#Review: The Forgotten Secret by Scott Clements

Simply wow! The follow up to Gasparilla’s Treasure by middle-grade author Scott Clements absolutely did not disappoint.

A great mix of history and adventure, this one is certainly a page turner (or slider if you have an e-reader). I could not put it down.

The story resumes with our favourite trio of treasure hunters basking in the victory of finding Gasparilla’s Treasure and living life a little bit better than before.

Trip, Sarah and Josh are quickly approached by a new character to the mix, Gonzalez, who has an air of mystery to him but presents the intrepid treasure hunters with an offer they simply cannot refuse. I’ll leave it there, I do not want to spoil it for you, but it’s fantastic with twists and turns and a lot of laughs too.

Full of fun ‘Easter eggs’ of references that us adventure movie loving fans will pick up on and page-turning action for the younger readers, this series is fantastic for making kids (and adults) want to read more.

Clements is a genius when it comes to writing visually. You really can ‘see’ the book as you read it and I just love that.

If you are looking for some great reading material for the kids this summer (or sooner!), that will hold their interest and get them excited about reading, check these out. They will not disappoint.

All of Clements’ books are available at his website here: www.HappyBrownDog.com

Love ‘Middle Grade’ Actually & Win a Kindle Fire!

My friend Scott Clements is an amazing author for kids, I adore his books really and truly. Since I am a bookworm and always have been, and I am a big proponent of reading with kids, when he mentioned this great Kindle Fire giveaway that he was involved with, I had to help.

Scott has teamed up with thirteen other tween authors for a giveaway of a Kindle Fire — worth $159– and it’s just in time for Valentine’s Day too, where the kids read the sample chapters from the authors and have to find the phrase that is hidden within to enter and win. It encourages reading, and it’s fun. Win-win!

From Scott:  “Fourteen “middle grade” authors (we write for the 9 to 13 crowd) have included the first couple of chapters of our books in a “sampler” book of adventure, fantasy, comedy, mystery, etc… Hidden within the book is a secret phrase that will allow you to enter for your chance to win the FREE Kindle Fire.  The “Love Middle Grade Actually” sampler book (which contains the secret code) will be available as a FREE download February 7-11 on Amazon.  It will also steer you to the entry page for the contest.  The drawing will be held on February 14th and is going to make someone’s Valentine’s Day a little more special.”

Curious about the books? Check out this wonderful book trailer below.

All of the instructions on how to enter and win are contained within the e-book on Amazon, click here to check it out! .

Happy reading!!!

Review: Why Does The Dog Chase The Cat and The Cat Chase The Mouse?

An adorable tale from first time author Lidia Ammirato, I had the opportunity to read this charming tale recently and I just adored it.

This tale seeks to answer one of the most enduring questions: Why does the dog chase the cat and the cat chase the mouse?

It relates the story of Dusk, a dog, Dawn, a cat and Curly, a mouse, whose adventures and misadventures as it were, lead up to this event and relationship change that endures to this day….for the most part, I know we’ve all seen cats and dogs in harmony….or at least that is what it ‘seems’ .

You can almost hear Ammirato speaking the words to you as you read and you just want to snuggle up as you follow along with the story.

I won’t spoil it, but the story stems from the friendship between Dusk and Dawn who simply want to plan for their future. Then they meet Curly, that darn mouse who throws their plans off a bit .

A simply adorable book that you and the munchkins in your life will no doubt cherish for years to come, it is definitely on my Christmas list for several munchkins in my life.

The book is available online at Amazon and from the publisher.

Reading Challenge!

Recently a friend, Patricia Sands, sent me a link on Facebook for a reading challenge. Being that I am a bookworm by nature and also that I am trying my darndest to read the classics, this challenge just screamed ‘Do this!’ to me.

The challenge means coming up with a list of the classics you want to read and you have a year to do it. I have been trying to make my list but keep getting interrupted so I am making a stand and here it is:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Around the World in 80 Days
• David Copperfield
• Little Women
• Oliver Twist
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Treasure Island
• Vanity Fair
• Wuthering Heights
• And one more! The Return of Sherlock Holmes (which I am starting right now & already loving)

I may not get through all of them, but I am going to make an effort and I encourage my readers to do so too.

If you want more info, click here and be whisked to the main page with all of the info.

Join the fun!

Book Review: Gasparilla’s Treasure by Scott Clements

Recently I was lucky enough to connect with a new author on twitter named Scott Clements who has written ‘Gasparilla’s Treasure‘, an adventure-treasure-hunt-esque novel for tweens (and I must admit, older than tweens as I literally couldn’t put it down myself).

For the Harry Potter fans who are without a current adventure to get behind, this novel definitely fits the bill. For the Indiana Jones and yes, dating myself here, Goonies fans too, this book will grab you and take you for a fun ride only lacking the ‘Truffle Shuffle’, but you can play ‘Goonies are Good Enough’ by Cyndi Lauper while you read and it totally works!

The story centers around young Trip Montgomery who’s Grandfather, Pappy, tells him about a mysterious trunk in one oddly lucid moment at the retirement home which spurs Trip on to find out what this could all possible be about. He quickly enlists his friend Josh, the typical sidekick who is a champion video gamer, as well as his crush, a Hermione-esque gal, Sarah to help him figure out just what Pappy was talking about.

There’s even a great nemesis character, Eli, who every time he appeared on the pages I kept envisioning as Biff from Back to the Future. You quickly love to hate him and turn the pages hoping he’ll ‘get his’ in the end.

The chapters are relatively short and I really like that for kids because they get a great sense of accomplishment as they advance to the next one.  The characters are very real, you can picture what they are going through as Scott writes in a very visual way which might possibly be due to his vast experience in the entertainment industry *wink wink*. It really adds to the story and allows your imagination to conjure up great visuals! I love when kids’ imaginations get to work, it’s so important to cultivate and encourage that to me and I think a lot of parents would agree.

As a Nonmom I will be honest, I am very envious of my parent friends who get to have story time with their kids. I love love love reading with kids, hence my weekly reading buddy time (hands-down my favourite hour of every week), and try to take advantage of any opportunity to read books with them. I know that a lot of parents are looking for a book that fills a gap between interest to them and their munchkins, this will definitely fill that.

Available on Amazon in paperback as well as for the Kindle. It is also available on Createspace.com in paperback. Definitely worth checking out, I give it a Nonmom ‘two thumbs up’.

Scott Clements is a two time Emmy nominated sound mixer in the movie and television industry.  After writing various movie scripts and the popular textbook “Production Sound, A Beginner’s Guide to Equipment and Techniques”, Scott turned his attention to writing his favorite type of book, children’s fiction.  His first book, “Gasparilla’s Treasure” is an adaptation of one of his movie scripts.

Born in 1972, Scott grew up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and currently lives in Orlando with his wife, son, dog, and three cats.  Writing mostly late at night when there are less distractions, he enjoys using his laptop computer so he can have his four legged family members by his side.

‘Real’ Books are still valid! Hmpf!

This morning during the torture (aka drive in fog & rain which took twice as long as it should have but that’s a rant for another time grrrr), I was listening to a couple of morning shows and one was talking about the validity of actual encyclopedias, you know, ‘real’ books.

I turned up the volume.

They were talking about how Wikipedia is going to go dark for a day in protest of piracy laws and then started talking about the good old World Book Encyclopedia as if were totally irrelevant when everyone can Google or Bing or whatever to look stuff up.

I vehemently disagree!

While using the internet and search engines is certainly accessible on a grander scale in present day, it is not always the most reliable source for information and having verifiable, accurate and comprehensive coverage of history and world is still very much needed.

Case in point. I work with some amazing students, they rock, but I find that they are, for the most part, far too reliant on searching the net and using Wikipedia for everything. While Wikipedia is great and covers anything and everything, my issue with it is that it can be edited by anyone. This means that content can be changed and added to and while I agree that this can bring together some details that you may not get otherwise, it can also be a negative and therefore needs to be used as a tool but not as a true reference for education. Going along with the updates, you don’t get the full picture of how things evolve and why, you only get the most current info. If I want a quick tidbit of info on a particular topic, I do use the site, but if I want a specific detail or statistic, I know that I will have to search harder, check their references and yes, sometimes a trip to the good old library is the best strategy.

When one of the kids was looking up an event that took place about 15 years ago we kept hitting a roadblock as you had to pay for content in order to get the stories I knew that were needed and would prove the case. My solution was simple, go to the library and use the CD’s (at least they were all on CD when I used them, they very well may be on the drives now) with all of the newspaper and magazine articles on them. This never entered into his mind to do. I was shocked. I used these CD’s and yes, the good old encyclopedia over and over and over during high school and University! That’s where the info is after all, why are we ignoring that? It’s just wrong! Why are people, not just students, most people, completely relying on digital?

Print is still valid!

I have an e-reader, my beloved Kobo you have heard me tweet and blog about, I adore it, I take it everywhere, but it will never ever replace the feeling of holding an actual book and that wonderful smell of the paper and sense of accomplishment that comes with slipping that bookmark in and seeing how far you’ve actually read (though my Kobo does meter it, but only when I close the book again).

My husband and I have been on a tight budget for a few years like a lot of people. Want to know what my favourite ‘date’ with him is? Going to the bookstore, in our case Chapters, and wandering and checking out books. It’s one of the few things that will totally calm me down too, ask my hubby, that’s a challenge at the best of times . We get to go out, we both get to find things we like and are interested in, and there’s that tactile, authentic experience that goes along with walking the aisles and talking to the staff and reading the book jackets etc. I love it!

Are ‘real’ actual books, and indeed encyclopedias that are put together by experts and tested for accuracy losing their validity? I say no. Now more than ever they are needed so that we, and indeed the future generations, can see that there is more than ‘the present’ and there was indeed a past and things have changed, but it’s important to see how they changed and why too in order to get the full picture.

Go books go!

Question: What do you think? Am I off my rocker or should we abandon books for tech?

 

 

 

 

 

Event: Book Signing for Save Magic City August 6th, 2011

From my colleague & friend, her client, author Rocsanne Shield is having a book signing event this Saturday, August 6th at Chapters (3050 Vega Blvd. in Mississauga) from 12-4pm.

Rocsanne is the author of  ‘Save Magic City’, a children’s/young adult title and you can meet her and get your book signed at this event.

NonMom will be doing a review of the book in the coming weeks and giving away a copy but if you can’t wait that long, do drop by and say hi on Saturday if you are in the area. Tell her NonMom sent you *wink wink*.