it as a toilet
  • International singing twins who convinced villagers in Papua New Guinea that multiples are a blessing, not a cultural curse
  • The new mother who was so sleep-deprived that she panicked over how she would tell her twins apart after their hospital bracelets were removed, forgetting that they were a boy and a girl

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More (Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Susan Heim) releases March 10, 2009.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC, publishes all the latest titles in the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul book series which are distributed through Simon and Schuster, Inc. Since 1993, books in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series have sold more than 112 million copies, with titles translated into more than 40 languages. Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing also
licenses the right to use its famous trademark to high quality licensees through IMG, the world’s premier licensing agent. The company is currently implementing a plan to expand into all media, is working with TV networks on several TV shows and is developing a major Internet presence dedicated to life improvement, emotional support and inspiration. In 2007, USA Today named Chicken Soup for the Soul one of the five most memorable and impactful books in the last quarter century.

For more information visit: www.chickensoup.com.

Kiddo Books

I just posted a page that “houses” lists of the books the kids have.

There’s always so much confusion about what books we have or don’t have that we sometimes get duplicates (not often though – very impressive!) or we sometimes don’t receive “favorites” because everyone thinks we already have them (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie comes to mind…)

The page includes a link to our Amazon Wish list … anything we should add to our list?

We’ve also just discovered that some authors post their books on YouTube! The kids received We’re Going on a Bear Hunt for Christmas … and I knew that there were hand movements and such, so I did a search. Wouldn’t you know it, the author – Michael Rosen – video taped himself reading it with all the fun stuff.

Favorite Books: A – Z

Stolen directly from What a Card. LOVE this idea!! As she states, there are probably some letters that get the default book title if it’s the only one I’ve read starting with that letter…doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a favorite though 😉

A – Alosha by Christopher Pike (Enjoyed the whole Alosha trilogy)

B – The Belgariad by David Eddings (Or maybe the Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell)

C – Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts

D – The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

E – The Edge by Catherine Coulter

F – Fifteen by Beverly Cleary

G – A Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan

H – Harry Potter by J.K. Rollings (the whole series 🙂 )

I – Into the Dream by William Sleator

J – Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt

K – A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

L – The Loop by Nicholas Evans

M – Mirror Image by Sandra Brown

N – Nightingale Legacy by Catherine Coulter

O – The Original Warm Fuzzy Tale by Claude Steiner

P – Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Q –

R – Return to Summer House by Jude Deveraux

S – The Search by Iris Johansen Or The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans

T – Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts

U – Unspeakable by Sandra Brown

V – The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux

W – When the Wind Blows by James Patterson

X –

Y – You Belong To Me by Marry Higgins Clark

Z – Zoya by Danielle Steel

A Book Meme

What a Card tagged me for a meme that I’m loving. I used to read a *lot* of books…nothing too intellectual, but lots of trashy romance, and lots of mystery. Writers who do both – love ’em! Young adult? You betcha. Now? I just can’t seem to find a lot of time. I always have a book that I’m reading, but it definitely takes me quite a while to get through it. An hour a week while waiting for Burke at his speech class just doesn’t cut it. ANYWAY…

Here are the rules:

Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences on your blog along with these instructions. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag five other people to do the same.

As I’m looking around, I see (like WAC) lots of kids books. And none of them hit 56 pages. Luckily – I just brought my book in from the car and I know it’s on the oven and the closest (longest) book.

Here’s the fifth sentence (and more) from page 56 of Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts:

“Deal with it.” Cian dropped Glenna back on her feet, caught the fist aimed at his face just before it connected. “Do your business,” he told her. “Quietly. Then take off. Keep a lid on the magic. Both of you. King.”

Now, I tag:

  1. Goddess in Progress
  2. Laura at Catholic Teacher Musings
  3. Debi at Who Says 8 is Enough
  4. Cheryl at Twinfactuation
  5. Cat at Juggling Act of Life

Feel free to do it…or not 🙂

Cool Website for Readers

Lee over at Why isn’t There Mouse Falvored Cat Food posted about this site…and I just had to pass it along.

Goodreads.com is a website that will keep track of the books you’ve read!! You can rate them and you can tag them with one of three things: read, currently-reading, and to-read. You can get recommendations from your friends. If you join and want to add me as a friend, used no_zimmer at yahoo.com 🙂 Fair warning: I read lots of trashy romance novels, mysteries, and young adult books. *grin*

And speaking of great websites for readers (and writers)…have you ever checked out Levenger? This great website is totally commercial, but I *LOVE* the (expensive) stuff from here. I use the lap desk daily with my laptop. And the circa notebooks are KICK BUTT. I use the larger size at work, and the little one as my favorite recipe book. My mom lives by the outlet store (I’m so jealous!!)

Anyone have any other great sites like these two?