Saturday 28 December 2019

One Creation Under God - Book Review

One Creation Under God: Wisdom Teachings on Divine, Human, and Animal Relationships in the Sacred Circle of Life
  • Author Val Silver
  • Publication Date: November 4, 2019
  • Publisher: Independently published (November 1, 2019)
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B07ZG514QJ
  • ISBN-13: 978-1089509820
  • Print Length: 388 pages


 

About the Book 

 Have you ever wondered why humans cause suffering and violence toward our fellow beings when more than half the world's population identifies as spiritual and/or religious? Have you wondered what kind of God would allow such behavior and if that is what is meant by "having dominion".

For thousands of years, Wise Ones have proclaimed that happiness and enlightenment are attained through righteous living, nonviolence, compassion for all beings, and a relationship with the Divine. If their words are true, then why do we misuse each other and the natural world? How can we live in ways that reflect their teachings and honor the Oneness of all?

Spurred by the desire for answers, Val Silver embarked on an inquiry to discover who we are and how we are meant to interact with our fellow beings. In One Creation Under God, she brings readers on this journey with her through ancient traditions, history, the sacred writings of world religions, and modern science to discover insights into the nature of our connections with the Divine, humanity, and creatures of all kinds. This interactive book challenges common misconceptions about our rights, roles, and responsibilities in the circle of life and encourages readers to enliven their wise, empathetic nature in order to co-create a kind, sustainable world where all can flourish on planet Earth.

What I Thought

One Creation Under God is a well-researched, fascinating book! The author explores different cultures throughout history and their views on religion, spirituality, gods and goddesses, animals, the value and importance of all beings, and so much more.

My favorite sentences in the book are the following: “Through the ages, sages, prophets, and spiritual masters have preached a similar message. They explained that happiness, enlightenment, and the liberation of the soul is attained through nonviolence, righteous living, compassion for all beings, and a personal connection with the Divine.”

This book is a must read for those seeking personal growth, and an understanding of the diversity of our world.

Thought provoking. Beautifully written!

About the Author 


 Val Silver is an award-winning author, holistic wellness educator, reading teacher, and animal welfare advocate. She wrote her first book, Rescue Me: Tales of Rescuing the Dogs Who Became Our Teachers, Healers, and Always Faithful Friends, as a fundraiser for homeless dogs and to celebrate the human-canine bond. She believes it takes education, positive action, and compassion to create better lives for all creatures-animal and human. Val lives in northern New York with her husband and Bichon/Shi Tzu mix, Teddy. 



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Sunday 6 October 2019

Little Miss HISTORY Travels to Hyde Park--Book Review


Little Miss HISTORY Travels to Hyde Park,
Home of FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT:
Presidential Library & Museum 

 Author: Barbara Ann Mojica
 Illustrator: Victor Ramon Mojica
 ·  Age Range: 6 - 12 years
·  Series: Little Miss History Travels to (Book 10)
·  Hardcover: 52 pages
·  Publisher: Eugenus Studios LLC; Original ed. edition (September 8, 2019)
·  ISBN-13: 978-0998915456

About the Book:

Step inside the house where FDR made history!
WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE LITTLE MISS HISTORY BOOK SERIES...
"...Turning the pages is like visiting an interactive museum and taking a journey through each milestone. Little Miss History "travels" and so do we, enjoyably so - and I am sure to the bookshelves of many fans of this delightful series." - Amazon Reviewer
"This is a series not to be missed. History teachers will love its entertainment value, and the important facts it conveys. Kids will love it for the fun and colorful illustrations. Overall, a win-win for everyone."- Reviewed by Kitty Muse Book Reviews
"My heart has always been here. It always will be." 
How did Franklin Delano Roosevelt's upbringing at Hyde Park influence the role he played in guiding the country through an economic depression and World War II? 
You will learn:
·      About the rooms and functions of the home
·      FDR's family life
·      The various roles he served in government
·      His hobbies and interests
·      FDR's physical struggles
·      The government programs set up to ease the depression
·      "Fireside Chats"
·      Dignitaries who visited
·      About Eleanor's Val-Kill cottage

President Roosevelt was the first president to give his papers to the people. Read about the library he designed and the treasure trove of resources within. 
You will learn:
·      About the Great Depression
·      The New Deal Programs
·      World War II exhibits
·      About the way FDR worked and communicated with the people
·      How Eleanor Roosevelt acted on FDR's behalf
·      The role of Eleanor in the United Nations
·      The accomplishments of FDR's four terms

In FDR's words, "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

What I Thought: The Little Miss History series is incredible! The author’s newest release, Little Miss History goes to Hyde Park, home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, is another spectacular learning book in this series; this book takes the reader on a tour of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s house and his personal and political life. This series is always interesting, has vivid illustrations, and is written in a way that children, and adults, will love. Kudos to Barbara Ann Mojica! 

About the Author:  

Barbara Ann Mojica, M.A. S.A.S., S.D.A is a historian and retired educator. Her education career spans more than forty years serving as a teacher, special educator, principal, and school district administrator. Barbara writes monthly historical articles for the Columbia Insider under the banner "Passages." Using the whimsical Little Miss History character to narrate her book series, Barbara hopes to educate, entertain and inspire children to learn about historical people and places. Little Miss History's antics make reading nonfiction a fun-filled adventure for all ages. She firmly believes, "If you don't know your history, you don't know what you're talking about."

The Little Miss HISTORY book series has garnered more than twenty awards including B.R.A.G. Medallions, International Book Excellence Awards, International Readers' Favorite Awards, Eric Hoffer, and Independent Author Network Awards.


Amazon.com:  https://www.amazon.com/Little-HISTORY-Travels-FRANKLIN-ROOSEVELT/dp/0998915459 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48127094-little-miss-history-travels-to-hyde-park-home-of-franklin-d-roosevelt






Saturday 10 August 2019

Keywords for Book Description and Amazon Advertising





Keywords are a valuable tool to get on an Amazon’s bestseller list.
Doing a relevant keyword search for you book takes a few steps to accomplish and it will be worth it in the long run of your book sales.
  1. Do a keyword search ‘Incognito Mode’. In Google Chrome, right click on the Google Chrome icon and a list should appear. Click on ‘New Incognito Mode’. Type in ‘Amazon.com’ in the search bar (or whatever Amazon site you want to search in). Then start typing words you think would be a good fit for your book–the top 5 – 10 words/phrases that come up on the lists below the word you have entered are good keywords as that list pertains to what people are searching for. You can also add phrases to the keyword search, such as: fantasy for kids; fantasy books for children, kid’s fantasy, etc. This is a long and somewhat painful process, but the reason you’ll want to search ‘Incognito Mode’ is because if you search on your regular browser you own search history will be included, which isn’t accurate as to what other people are searching for. Note: Other browsers, such as Firefox, will have ‘New Private Window’ instead of ‘Incognito Mode’ listed, but I have found Google Chrome to be the best for private browsing mode.
  2. Search the book descriptions of the top 10 – 20 books you’ve found in relevant categories on Amazon and you’ll probably find that many of these books have some of the same keywords in their book descriptions–you’ll want to take note of those keywords, especially if the book is doing well in a category.
  3. You’ll want to find at least 10 – 15 great and excellent keywords to ad to your own book description.
If you want to advertise on Amazon (by manually adding keywords) and need to find those valuable keywords, follow the above procedures and a few more steps to your search by doing the following:
  1. Find good keywords by searching for books and authors on Amazon that are writing in your genre/categories and performing well; add those titles and author names that are showing up in the top 20 books in a relevant categories.
  2. Search for up to 1000 keywords (which is the maximum Amazon allows in advertising campaigns) instead of just 10 – 15 words that you would use for your book description and, of course, those 10 – 15 words you found should be included in your advertising campaign.
  3. Review and update keywords in your campaign every 6 months or so–take out non-performing keywords and add new keywords from your new keyword search.
Note: Updating a current campaign’s keywords is better than starting a new campaign because the current campaign will keep track of well-performing keywords.
***********
I have been running Amazon Ads for my bestselling book for about a year and a half, and the ad has been running at the 1000 keyword max for the last six months.
Recently, after searching for some new keywords that might perform better than the 200 or so keywords (out of the 1000 maximum keywords running in the ad) getting no hits I was perplexed on how to take out keywords that weren’t performing well and add new keywords that may perform better. Amazon doesn’t give a straight forward answer to this problem on their advertising help page.
In case anyone else is having this problem, this is Amazon’s answer I received after I wrote to them about the issue:
Once your ad is live, you can edit budget, cost-per-click, duration (the end date for a running campaign, or the start date for not started campaign) and keywords (Sponsored Products only)
To edit your campaign settings:
1. Sign in to your Amazon Advertising account at advertising.amazon.com with your KDP credentials.
2. Select the campaign you want to edit by clicking on the name.
3. Click the “Targeting” tab and click on the keywords check boxes you want to delete and then click Archive to delete the keyword.
4. Click Add Keyword
5. Click “Save”

I hope this article helps you with the mystery of keywords.


Thursday 11 July 2019

10 Captivating Fantasy Books For Young Readers

10 Captivating Fantasy Books For Young Readers By Hgiardina & Ezvid Wiki Editorial  https://wiki.ezvid.com/m/10-captivating-fantasy-books-for-young-readers-J7iRlnKs8VQYg

TitleAuthor
1.Charis: Journey to Pandora’s JarNicole Y. Walters
2.Sir Princess PetraDiane Mae Robinson
3.The Hob and the DeermanPat Walsh
4.Fog IslandTomi Ungerer
5.There May Be a CastlePiers Torday
6.Mabel Gray and the Wizard Who Swallowed the SunClayton Smith
7.DreamwoodHeather Mackey
8.The Secret Life of Daisy FitzjohnTania Unsworth
9.Bad MagicPseudonymous Bosch
10.The Mad Wolf’s DaughterDiane Magras

Fun Activities For Young Fantasy Fans

How to Encourage Kids to Read

A great way to start is to get a bookshelf for your child’s room. If they have access to their own collection of books, it’ll be easy for them to read at their own pace. And if they’re looking at the shelf everyday, reading will always be on their mind. It’s also important to give your kids a comfortable place to sit. This can be anything from a rocking chair to a couch to a dedicated reading nook. If they have a space that’s just for them, it makes reading time all the more special. As they grow, your young ones will start to read more challenging books with words they don’t know. Encourage them to look up unfamiliar terms in the dictionary so they can expand their vocabulary. Finally, if you’re having trouble getting your kid interested in books in the first place, try bridging the gap between visual media and literature with graphic novels.

What is Fantasy?

No genre can capture the imagination quite like fantasy, where readers are invited to envision impossible worlds, daring heroes, and strange creatures living in the land of myth and legend. There’s a reason why so many speculative stories spellbind young readers with their tales of misfits, outcasts, and kids with untapped stores of tremendous bravery.
For young readers on the lookout for adventure, here, in no particular order, are some stunningly imaginative books that will bring out the magic in everyday life.

In the #1 spot is “Charis: Journey to Pandora’s Jar” by Nicole Y. Walters. Charis has been waiting all her life for a chance to show her stuff. Now, it’s up to the hyper-imaginative thirteen-year-old to save the world by visiting Pandora’s Jar, the place where demons and kind spirits dwell. The catch? She’s only got five days to release the spirit of Hope from the jar before mankind is officially doomed forever. With the help of a few trusty deities and her best friend Gabe, Charis has to summon up all her courage to set things right.

At #2, we have Diane Mae Robinson’s “Sir Princess Petra.” Even Princesses get bored of being pampered sometimes. In this series, nine-year-old Petra decides that she wants to become a knight. But even though she’s got courage and cunning to spare, knighthood comes with its own set of pressures and obstacles, like having to silence a dragon and visit the spooky Forest of Doom. If she can overcome a few kooky quests, she’ll find her true place in the kingdom.

At #3 is “The Hob and the Deerman” by Pat Walsh. Crowfield Abbey is a peculiar place. It’s a portal, of sorts, between the world we know and the Otherworld, a place where demons, boggarts, and all kinds of creatures freely roam. When Walter, a “hob” spirit, returns to find everything in disarray, he knows he needs to take action to help put all the troubled spirits in the abbey to rest. But it will take a lot of help, and a lot of courage, to cross paths with the Deerman of the forest and live to tell the tale.

At #4 is Tomi Ungerer’s “Fog Island.” No one ever returns from Fog Island. It’s a place shrouded in mystery, a place that Finn and Cara have been warned against visiting. But when the two siblings disobey their father and head for the far-off island, they’re in for more than they bargained for. Is the ancient place just a pile of ruins? Or is there a deeper mystery lurking, something that only the mercurial Fog Man can unlock?

For #5 we have “There May Be a Castle” by Piers Torday. Eleven-year-old Mouse knows he shouldn’t have survived the car crash when he was thrown from the vehicle during a Christmas Eve drive to his grandparents’ house. He woke totally fine, but in a world he barely recognized. With the help of a magical sheep and a sardonic talking horse, he’ll need to find his way to the castle if he wants to regain entry to his own life. That is, if this place everyone speaks of is more than the stuff of legend.

Coming in at #6 is Clayton Smith’s “Mabel Gray and the Wizard Who Swallowed the Sun.” The people of Brightsbane have had a rough time ever since the eternal night started. After a wizard took away the daytime from the land, he decided he needed to come back to steal a book of magic spells that holds the key to the township’s total destruction. Luckily, a spirited orphan named Mabel is going to set things right.
If she can summon up the courage to deal with a series of fantastical creatures and hair-raising quests, she might find a way to break her hometown’s terrible curse forever.

At #7 is Heather Mackey’s “Dreamwood.” Runaway Lucy has a fair amount of experience with supernatural forces. Her father is an expert on the subject, and she’s on a quest to find him and bring him back so she doesn’t have to go to that dreadful boarding school anymore. The problem is, her father isn’t where she thought he’d be. Could it be that the enchanted forest of Dreamwood proved too powerful a match for him? There’s only one way to find out: by heading into the heart of the living grove, no matter the consequences.

Coming in at #8 is “The Secret Life of Daisy Fitzjohn” by Tania Unsworth. Some might call Daisy’s life unusual: her best friends are a talking rat and a ghost, and she lives in an old estate that’s slowly falling apart. When her mother leaves on a strange expedition and doesn’t return, Daisy knows she can’t hide within the walls of Brightwood Hall any longer. She’ll have to do what it takes to save her home and keep her family together, with only the help of her eclectic sidekicks to guide her.

At #9 we find Pseudonymous Bosch’s “Bad Magic.” Clay knows there’s no such thing as magic. He’s seen a million sleight-of-hand shows and he knows they’re just tricks. That said, there are a few things happening at Earth Ranch that he can’t explain. Clay was supposed to be sent to the rehabilitation camp to be “scared straight.” But there’s more at work here than a few obstacle courses and hikes. For one thing, he’s having conversations with llamas.
For another, he may or may not have just seen a ghost. If there’s magic on Earth Ranch, Clay needs to make sure it’s not the deadly kind. If he can make it off the volcanic island without causing an explosion, he’ll count himself lucky.

Finally, at #10, is “The Mad Wolf’s Daughter” by Diane Magras. When Drest’s family of male warriors is taken captive, she finds herself in a unique position. All her life, her father and brothers took care of her. Now, she’s got to free her kin with the help of a witch, a soft-spoken knight, and her own fierce courage. With a mysterious bandit out to get her and her sense of independence growing by the day, Drest will find herself taking chances, slaying personal demons, and doing things she never dreamed herself capable of.

https://wiki.ezvid.com/m/10-captivating-fantasy-books-for-young-readers-J7iRlnKs8VQYg

Saturday 13 April 2019



Music Boxes by Tonja Drecker – Book Review




Music Boxes
By Tonja Drecker
Middle Grade Fantasy / Performing Arts
158 pages

March 5, 2019
Dancing Lemur Press
Ages 9 to 12
  • ISBN-10:1939844568
  • ISBN-13:978-1939844569
About The Book:
“I only desire your talent…”
Twelve-year-old Lindsey McKay’s biggest dream is to be a famous ballerina. But after moving to New York, she ends up at the Community Center with a teacher who’s a burly bear in tights.
When she meets Madame Destinée, the teacher of a top dance school who offers her classes for free, Lindsey can’t believe her luck. In exchange, she must perform in the school’s exclusive midnight shows, ones sure to make her a star. But something’s not right…
One by one, the other dancers disappear. Each time they do, a music box with a figurine just like the missing ballerina joins Madame Destinée’s growing collection. If Lindsey doesn’t discover the truth about the dance school, she might end up a tiny figurine herself.
What I Thought:
Lindsey McKay is a wonderful main character: adventurous, passionate, caring, talented, and a girl who, unintentionally, will becomes the sleuth in solving the mystery of the missing ballerinas at Madame Destinée’s dance school. Madame Destinée’s is a well-portrayed villain and a force to be reckoned with, but through Lindsey’s sheer bravery and willpower, she must find a way to beat Madame Destinée and the powers of her evil magic.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Music Boxes. The adventure, suspense, and twists of plot were well paced. The characters become real to the reader in the first pages. And once the adventure began, it didn’t stop until the end.
Author Tonja Drecker has created a spellbinding and magical journey in Music Boxes; a journey every reader will be delighted in talking.



Sale Links:


Author Biography:
Tonja Drecker is a writer, blogger, children’s book reviewer and freelance translator. After spending years in Germany exploring forgotten castles, she currently resides in the Ozarks with her family of six. When she’s not tending her chickens and cows, she’s discovering new adventures, nibbling chocolate and sipping a cup of tea.