Rarely has one of my blog posts received such a heartfelt response as last week’s review and giveaway of Joanna Rowland’s beautiful book, The Memory Box. Thank you to the 68 people who entered, and all who shared from the heart about how loss has deeply touched your lives. I want you to know that I prayed for each of you.
If you didn’t win the book, please do order a copy. It truly is a wonderful resource. Many thanks to Beaming Books for hosting the giveaway.
And the winners are…
My eldest son was only three years old when his great-granddad died. We tried to break the news gently, but our little boy was devastated. He pulled the bed covers high over his head and hid from us. And no matter how much we tried to talk to him, or comfort him, he wouldn’t come out.
I was a young, inexperienced mom, with another toddler to cope with and pregnant with a third. It was our first family experience of death. I didn’t know what to do. So I let him be.
If only I could have read a wonderful book called The Memory Box with him! My creative son would have made his own little memory box straight away, and we would have filled it with photographs and mementos of him and his great-granddad as they walked by the seaside, or caught crabs, or ate a cream tea together. That way, we would have ensured that his beloved great-granddad would never be forgotten. And in the making of that box, and in the returning to it, we would have shared memories, and conversation, and laughter, and tears.
This is the wonderful idea behind The Memory Box, a beautiful book written by Joanna Rowland to help a young child cope with the loss of a loved one. Read on for a peek inside and a chance to win your own copy… Continue reading
As hard as it is to believe, we have reached the end of our eight week blog tour celebrating the release of God Made Mommy Special and God Made Daddy Special.
So that means that if you didn’t yet choose that one-of-a-kind special gift for Father’s Day, you have just one chance left to win a free copy of both these cute books. Just visit Children’s Ministry colleague DeDe Reilly to read her review and enter the giveaway.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the tour, everyone who entered the giveaways, and everyone who took the time to leave those all-important reviews. They mean more to me than you will ever know.
Now that my virtual author tour has ended, I’m about to begin a real-life one, over the pond, in England. This time next week I’ll be visiting three Primary schools in the north of England, where I was born.
I hope to encourage these children to discover what it is that God made them good at, to work hard at it, pursue their dreams, never give up, and see what our great God can do. Because I know that amongst those listeners, there’ll be authors, and illustrators, and athletes, and physicians, and teachers, and wonderful parents… they just don’t know it yet.
Stay tuned for photographs of my visit there and in the meantime, read about what happened at my very first author visit to Sutton Oak Primary School, England.
If you’ve peeked inside the pages of God Made Daddy Special you’ll have seen these adorable images of animal babies with their dads…
These wonderful illustrations were drawn by Estelle Corke, a British illustrator 🙂 living in the south of England.
Now if you’ve ever wondered, like me, where illustrators come up with their ideas, or what they do with sketches they’ve drawn but can’t be used, or how long it takes to develop characters, then you’ll want to take a trip to my next blog stop on the Mommy and Daddy book tour, where I sat down with Michelle Huddleston to chat about the books.
As well as seeing a little live interview with me, you’ll get to read all Estelle’s answers to the questions above, plus more. (Can you guess which of these animal daddies and their babies she had never drawn before: was it Daddy Octopus or Daddy Skunk?)
Find out here and enter the two-book giveaway!
It’s always fun to be featured on another writer’s blog and so, when children’s author Laura Sassi, (author of the Amazon #1 best-selling zoo book, Goodnight Ark) invited me to share five fun facts about my new mommy and daddy books, I was excited.
Head on over to her blog today to find out what those five fun facts might be, and while you’re there, be sure to enter the sixth giveaway of God Made Mommy Special and God Made Daddy Special.
PS… If you happen to be a grandparent, you’ll LOVE fun fact #5!
UPDATE! Congratulations to Jennifer Scopel on winning the giveaway!
So I’m perched on the front pew at Lake Harbor United Methodist Church in Muskegon.
I’d already known it was going to be a wonderful morning… what could be better than:
But the best part was yet to come…
It’s time for communion. As I perch on that front pew, I see a family come forward, not to receive communion, but to offer it. It’s a whole family… of five. There’s Mom and Dad, and three little (and I mean little ones.)
So, naturally, I grab my phone. I have to take pictures of this… it’s a new thing for me (and I don’t know it at the time, but it’s a new thing for them too.)
And as the people come forward… some in wheelchairs, some slowly pushing walkers, some skipping, some running, to receive their bread and wine, I’m watching this family… Continue reading
What are you going to give, or hoping to receive for Mother’s Day this year?
Just for fun, I thought I’d try to find out what the most popular Mother’s Day gifts might be and in my search, I came across a fascinating article on USA Today entitled The 19 Best Mother’s Day Gifts of 2017.
What would your guesses be? Top of the list was the ‘Gift of Scent’, closely followed, somewhat predictably, by the ‘Gift of Flowers’, and in at number three came the ‘Gift of Security’ (an indoor camera….as IF!)
I scanned quickly down the list, searching, searching for the gift I hoped to find, whizzing past the gifts of style, and beauty, and technology and ‘chic’, and nowhere, nowhere, did I find what I was looking for… I couldn’t believe it, but the ‘Gift of READING’ simply didn’t make it into the top 19. As a children’s book author, and an avid reader, I have to say: That is… Just. So. Sad.
And so, in an effort to compete with USA Today, I stopped by author Traci Smith’s blog, to offer my top THREE recommendations of children’s books, newly released for Mother’s Day 2018, any one of which would make the PERFECT ‘Gift of Reading’.
So, don’t delay, pop over there now and be sure to enter the third giveaway of God Made Mommy Special and God Made Daddy Special.
Visit Traci Smith.
One of the most wonderful things for an author to see when any new title is released is a photograph of a little one with the book. And I just had to share this latest one with you..
Doesn’t that make you smile!
So if there’s a little one in your life who would love to have their picture taken my books, please enter the second giveaway at Purposeful Moms,where I sat down with Suzette Ladouceur as she interviewed me about author life…
Happy Reading!
If the clever title of this new release from my friend Denette Fretz doesn’t grab your attention, then the cute cover certainly will.
I Want Your Smile, Crocodile is the latest release from the author who brought us Pirates on the Farm and Conrad and the Cowgirl Next Door. When you read titles like that you know you’re in for a treat, and Denette’s latest book does not disappoint.
Meet Jack, the meerkat, who shares a distinctly human trait: he’s not happy with the way he looks. Now who can’t identify with this…
Surely if Jack could have crocodile’s smile, or porcupine’s spines, or elephant’s snout, he would be happier? Written in playful rhyme, I Want Your Smile, Crocodile follows Jack’s humorous journey to discovering a wonderful truth… he is perfect just the way God made him.
I was thrilled when Denette agreed to participate in an author interview and even more thrilled when Zonderkidz, her publisher, offered to host a giveaway of the book.
Read on for Denette’s responses to my questions, and enter to win this adorable new release… Continue reading
Drum roll please…
The three lucky winners of God Made Mommy Special and God Made Daddy Special are:
Lindsey, Chelsea Wipf and Krissanna! Congratulations ladies!
If you didn’t win, don’t despair! For the next eight weeks, I’ll be hopping on board a brand-new blog tour where these two books, the perfect gifts for Mother’s and Father’s Day, will be featured.
From homeschooling moms to authors; from reviewers to Children’s Ministers, the eight folks listed below will be sharing their thoughts about these new releases.
Along with their reviews, I’ll be sharing five fun facts about the books; answering questions, offering guest posts, and taking part in a joint author/illustrator interview with Estelle Corke.
Most exciting of all, there’ll be a giveaway of both titles at every stop, courtesy of my wonderful publisher, Zonderkidz.
Be sure to enter the first giveaway right now, with Children’s Pastor, Dema Kohen, at Families On a Mission.
And here’s the whole blog tour, just in case you’d like to hop along with me! Continue reading