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The Story of Kitten Cuckoo
by Ed Baker

Reviewed by Grady Harp, an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer

Ed Baker has created a richly colorful story about friendship and personal values in his newest children’s book THE STORY OF KITTEN CUCKOO, a little book with a big message about courage, choice, and individuality told in poetic form.

Baker not only writes well and with a verse sense that is sure to please young children as well as entertain any adult, but he also has provided the paintings that illustrate the story as well as marking lessons for learning on their own.

Kitten Cuckoo is a strange appearing blue little kitten with a red X mark on his head (he is the pet of a news reporter Harrison Cruz!) who meets a baby elephant named Paquille E. Derm. Though the two make a strange pair, they play games, eat and chit chat with each other much to the laughter of their fellow animals.

They travel to San Francisco where Paquille is captured while the two are sleeping the night in the streets. Devastated, Kitten Cuckoo sets out on a journey to find his friend after attempting to live with his fellow cats. He ends up in Timbuktu where he sees all animals in the wild and, now a full sized cat, he finds the big mature Paquille: once again their friendship thrives.

Baker sensitively suggests all manner of social ills as he traces the journey of these ‘mismatched friends’ and that opens the door for many cogent discussions with the children who read this book. But first and foremost the book is a delight to read aloud and a pleasure to view the copious illustrations that accompany the poem.

Highly recommended.  

The Serif Fairy
by Rene Siegfried       

THE SERIF FAIRY is a delight from every aspect. Though conceived as a children’s book, it is also a teaching tool of the sort that makes learning fun while challenging both the adult reader and the child.

Writer and graphic designer Rene Siegfried composed this fable in German (it is sensitively translated for us into English by Joel Mann) as a studio work for a course in communication design, the challenge being to create a readable and interesting story while introducing the child in each of us to concepts of the somewhat obtuse subject - typography!

The Serif Fairy, ‘a clever little letter-fairy’, has lost her left ‘magical’ wing, disabling her ability to fly and to perform magic. She sets off in search of the lost wing, wandering through the Garamond Forest, the Zentenar Gate, the Futura City, and finally to Shelley Lake where, after falling into the water, she finds her lost wing and flies into the air, a revived magic fairy.

Each of the images, from the construction of the fairy herself to the trees, buildings, bugs and animals she encounters are built from letters from the various typefaces (fonts) that we all know from the computer cascade of choices. Siegfried encourages the reader to find the various composed creatures and identify how they are created from letters by adding at the end of the brief book a concise but excellent description and illustration of each of the four typefaces used. Continue reading »

By Lee (Leona) Novy Jackson

The Littlest Christmas Kitten is a very special picture book retelling the Nativity story where youngsters can feel the restless anticipation of the animals and the worried concerns of mother cat for her little lost kitten. The lost is found in the midst of a miracle on a special night when Jesus is born and the first Christmas occurs. Kelly Dupre’s superb artwork wonderfully enhances Leona’s original and entertaining story.

Young children are naturally drawn to baby kittens and will be eager to follow the cat’s escapades in the stable. At the same time, they are learning about Christ’s birth. As a mother cares deeply for her kittens, so does Christ care for us. The story ends with historical connections and helpful descriptions of Christmas symbols found following the text.
Continue reading »

You are free to duplicate or distribute the following information to your blog, Web site, ezine, newsletter, or friends. We would appreciate a link back to BloggingAuthors.com.  If you would you like to review this book for your site, blog, or ezine, email nancy at bloggingauthors dot com

Behind the Eyes
by Francisco X. Stork  

Francisco X. Stork follows The Way of the Jaguar with Behind the Eyes, the story of sixteen-year-old Hector Robles, an intelligent Chicano kid who tries very hard, but ultimately to no avail, to stay clear of the violence that surrounds him.

Claire Rosser, of KLIATT Reviews, writes “Stork was born in Mexico, grew up in the projects of El Paso, and now is an attorney living in Massachusetts. He wanted to write about the Chicano youths he remembers; to create a suspenseful story his own teenage children would enjoy reading. He has accomplished that goal.

His narrator is Hector, an intelligent boy who dreams of escaping his family’s life of poverty and violence. Hector’s father is dead. Now, his brother is dead. When the story opens, we know Hector is in trouble with the law, that he has committed a violent act, and that he has been given the option of doing a year in a special school for troubled boys near San Antonio.

Throughout the novel, as Hector adjusts to the school, the background story of what caused him to commit the assault is slowly revealed, exposing an adolescent world of honor, revenge, and inescapable violence. Getting away from his neighborhood, into college, will be Hector’s only hope of survival. Even in the special school he isn’t safe, because someone has been sent to exact vengeance for the act Hector committed—a circle of violence. Continue reading »

You are free to duplicate or distribute the following information to your Web site, ezine, newsletter, or friends as long as the contents are not changed, copyright notice is intact, and a link is provided to BloggingAuthors.com If you would you like to review this book for your site or ezine, email nancy at bloggingauthors dot com

Title: The Witch on Oak Street
Author: Major Mitchell
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 204 pages
Publisher: Infinity Publishing (March 30, 2006)
ISBN: 0741430304
$13.95
Available from your favorite bookseller

About The Witch on Oak Street

Nine year-old Debbie Folino believes she can do most anything, but when she takes a dare to trick-or-treat the old witch living in the spooky house at the end of Oak Street, she discovers eighty-year-old Sara Baker, who will change her life forever. Sara becomes the mentor who opens a new world for her young friend. She guides her through the trials of growing, loving, sharing, and even death. Most of all, Sara introduces Debbie and her family to someone who will become an even more important person in their lives, Jesus Christ 

About the Author

Although Major had spent many an hour, and countless reams of paper, creating his own comic books (mostly westerns) as a child, it wasn’t until he entered college that he began to think of writing as a serious pastime.  He remembers being held after class on his second day in English 1-B, and listening with fear as professor Hillhouse cautioned several others that they were not prepared for her class, and should transfer out.  

She then proceeded to encourage Major and one other student to enroll in a creative writing class, as they both had a true talent with words.  Since that day, he has enrolled in several classes and writing organizations that have helped develop in him the talent you will find in his two published novels and his children’s picture book.  He currently has several other books in the publishing process at the moment this is being written.  We are confident that, after reading his historical novels, The Doña and Mokelumne Gold, and his forty-nine page children’s book Charlie Shepherd, you will also become a member of his ever growing fan base.