There's A Bumbie Under My Bed!... Blog Tour

Oh Yes, we've all had a Bumbie or two lurking under the bed when the lights go out! Here's a cute  look at the Bumbie's under a certain little boy's bed in There's A Bumbie Under My Bed by Bethany Ramos...

There’s a Bumbie Under My Bed tells the story of a boy who can’t go to sleep because of all the monster bunnies keeping him up at night. Told in the first-person narrative, the little boy delays bedtime, using his flashlight and hand to create scary and silly bunny shadow puppets on the wall. According to the boy, friendly, spooky characters like the Bumbie (bunny zombie), Were-bunny (werewolf bunny), Bunny-stein (bunny Frankenstein), and Count Hop-ula come to visit him in the night. At the end of the book, his mother comforts him to sleep by telling him to let his imagination rest — and put the flashlight away.

What Did I Think?! I loved it! Creative, imaginative and wonderfully illustrated, author Bethany Ramos along with illustrator, Emiliano Billai, gives us a peek into what lurks under the bed late at night when the lights go out... but it's the little boy's mother in the story that helps us learn how to deal with such a vivid imagination. I really thought it was wonderful at the end of the story that the mother tells her little boy, to "put your flashlight away and let your imagination rest. You'll see your friends again tomorrow night." It shows us that the Bumbie's are really our friends and that we can bring them out to play another time. Although I didn't spy a flashlight bringing the Bumbie's to life, there seemed to be light streaming into the room that did give life to those shadows. I also liked that the last two pages of the book show how to make our own shadow puppets (or Bumbies) with our own flashlight. A great way to help children learn to deal with their own Bumbies! (or other cute named monsters!)

There's a Bumbie Under My Bed is 24 pages, Published by Saturn Moon Press and is a Children's picture book.

About the Author...
Bethany Ramos is a children’s book author, editor, and blogger. She is a regular contributor to SheKnows.com. Bethany’s first children’s book, Lions Can’t Eat Spaghetti, was published through 4RV Publishing in 2016. Her second children’s book, There’s a Bumbie Under My Bed, was published by Saturn’s Moon Press, also in 2016. Her first chick lit novel, 5 Stages of Grief, was published by Black Opal Books in 2011; her second chick lit novel, Adventure to Love, was published by Soul Mate Publishing in 2013. Bethany works as Editor in Chief for Naturally Healthy Publications.

Here's Bethany's... WEBSITE ! You can follow Bethany on... TWITTER ! Like Bethany on... FACEBOOK!

Chick with Books is participating in today's Blog Tour courtesy of Pump Up Your Books! Virtual Book Publicity Tours! As part of the tour, I was given a copy of There's A Bumbie Under My Bed! to read and share my unbiased review.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon… A Review

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon is wordless and a poignant venture into the nature of friendships. Sara Varon's drawings are simple and very effective, moving me to such sadness at one point…

In Robot Dreams, a dog buys himself a mail-order robot to be his friend. They become best friends, renting movies, making popcorn,  and life is wonderful, until one day dog decide to take them to the beach. After venturing in the water, robot's metal parts are rusted so that he can't move. Night comes and dog has no choice but to leave him behind.  But dog goes to the library and gets a book on robot repair and goes back to the beach, only to find the beach closed and no way to get to his friend. Both friends miss each other, but as the months pass before the beach is open again, robot lies on the beach dreaming of being reunited with his friend, but dog moves on, trying to fill the void left by his best friend with new friends. The ending brought a tear to my eye and was bittersweet, but ultimately this story is about how friendships can change over time.

I Loved this tender story. I also loved the artwork, which in muted colors absolutely conveyed the story without needing words. Written with 8 - 12 year-olds in mind, Robot Dreams has a special place on my shelf.

Once Upon a Northern Night by Jean Pendziwol… A Wintery Children's Book Review

There is something so beautiful in Once Upon a Northern Night written by Jean E. Pendziwol and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. A children's book celebrating the wonder of a snow laden winter evening…

                           Once upon a northern night,
                           while you lay sleeping,
                           wrapped in a downy blanket,
                           I painted you a picture.

Like a gentle lullaby soothing us to sleep, the words and beautiful simple illustrations sweep us out into the night to witness the quiet goings on of the natural world around us, beyond a sleeping boy's window. The one snowflake that became two, that soon becomes a snowy blanket for the earth, the snowshoe hares that frolic playing hide and seek with a fox, a mother deer and her fawn nibbling the frozen apples on a tree, and other silent visitors that peek out from their daytime hideaways to enjoy the winter wonderland.

Beautiful prose that carries you softly from beginning to end and beautiful illustrations in muted colors reminiscent of the season create a perfect bedtime story for a snowy winter night. I loved Once Upon a Northern Night!  Published by Groundwood Books.

My Family Tree and Me by Dušan Petričić… A Review

One of my other hobbies besides "books" is genealogy. I've been researching my family genealogy off and on for 20 plus years. My very first questions about my extended family were when I was about 12 years old. I have a piece of notebook paper with my grandparents names and their brothers and sisters and their children, all the way down to my parents. I put that aside for a long time and then got "the bug" again. What I wish I had done was NOT put aside my curiosity at that time, when all my relatives were alive and sharing the family stories. And so, I can appreciate this sweet book, My Family Tree and Me by Dušan Petričić which is being published by Kids Can Press this coming April 2015.

It's a beautiful and simple children's picture book that shows how a small boy came to be, starting with his great great grandparents. The front of the book is the boys' father's family, where you'll leaf through the pages of first the great great grandparents, accompanied by a beautiful color illustration of them and a small bit of prose, then the great grandparents with another beautiful drawing and description, then his grandparents, then his "uncle, aunt and dad", and finally his uncle, aunt and dad with their spouses including his mom and dad, all beautifully drawn out with a description of who they are. Flip the book over and you find the boy's mother's family, starting with his great great grandparents on his mothers' side and working down to his mother and her siblings, and their spouses and parents. In the center of the book is the WHOLE family! All the aunt's & uncles, grandparents on both sides, cousins, Mom & Dad and of course the little boy.

What did I think? I thought the illustrations were beautiful and the simple prose that went with it perfect...

                                                             "Thanks to them,

                                                               a long, long time ago

                                                               there lived my

                                                               great-grandfather,

                                                               who met and married my 

                                                               great-grandmother." 

What a great starting point to begin talking to your child about his or her family history! I like the idea of the flip book, with one side of the family at the front of the book and flipping the book over for the other side of the family. I love the idea of the whole family, both sides of the family in a beautiful illustration in the center of the book.

Just a little aside… The publisher provided an eGalley of the book for me to review. I wish I had a physical copy of the book to review because I think it would work so much better than the eBook. In the eBook as you start at the front of the book, when you get to the end of the boys' father's family and want to flip to the back of the book, you have to leave the book and go to the table of contents to start with the back of the book OR you have to quickly flip through the whole book to get to the back and then slowly start backwards. I found this a bit awkward. Can they fix this somehow in the final eBook? I'm not sure. So, I would buy the physical book instead of the eBook.

My Family Tree and Me is written for 3 - 7 year olds, 24 pages and is written and illustrated by Dušan Petričić, who is an awarding winning illustrator. I would give it 5 family tree leaves as a great book for that beginning genealogist child in your family! (3 leaves for the eBook).

Children's Corner… Is a Worry Worrying You? by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz, a Review

Is a Worry Worrying You?
                ... by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz

Worry takes on the form of a BIG blue/green furry monster is this cautionary tale to children on how to tame the worry monster.

The carefree life we imagine for children is in reality sometimes fraught with all sorts of stress. How to help children deal with their stress? In Is a Worry Worrying You, the authors use whimsical illustrations to help children learn how to creatively make worries go away…

What if you "had a lots elephants over and didn't have any tea to serve them?!" Well, you'd just serve them lemonade instead! Or, what if a monster lives under your bed and you're afraid to go to sleep? Well, "you can get rid of that worry by singing the monster lullabies until you both fall asleep." Creative ideas to get your child brainstorming their own solutions to their BIG blue/green furry monster.

Wonderful illustrations that will make you and your child smile as you turn the pages of this creative book on how to deal with stress. 32 pages, geared towards 4 - 8 year olds, and published by Tanglewood Press. Adults could also take a lesson from these pages, because we all have stress now and again! I enjoyed the humorous ways the authors presented dealing with the silly problems illustrated, and thought the illustrations were wonderful. 3 1/2 Big Blue/Green Furry Monsters for creativity!

I want to thank Tanglewood Press for the eGalley for my honest review!

Children's Corner… Birds of a Feather by Vanita Oelschlager, a Review

Birds of a Feather: A Book of Idioms and Silly Pictures…
written by Vanita Oelschlager and illustrated by Robin Hegan

This silly and delightful book will teach children what idioms are with humorous and cute illustrations. And do you know what an idiom is?! An idiom is a group of words that have a meaning when put together, but generally nothing to do with the words themselves. One example is "It's raining cats and dogs!" It's not really raining cats and dogs, but that's an idiom. Of course it means it's raining very heavy, but what does that have to do with cats and dogs?! These idioms have origins, but what Birds of a Feather does is illustrate some of these idioms we use every day in a humorous, colorful way. The explanation of the meaning of the idiom is explained, with an example in a sentence in the corner of the page, so everyone understands.

"Goosebumps", "Bright eyed and bushy tailed", "Look what the cat dragged in", are only some of the idioms explained. Very cute and sometimes very funny illustrations make for a picture book that will be enjoyed many times after the first reading. Oh, and it's educational too! 32 pages, and written with Pre-school - 3 year olds in mind, I enjoyed it myself and I'm nowhere near 3!

BTW, I received Birds of a Feather as an eGalley from Vanita Books for an honest review. Thank you!

The Children's Corner… Mr. Squirrel and the Moon by Sebastian Meschenmoser, a Review

Mr. Squirrel and the Moon 
                                             ...by Sebastian Meschenmoser

Mr. Squirrel is in a panic! The Moon has landed on his tree! He's just got to get rid of it before someone thinks HE has stolen it and throws him in prison! As he tries to solve his problem he accidentally makes it the problem of his friend the Hedgehog, and then a billy goat, until some mice happen to come by and help them all out.

This is a delightful story that children will love to have read to them or to read to themselves, time & time again, with beautiful drawings that complement the story perfectly! It's 48 pages and geared towards 4 - 8 year olds, but I enjoyed it myself and so will you! Cute and funny, you'll be seeing the moon in a whole different light after reading this! I give it 4 Moons!

You'll have to wait a bit to pick this up, though, it's publishing date is January 2015! I want to thank North South Books for the eGalley of Mr. Squirrel and the Moon for my honest review!

Memoirs of a Goldfish... a Review for Memoir Monday!

A Solitary Life for a Clever little Fellow...

until One Day ...

Memoirs of a Goldfish is, simply said, Wonderful! Written by Devin Scillian and beautifully illustrated by Tim Bowers, we are introduced to a clever little goldfish that loves his simple solitary lifestyle. He recounts 14 days of his life that start out simply as,

Day One

I swam around my bowl

Day Two

I swam around my bowl. Twice.

But life even for a goldfish can get complicated and as the simple little bowl that serves as his home starts to fill up with other "fishbowl" items, such as Mr. Bubbles the scuba diver (he's creepy), Mervin the disgusting snail, and plants which he knows he's going to have to "water now!", the little goldfish laments for the simple solitary life he once had- until his wish comes true and he then realizes being alone isn't really as nice as all that.

Children will delight in the beautiful illustrations of the ever crowding fishbowl. They'll meet a crab named Fred, 2 guppies named Rhoda & Clark, a diva angelfish named Cha-Cha, along with Mr. Bubbles & Mervin the snail. It's a sweet story, with memorable characters, where children will learn the value of friendship and the importance of sharing their lives with others as our sweet hero suddenly,

" With a whoosh, and a splash, and a clank and a plunge,"

is transported to a new home, void of all objects crowding up his old bowl. He begins to worry and miss everyone! No need to fret though, there's a very happy ending that will have everyone, including our little goldfish, smile! A sweet choice for children, but the adults in my household loved the story too! You will laugh, and you will smile, as you read the cleverly written Memoirs of a Goldfish. And Memoirs of a Goldfish will be available at your local bookstore June 1st!

I met the wonderful people from Sleeping Bear Press at BEA this year, and want to thank them for sending home a copy of Memoirs of a Goldfish with me to review & share with my readers! You can learn more about the other fabulous childrens books Sleeping Bear Press publishes at their website, Sleeping Bear Press.

Secrets of a Christmas Box... A New Christmas Favorite & a Review!

"From the start of December,

to Christmas Eve night,

one chapter an evening,

wrapped up with delight."

Secrets of a Christmas Box by Steven Hornby is a charming, wonderful story that will have you smiling as you turn the pages reading the adventures of Larry, Debbie and Splint, ornaments that come to life after the lights are turned off and the family goes to sleep...

"In the secret world of the Christmas 'Tree-Dwellers', Larry, a glass snowman, wakes up from the long sleep in the Christmas box, to find his brother is missing from the tree. With friends, he escapes into the house to search for him, and embarks on a series of fantastical adventures."

After the Christmas box comes out and the ornaments are all put on the tree, the fantastic world of the Tree-Dwellers comes to life. Slowly the ornaments wake up from their seasonal sleep and a huge celebration is begun. New ornaments are welcomed and old friends share a pine needle or two for treats. It is pure delight as we peek into the world of the ornaments, at the dangers of breaking if they fall off the tree, or the need to remember their 'bedtime branch', so the family doesn't know they moved from where they placed them! You'll be looking at your Christmas tree a little differently after reading this fantastic tale!

The book is divided into 24 chapters, so you can read one chapter a night starting Dec.1st and ending Christmas Eve. It is well written, with cute illustrations spread throughout and a wonderful story to read together as a family. It just warmed my heart to read it as Larry, Debbie and Splint show us the true meaning of friendship & the importance of family...

Start a new family tradition with the reading of Secrets of a Christmas Box during the month of December! And feel the magic of the season that Steve Hornby created in a little story that will touch your heart.

“Growing out of my childhood, I remembered trying to hold onto those magical feelings I only got at Christmas time, the warm fuzziness in my stomach and the giddy excitement of knowing Santa Claus would soon be arriving... I wanted to create a world that captured those magical feelings I had as a child, but also include a sense of what Christmas means to me today, every time I open up that wonderful Christmas box.” – Steven Hornby

Would you like to read an excerpt of Secrets of a Christmas Box? Here's a sample... it's Chapter Nine! And I want to especially thank Golriz Fanai of Ecky Thump Books, who send me the review copy of this wonderful book! Thank you Golriz! It was magical!