Let’s celebrate Black History Month with Marvelous Cornelius by Phil Bildner
Today’s Black History post includes a story. I hope you enjoy it.
Tag: Unconventional Librarian
Don’t Forget DEXTER!
Dexter T Rexter might be the cauuuuuutest T-Rex I’ve ever met! And sadly, I would be devastated if he were mine and got separated from me. But you know what, that’s exactly what happens in this adorbs story. Poor Dexter gets left behind in the doctor’s office waiting room. He’s sure his best buddy would never leave him behind on purpose so he sets out to figure out what happened and then tries to help himself get rescued.
The illustrations are multidimensional and so clever. I love love love this story. No spoiling the ending either, so you’ll hafta find out for yourself what happens.
PS you’ll be singing the dinosaur song all day!
Lindsay Ward was inspired to write this book after her husband texted her a photo of a toy dinosaur abandoned at a doctor’s office. The caption read: “Well, they left me here.” Lindsay thought it was so funny that she sat down to write Dexter’s story immediately. She is also the author and illustrator of Brobarians, Henry Finds His Word, and When Blue Met Egg. Her book Please Bring Balloons was also made into a play.Most days you can find Lindsay writing and sketching at her home in Peninsula, Ohio, where she lives with her family. Learn more about her online at www.LindsayMWard.com or on Twitter: @lindsaymward.
Praise for DON’T FORGET DEXTER!
★ “Ward’s ink, colored-pencil, and cut-paper illustrations give readers a toy’s view of the world and allow children to stomp in Dexter’s feet for a while, his facial expressions giving them lots of clues to his feelings. Lost and found was never so riotously funny or emotionally draining.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Ward (Brobarians) is as funny as ever as she chronicles her orange hero’s nervous, no-filter state of mind, and her cut-paper, pencil, and ink drawings—with their visual asides, annotations, and shifts in scale—are irrepressible. It’s high anxiety made highly adorable.” —Publishers Weekly
Check out some fun activities here!
And now the GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment here for a chance to win a copy in what’s sure to be your new beloved book! LOOK AT ALL THE CUTE!!!!
Holiday Gift Guide for Kids
If you’re all things Nat Geo and wild animals like I am, you’ve got to check out this list of books for your little animal lover!
National Geographic Kids:
Just Joking Jumbo
Bet You Didn’t Know!
Hey Baby!
Ultimate Dinopedia
Rumplepimple
Rumplepimple is a silly name for a pooch who takes care of some serious business. To be sure, his moms (he has two) think he’s a naughty little terrier. But when you look at the situation from Rumplepimple’s eyes you’ll see that he is just trying to help.
Rumplepimple gets loose and runs inside a grocery store because he hears a child crying for help. Turns out the little tyke is being tormented by her older brother and Rumplepimple swoops in, grabs the little girl’s blanked from the brother and returns it to the little girl. Now THAT’s a good doggo! No matter that he doesn’t belong in the grocery store, or that he peed on the boy’s shoes. Rumplepimple is just doing what a good dog should: caring for humans.
I love Rumplepimple and I love the easy way the diversity of the two moms is a non issue in the book. There’s no grand announcement of the LGBTQ life; they just happened to be two women who have a rambunctious terrier and a bossy chicken. I DEF want to see more Rumplepimple save the day! I almost forgot to mention that the illustrations are gloriously inclusive of people of color. Bravo!
Let’s celebrate Black History Month with Marvelous Cornelius by Phil Bildner
Today’s Black History post includes a story. I hope you enjoy it.
Let’s Hear it for the Girls!
Books, Women and the Olympics
If you love the Olympics as much as we do around here, you’re probably glued to your TV set! When you’re not watching the Olympics, maybe you are reading about the Olympics? There are so many great athletes to learn about it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s hear it for the girl! Many female athletes have made history over the years and while Rio has just gotten started, let’s look back and see what women have made it into a book.
Serena Williams. She’s amazing and definitely has done things her way. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her, either. She’s unconventional. I like it.
Hope Solo. She’s the gal you’ll love to hate. She’s probably one of the best goalies in the world but who would want to room with someone who has a reputation of domestic abuse? It’s a tough life for sure, but she keeps winning.
Gabby Douglas. America’s newest sweetheart proves that pint size people pack a punch on and off the field. She’s so sweet and her story is so inspirational you can’t help but cheer for her.
Dara Torres isn’t competing in Rio this year but she shouldn’t have to. At the Beijing Olympics she won a medal. Well, ok a few. She’s won 12 medals in all. She was 41. You’re right girl, age IS just a number.
So if you’re looking for encouragement, why not pick up a book about one of these ladies? I’m sure you’ll be motivated to win. Or to at least get off the couch.
Let’s hear it for the girls! Who’s your fave Olympic athlete this year?
It’s time for diversity! Last year I started a diversity reading challenge for myself and I was amazed at the number of people who were drawn to it. It’s so great to know that I’m not the only person who realizes that more books need to feature diverse characters AND that mainstream readers demand them too!
I’m Thrilled to announce that I have partnered with my bestie Thien-Kim Lam of From Left To Write and from I’m Not the Nanny and this year’s Diversity Challenge will be DOUBLE THE FUN! Kim and I go waaaay back and as she’s raising biracial kids, she’s always got my back when it comes to diversity. While Kim is good at so many things (check out her blog, yo) she likes to read adult fiction and she will host the Diversity Reading Challenge portion on her blog that focuses on books for grown ups.
While Kim will focus on the books for adults, I will continue to focus on diverse reads for kids. Â Presenting The Diversity Reading Challenge list for 2016!
The Diversity Reading Challenge is meant to be easy peasey lemon squeezy. 12 books in 12 months, which equals 1 diverse book a month. You can’t get easier than that! Whether you read non fiction or fiction, picture books, or graphic novels, the Diversity Reading Challenge will fit in with everything you do.
Follow us on Twitter, #ReadDiverseLit and stay tuned for #ReadDiverseLit chats on Twitter:
- Kim (@FromLeft2Write) will host an Adult chat the 2nd Wednesday at 3pm EST; and
- I (@pamlovesbooks) will host a Kid chat the 4th Thursday at 9pm EST
We would love to hear from you. Hit us up anytime!
Get some of this Diversity Action and link up your Diversity Challenge blog posts here:
Remember That Time I Met RA Salvatore? Yeah, I’m Finally Getting to a Book.
You remember that time, right?
Yeppers, that’s Salvatore himself.
I’ve been wanting to get to a book but I’m so intimidated by their thickness.
But I found one!
The Stowaway, co written with his son Geno.
It’s YA. Prolly older middle grade too.
So, I’ve just started. I’ll keep you posted.
Did I mention pirates??
Hope you enjoyed the April A to Z Blogging Challenge as much as I did. Â Did you get your survivor badge?
![survivor-atoz [2014] - SMALL](https://unconventionallibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/survivor-atoz-2014-SMALL1.jpg)
See you around and don’t forget to say Hi on Twitter!
My friend Sara, author of Paraestrals, just wrote a book about teens who get arrested for murder at a school dance. I’m hooked already, how about you?
I thought it might be fun to have Sara tell us a bit about herself and her book. Take it away, Sara!
Well I’ve been writing children’s and teenage fiction for over ten years now. Paraestrals is my first full length novel from a six part series I hope to continue publishing over the coming years. I’ve always loved reading stories, but being dyslexic it was challenging to put my own tales onto the page, but I got there in the end. By working my way up the ladder, entering several writing competitions, having some of my poems and short stories published in free literary articles, to my ebook being available on Amazon now.
Book Synopsis: Paraestrals is a narrative coming of age horror/thriller, about a young girl whose world is turned upside down as the origins of her dark lineage surface.
‘My name is Samantha LeFay; I’m young, popular, with my whole life ahead of me, what can go wrong – everything! After turning sixteen and suddenly becoming allergic to the sun along with a few other weird afflictions, my life begins to unravel at the seams, as my friends desert me, my boss at my weekend job forces me to quit and my stepmother nags me to the point of insanity.
My life’s different now, I’m different. As the people at school would put it I’m a freak – Sammy LeFreak. I don’t know if they’re right, all I know is the sun burns my skin, I suddenly have the strength to throw a guy ten foot in the air and my body craves a particular substance..…Blood!’
Paraestrals is no ordinary Vampire tale, my story takes the reader along with Sam as she discovers this hidden side she never knew she had, and follows the decisions she makes when it comes to how she’ll use these new found powers she possesses.
‘My name is Samantha LeFay; I’m young, popular, with my whole life ahead of me, what can go wrong – everything! After turning sixteen and suddenly becoming allergic to the sun along with a few other weird afflictions, my life begins to unravel at the seams, as my friends desert me, my boss at my weekend job forces me to quit and my stepmother nags me to the point of insanity.
My life’s different now, I’m different. As the people at school would put it I’m a freak – Sammy LeFreak. I don’t know if they’re right, all I know is the sun burns my skin, I suddenly have the strength to throw a guy ten foot in the air and my body craves a particular substance..…Blood!’
Paraestrals is no ordinary Vampire tale, my story takes the reader along with Sam as she discovers this hidden side she never knew she had, and follows the decisions she makes when it comes to how she’ll use these new found powers she possesses.
Paraestrals is part of a six part mini series and you can read the first Two Chapters for FREE on my official website: http://paraestrals.weebly.com/volume-i-chap-1-2.htmlMy Literary likes & hates:I have to say I’m a big fantasy and horror fan. Anything that transports me to another world or is able to scary the wits out of me is a must for any book that I lay my fingers on and if a book can do both then mores the better. I also like gritty crime stories, thrillers that make you jump about until the very end and paranormal spine chillers, which are all my kind of thing too.Smoochy romance’s, fluffy chick lit and Historical tales maybe great reads for some, but I’m afraid they just don’t feed my literary appetite very well. I’ve read the odd one that’s been okay, but I always tend to edge back towards a darker or more magical tale.Best horror read:It has to be the Saga of Darren Shan. It’s a 12 book mini series which follow the trials of a young vampire boy. These books were so different from other vampire stories I’d read before – he made the blood suckers seem so plausible and real, which really scared the hell out of me when I first read this series.Worst romance story:I can’t actually remember the title of this book. It was one of those summer holiday reads you grab in a 3 for 2 offer at the supermarket, and after attempting to read this book not only on the plane ride over to my holiday destination, on the beach and a few months later when I came home – I just couldn’t get through it. With its unbelievable characters, silly made-up “chance” meetings and overly “prince-like” men the main character always fell for. I’m afraid it ended up in the bin.
It was GREAT getting to know you Sara, but I’ll admit, I don’t like to be scared, although I do love a good vampire read…
Paraestrals official website: http://paraestrals.weebly.com/index.html
Twitter: @Paraestralsbook
Ebook Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paraestrals-Volume-I-ebook/dp/B0092NIUY4/