Storybook Corner Review & Giveaway: I Love My Dad Because (Children's Picture Activity Book) + related children's craft

I Love My Dad Because

by

Petra James

Illustrated by Allisa Dinallo

Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication date: 23rd July 2019
Pages: 32
RRP: $14.99
Format Read: Hardback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 
This book is for you and your dad.

Draw, decorate, colour in, count, play noughts and crosses, make a fish (or two) and then present the book to your dad for any special occasion: birthday, Xmas, Father's Day ... or just because.

An interactive picture book to personalise for your dad.

I Love My Dad Because will be out in bookstores in time for Father’s Day giving. A book to keep and cherish that is completed by your own child. There are activities to share; colour the fish, complete dad’s story, connect the stars, play noughts and crosses, decorate a castle, draw a picture of you and your dad. Thirty two pages of fun colouring and activities for you to share and keep as a lasting reminder of your little ones thoughts and dreams.

I Love My dad Because is a natural follow on from I Love My Mum Because, which we reviewed back in April. Dot loved this book! What child doesn’t love to draw colour and decorate, especially if it is a special gift to give to a parent. Completing the book and presenting it as their own work gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride and gives dad a lasting memento of their child’s formative years.

The book, designed and illustrated by Alissa Dinallo, features bright engaging colours and the illustrations have a childlike whimsy about them that is sure to appeal to young children.

I Love My Dad Because is an interactive picture book perfect for ages 3 – 7

Dot & Jay's rating 5/5  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

and book #27 in the Australian Women Writers challenge

 

Dot had a lot of fun picking her favourite parts of the book for a craft activity. We decided on the fireworks and the fish colouring-in. 

Create your own fireworks:

Colour a sheet of paper with crayons in a multitude of colours.

Paint over the crayon with two to three coats of black paint.

When the paint dries scratch fireworks patterns with a pen lid or a pencil.

Trace and colour a fish:  

 Trace over the fish picture in the book. You will also need one large patty case for the tail and different coloured mini patty cases for the scales.

Starting from the tail of the fish cut the mini patty cases in half and glue them onto the fish. You can do stripes like Dot or mix them all up for a colourful fish.

Now for the giveaway:

With thanks to Pan Macmillan Australia I have one copy to giveaway. Enter via the form below.

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was - Krystyna.

Book Club Book Review: A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird

A Lifetime of Impossible Days

by

Tabitha Bird

Publisher: Penguin Books
Imprint: Viking
Publication date: 4th June 2019
Pages: 395
Format Read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty & Lace book club

On one impossible day in 1965, eight-year-old Willa Waters receives a mysterious box containing a jar of water and the instruction: 'One ocean: plant in the backyard.' So she does - and somehow creates an extraordinary time-slip that allows her to visit her future selves.

On one impossible day in 1990, Willa is 33 and a mother-of-two when her childhood self magically appears in her backyard. But she's also a woman haunted by memories of her dark past - and is on the brink of a decision that will have tragic repercussions . . .

On one impossible day in 2050, Willa is a silver-haired, gumboot-loving 93-year-old whose memory is fading fast. Yet she knows there's something she has to remember, a warning she must give her past selves about a terrible event in 1990 . . . If only she could recall what it was.

Can the three Willas come together, to heal their past and save their future . . . before it's too late? 

Willa age 8 is a gumboot wearing, storytelling ball of energy. She is also the protector of her little sister Lottie

Willa age 33 is broken, a mother of two small boys, she scrubs and cleans until her home is spotless but still she feels worthless, a failure.

Willa age 93 is a gumboot wearing old lady full of sass and cheek. She is in the throes of dementia and keeps a notebook listing all the important things she must remember; like staying out of the nursing home.

A Lifetime of Impossible Days is the most heart-wrenching emotional read I have read in a long time. If you loved The Lost Girls (Review here) by Jennifer Spence or Before I Let You Go (Review here) by Kelly Rimmer this book will resonate with you.

Super Gumboots Willa is a young girl who has spent her life feeling responsible for her sister and all her mistakes. Silver Willa is an old lady who is starting to lose her memory but she knows that there are things in her past that must be mended and only Middle Willa can do that.

This book is filled with heart-breaking moments and magical realism as the three Willas meet via a time shifting garden that is planted in their backyard. They come together to try desperately to heal the past and mend what is irreparably damaged.

Willa is 93 she needs to go back in time and stop herself from doing something that will change her life forever the only problem is she has dementia and she can’t remember what that thing is.

The story isn’t all heavy there are lots of laugh out loud moments with Willa’s dementia causing funny situations, she has quite some sass and is very cheeky.

Willa’s husband, Sam, and grandmother, Grammy, are the most wonderful supporting characters giving Willa unconditional love and support.

Allusions to child abuse, domestic violence and drug use.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My rating   5/5

This review first appeared on the Beauty & Lace book club.

and is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge.

and book #26 in the Australian Women Writers challenge.

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

In a bayside suburb of Queensland, Australia, Tabitha Bird grew up in a garden. It wasn’t much of a garden, but she told stories to ferns and weeds alike and gave herself something to hope in that was bigger than she was. 

Eventually, she had to leave the garden and do responsible things like grow up. When her own children came along she read stories with gumption and wild joy and got to thinking that perhaps she had some of her own to tell. 

The first whispering of story she heard was from a forgotten child that lived in that long-ago garden. Together with her family she moved to Boonah, Australia, where her novel is set. 

Her Chihuahua, husband and three sons are all the reason she needs to believe there is still magic in this world. A LIFETIME OF IMPOSSIBLE DAYS is her first novel.

 

Book Review: Making Trouble - Tongued with Fire by Sue Ingleton

Making Trouble - Tongued with Fire

by

Sue Ingleton

Publisher: Spinifex Press
Publication Date: 1st August 2019
Pages: 256
Format  read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher

In the winter of 1875, two rebellious spirits travel from England to Australia. Harriet Rowell (age 22) and Alice Moon (age 18) were champion swimmers in a time when women didn’t go into the sea; and they were in love in a time when many women were in love with each other but held such love secretly. Harriet and Alice took on the world at a dangerous time for women’s freedom of expression, but their love ended when Alice moved to Sydney to become a writer.

Before Harriet can get over her grief from the breakup, tragedy strikes; Alice is found dead in her bed at thirty-seven. Suspicions rest upon the powerful, chauvinistic scientist, John McGarvie Smith, with whom Alice had been working in her newfound capacity as a journalist. This book seeks to uncover the truth of Alice’s death and seek justice.  

Making Trouble – Tongued with Fire is the imagined history of Harriet Elphinstone Dick and Alice C Moon.

Sue Ingleton has undertaken extensive research to compile this story however there are many aspects of these women’s lives that must be assumed or created as there is very little written communication available. Ingleton uses travel records, newspaper clippings and death certificates to validate her story.

Harriet, born in England in 1852, is a woman ahead of her time. She believed that women weren’t weak and feeble minded, as men would have them believe, and given the chance could be just as athletic as men. She was to become a great swimmer often competing in races against men.

In 1876 Harriet migrates to Australia, the land of opportunity, with partner Alice Moon. Alice was quick-witted, outspoken and bold. She loved a challenge. Harriet was more level headed, discrete and diplomatic.

The two women opened women’s gymnasiums in Australia and took their exercise programs to girls’ schools. Their aim was to bring the health that came with rural activity to women in the city.

I was fascinated by this story of two little known women who made such great inroads into women’s health and fitness and also women’s rights in Australia.

The author narrates the story more like a fictional tale than a biography bringing the reader right into the home, and daily life, of these women.

The story moves from Melbourne to Sydney and the two women have quite a list of remarkable achievements with a shadow hanging over Alice Moon’s untimely death.

Recommended for anyone who is interested in learning more about the women who pioneered our health and fitness regime and pushed for women’s rights.

On a side note, I don't think the cover or title give the book justice as this truly is an engaging read and extremely well written. I honestly think if I saw this on a shelf I would pass it up so I am immensely grateful for the publishers giving me the opportunity to read this amazing story.

                               🌟🌟🌟🌟

 My rating   4/5 

photo credit: Spinifex Press

Sue Ingleton is a multi-award winning actor, director, writer and stand-up comedian. 

Sue is a recipient of the Sydney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award, the Gloria Dawn/Gloria Payten Award, a Perrier Award Nomination at Edinburgh Fringe, and has performed at Adelaide International Festival of Arts, Montreal Juste Pour Rire, Festival of Fools UK, many Melbourne International Comedy Festivals, and New York International Theatre Festival. 

She has written and produced eleven plays, written two books and is in three published short story anthologies. 

Spotlight: Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom

Three Ways to Disappear

by

Katy Yocom

HUNTING FOR CONNECTION, HAUNTED BY LOSS: IN DEBUT NOVEL, HUMANS—AND TIGERS—STRIVE TO CONNECT AND STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IN A CONFLICTED NATURAL WORLD 

Publisher: Ashland Creek Press 
Publication date: 16th July 2019
Sub genre: EcoFiction 
Pages: 300
RRP: $18.95 USD

Leaving behind a nomadic and dangerous career as a journalist, Sarah DeVaughan returns to India, the country of her childhood and a place of unspeakable family tragedy, to help preserve the endangered Bengal tigers. Meanwhile, at home in Kentucky, her sister, Quinn--also deeply scarred by the past and herself a keeper of secrets--tries to support her sister, even as she fears that India will be Sarah's undoing.

As Sarah faces challenges in her new job--made complicated by complex local politics and a forbidden love--Quinn copes with their mother's refusal to talk about the past, her son's life-threatening illness, and her own increasingly troubled marriage. When Sarah asks Quinn to join her in India, Quinn realizes that the only way to overcome the past is to return to it, and it is in this place of stunning natural beauty and hidden danger that the sisters can finally understand the ways in which their family has disappeared--from their shared history, from one another--and recognize that they may need to risk everything to find themselves again.

With dramatic urgency, a powerful sense of place, and a beautifully rendered cast of characters revealing a deep understanding of human nature in all its flawed glory, Katy Yocom has created an unforgettable novel about saving all that is precious, from endangered species to the indelible bonds among family.

Praise for Three Ways to Disappear: 

“Sensual and sensory, lush with longing, Three Ways to Disappear is an assured and lovely debut novel.  You'll find yourself luxuriating in its language and carried away by its complex and endearing characters.  There isn't one wasted word, and I loved them all”  -- Silas House, author of Southernmost  

What is Ecofiction?

Ecofiction is fiction with a conscience.
Also known as eco-literature, these books range from mysteries to thrillers, yet they all share strong environmental themes.

As a child, I was fascinated with big cats of all types. I thought I outgrew that fascination, but when a tigress at the Louisville Zoo gave birth to a litter of cubs, I instantly fell in love, visited frequently, and watched them grow up,” Yocom says of her inspiration for the novel. “I knew that in the wild, tigers face long odds, and the complexity of the human-tiger relationship captured my imagination. I’ve always been drawn to stories confronting the big questions: life, death, how we carry on in the face of loss, what it means to be truly connected to someone, and what it takes to heal broken relationships.