Children's eBook Review: The Toothless Tooth Fairy by Shanelle Hicks

Illustrations: 5 Stars (bright and colorful)

Cover: 5.0 stars
Storyline: 5 Stars (promoting kindness with tooth fairies)
Total: 5 stars

Summary: Bella's kindness makes her beautiful, inside and out. When her chance to win the Miss Tooth Fairy Smile Contest is sabotaged, Bella reacts first with ingenuity, and then with love toward her enemy. And this forgiveness changed her enemy's heart and countenance.

Storyline: I love a storyline that shows the power of kindness even in the face of underhanded meanness. In real life it might not work so quickly (or so visibly) but courtesy and love is almost always the higher road (although it's a difficult one). A story that includes a pageant could easy be a shallow focus on how beauty is everything--but this story doesn't take it that cheap direction. 5 stars.

Illustrations: Great illustrations full of color, big eyes and fairy wings. Professional and enjoyable. 5 stars.

Total: 5 Stars

I was able to interview author Shanelle Hicks, and this is what she said:

Author Shanelle Hicks

VH: Why do you write?

SH: I believe I was born to write. I initially believed I was going to write poetry. I love soliloquies. I fell in love with Langston Hughes so much that my husband and I named our daughter Langston. 

I write because it’s my passion. I write because it’s what I’m suppose to do. I write kids books because I know kids want to read books with characters who look like them. I know I certainly did as a kid. I recall falling in love with bright illustrations, quirky characters, and  intriguing text without being able to see myself in those books. I want to change that. This is a time for diversity in our kids books. 

When children read this book [The Toothless Tooth Fairy], I hope that the lesson of "kill them with kindness" shines through. Kindness is a powerful weapon that so many of us don’t whip out when needed. 

VH: How did you come up with the idea for this book?

SH: The Toothless Tooth Fairy came to me in a dream! I know it sounds so cliche, but it’s so true. I went to the dentist to have a molar pulled out and was so worried about what I was going to look like with a missing molar. My husband laughed at my paranoia as always. I had a dream about fairies chasing me with pliers because they were after my tooth for reasons unknown. One of the fairies in my dream told me it doesn't matter if they take your tooth because it doesn’t change who you are. 

VH: What are some of your favorite children's books?

SH: Picking my two favorite children’s books is so easy (wink)! It’s so easy that I’m going to pick 3 in no particular order. Miss Nelson is Missing made me want to always obey my teachers in fear of one day meeting a real Viola Swamp. Next up is hands down The Witches by Roald Dahl. I’ve read this book a billion times and I still can’t get enough. I absolutely love the movie as well. Angelica Houston as The Grand High Witch is a scary thing. Last but not least is The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. It explores atonement, original sin, temptation, and the order of nature. I hear they are coming out with a movie. I will be the first in line!

VH: What advice do you have for children who want to write and their parents?

SH: All children are writers before they read. That drawing on the wall. The picture on the fridge. It all tells a story. I think the initial focus is to put all thoughts on paper. They may not make sense. They may seem silly. They may seem irrelevant. They may be unorganized. Just get them from your head to paper and worry about the rest later!

For more information on Shanelle Hicks and her books, check her out on Twitter, Facebook, and GoodReads. I hear a new book is on the horizon and will be published soon.

~Valerie Harmon
Author of this blog and the WantsToBe series of Children's Picture Books and interactive apps

Children's eBook Review: Ingrid Williams' Bing and Nero

Bing and Nero, by Ingrid Williams

Bing and Nero, by Ingrid Williams
My Rating: 4.5 enthusiastic stars
Just won a Top Shelf Book award!

Book summary: 

Bing is a boy without a dog. So what does he do? He creates a robot friend instead!

Storyline: 4 stars

4 stars for an adorable storyline. I like how Bing innovates and creates a solution when he's denied his wish to have a dog. So positive! 

Illustrations: 5 stars

5 stars for these illustrations. They are colorful, crisp and professionally done. 

This eBook deserves a hardback version. And I'd like to see it be a little bit longer. Williams assures me that the next book in the series will be longer--and we don't have long to wait. Book 2 should be out in October/November of 2014. 

Williams created this adorable animation of Bing and Nero:

          

Bing & Nero just won a Top Shelf Book Award  which explained: "Why[did] it [win]? For its ingenuity and creativity! Because the main character is smart, creative, and takes action to create. He's a thinker and a doer!"

Author Ingrid Williams was kind enough to answer some of my questions:

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

A. We Knew This Chick Was Trouble or Life Is What Happens While You´re Making Other Plans I think it would depend on who you asked!

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A. That is impossible to say, but Ian McEwan´s Amsterdam and Frank Conroy´s Body & Soul have me mesmerized every time I re-read them.

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A. Probably Winnie the Pooh –just replace the honey with chocolate.

Q.  What character from all of your books are you most like?

A. Probably Minxie the cat in Bing & Nero. Minxie hops into all the fun, but is prepared to dive back under the bed in a second if the robot starts to act dodgy.

Q.  Which book would you love to take a weekend vacation inside of?

 A. Definitely not any of the Game of Thrones books! Maybe Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! I think I could very much enjoy a weekend in a chocolate factory...

Q.  What inspires your writing?

 A. My children´s book writing is inspired entirely by my 5 year-old son and his interests. I make up stories for him. I make a note of the ones he wants to hear again and again.

 Q.  What is your favorite thing about being an author?

 A. Seeing something that has been invented in your head come to life. And seeing little kids fall in love with your book. 

Q.  What is the toughest part of being an author?

 A. That would be the fact that nothing gets done by itself. The creative part is all play, but that is only the beginning. If a story is going to become a book, then you have to embrace the serious work of making something out of nothing.

Q.  If you could not be author, what would you do/be?

 A. At this point, I think I would probably be a publisher and spend my time hunting for good writers to bring to the world.

Q.  What inspired your book cover?

A. The cover is supposed to capture the feeling of fun and friendship and freedom that is so much at the heart of the story. You have a boy and the robot he created sharing a shining moment of fun together.

Q.  What is your favorite season?

 A. Fall. Because the days are still bright and beautiful, but the nights have the promise of things to come in the air.

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A. I have written the second Bing & Nero book and am sketching out the third

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A.  I hope that if they have a small boy or girl who is mad about robots that they will have a peep at Bing & Nero because it is guaranteed to be a story they will love. Even kids that don´t read a word of English just lose themselves in the illustrations. And satisfied kids is what any children´s book exists for! 

Want more information on author Ingrid Williams or her book Bing and Nero? Check out her Author page on Amazon and GoodReads, her website, her Twitter account at @bingandnero, her Facebook page, and the GoodReads and Amazon link of Bing and Nero.

Children's eBook Review: NS Blackman's DinoTek series

   

I have four dinosaur fans in my house. As a mother of four boys, I've learned more about dinosaurs and read more dinosaur books than I ever thought I would. But I've stumbled on a dinosaur chapter book series with a unique twist. This Dinotek series, by NS Blackman, is a marriage of machine and dinosaur in a very unusual way. 

To sum up the story of Book 1:

In this illustrated chapter book, Marlin Maxton heads over to the museum with his school group, and he discovers more than he'd ever thought to see--dinosaurs made of metal. Their machinery isn't moving and his inventor uncle advises him to clean them. Evenings Marlin could've spent playing video games were spent wiping down dinosaurs, small and large. Then he discovers their batteries, a man who wants to sell them as scrap metal, and a cockpit inside the T-Rex. Time for an adventure!

Storyline: 5 stars

I enjoyed the pairing of machine and dinosaurs and museum. It felt unusual. It also felt like it inspired kids to tinker, which is a valuable lesson to children everywhere. I look forward to reading the sequels (how will Maxton defeat the greedy museum worker?). 5 enthusiastic stars. 

Illustrations: 5 stars

Love these illustrations. They add sparkle to the well-written tale and are a good match for an imaginative-machine story. 5 lovely stars.

Total: 5 stars

NS Blackman, Author

Author NS Blackman answered some questions:

Q. What character from all of your books are you most like?

A. Hmmm… probably Uncle Gus, the adult in the book who helps the boy hero Marlin through the adventure. I like old machines and making things – just like he does in the books. 

Q. What is your favorite thing about being an author?

A. Using my imagination to create something that people enjoy – when readers say they’ve liked my work it’s a great feeling.

Q. What inspires your writing? 

A. Telling stories – to my children and my friends. I also love reading of course. 


Q. What is the toughest part of being an author?

A. When you know something isn’t quite right but can’t work out how to fix it. You just have to give it time – I often go for a walk to get fresh ideas.


Q. If you could not be author, what would you do/be?

A. I’d like to do lots of things for a few weeks at a time. I think most people would be a lot happier if they could do a mixture of jobs – fresh air, helping people, using your creative skills – these are all the things that make us happy. So perhaps a tour guide to London – I love living here and showing people around it.


Q. What is your favorite book of all time?

A. It’s changed at various times of my life but they include Pride and Prejudice and The Lord of the Rings.

Q. Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A. If I have to choose probably Watson in Sherlock Holmes – observing and recording all the action going around him!


Q. Which book would you love to take a weekend vacation inside of?

A. The Hobbit – I would spend a lovely couple of days in Hobbiton, have a pint at the Green Dragon and see if I could get myself invited to a party!


Q. What is your favorite season?

A. Autumn, definitely – I’m not sure why but I’ve noticed that it’s the time of year when I feel most creative and enthusiastic, whatever I’m doing. As the nights draw in there’s definitely something magical in the air!

Q. What inspired your book cover(s)? Or what is your favorite book cover and why?

The Secret Dinosaur covers definitely have a ‘traditional’ feel, which I think suits the museum setting of the stories, and the tone of the writing. I hope they stand out and are attractive to look at. I really love illustrations and I still have many of the books which I spent hours looking at as a child. People notice the ‘Tintin’ influence in my pictures – less well known are the wonderful ‘Rupert Bear’ annuals of the sixties and seventies - these are amazing works of pen and ink art which I still treasure.

Q. Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book.

A. I get some lovely interruptions when I’m doing school readings. Young readers are always very diligent about correcting me if I get the name of a dinosaur wrong. I do like this – it’s wonderful for a child to feel like an expert and even better if they can correct an author during his talk!

Q. Are you working on something new?

A. Yes, yes, yes – I’m always writing and drawing. I’m going to add to my Dinotek short stories for pre-school children (The Amazing Dinoteks) and I’ve got two more Dinotek longer books coming along and two other children’s book projects lining up behind. The only thing standing in my way is time!

Q. Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A. If you come across an old mechanical dinosaur, be nice to it!

Want to find out more about the Dinotek series? Check out Blackman's website, and GoodRead links to Book 1 and Book 2 or click on the covers above and you can read the reviews and buy the book on Amazon.

Books Turned Into Apps

We have been working for months on turning our Kindle books into animated apps for iPad using InDesign instead of actual coding. And it worked! Not only have our beta testers expressed words like "Wow!" "Awesome" and "I don't want to say anything I just want to play with it," we also just got all six approved by the App Store℠! This is the image we used to announce it on Facebook today:

I know. Six apps at once? Why?

We wanted to put two up at once so that people who like one can have another one handy (it's a philosophy based on my own book app buying--when my children find a favorite book app and we read and play with it over and over, I reach a point where I want another one immediately to keep me sane--I mean to keep bedtime from going stale).

Plus we wanted one app to be free so people can make sure they like our story and style before paying money for it.  

But this two app plan was foiled because I work more slowly on the dramatized narration and choosing sound effects and music than my illustrator, Carol Stevens, works at animating our books. She found it animating the characters so fun that she just kept working on the next one. And the next one. She calls herself obsessed, but I call her amazing! Finally, she'd animated all six books right around the time I finished recording all the narrations and picking out and buying part of the sound effects and music. With her projects done for the moment, Stevens picked up the slack and finished the sound effects and music, as well as setting my narration to music! I love partnering with Stevens!

So here we are with SIX apps! And we're working on the seventh book and app at the same time. Yep, we are having some crazy fun (and you can see why I'm behind in my book reviewing, sorry! More to come soon!).

Here is a link to the FREE app, The Chipmunk Wants To Be A Bear.

Isn't it a cute icon? Stevens is so talented!

The Chipmunk Wants To Be A Bear app teaches children to work hard toward a goal no matter what, with 61 animations, 28 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Add to your cart and teach children that accomplishing difficult things changes us into something more, and perseverance is worth it!

App Details: Tapping or swiping the stars can drop an acorn on Bear’s nose, catch Chipmunk riding on a fish, or send a hawk soaring in the sky, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a laughing raccoon, gurgling stream or even a grumbling bear.

The other five apps sell for $2.99, just like the Kindle book version, and we even have our newest book, The T-Rex Who Wanted To Be A Long Neck (which was published just a month ago), in app form--with steam coming out of the angry T-Rex nose and a volcano that explodes in the background. Lovely stuff!!

The T-Rex Wants To Be A Long Neck

App Details: 70 animations, 35 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can knock down a tree with T-Rex's tail, send a pterodactyl soaring in the sky, hatch a baby dinosaur egg, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a volcano erupting, T-Rex roaring or even the boom from Long Neck whipping his tail.

The Alligator Wants To Be A Dog

App Details: 63 animations, 34 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can throw Alligator out of the back of a truck, start a frog leaping, send a rabbit hopping, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a noisy swamp, croaking frog or even a hissing alligator.

The Peacock Wants To Be A Pig

App Details: 68 animations, 35 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can launch Peacock into a mudhole, help him swallow an apple core, balance on a ball, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including cows mooing or even Pig slurping from a trough.

The Elephant Wants To Be A Bee

App Details: 73 animations, 36 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can start a hive of bees swarming, cause a zebra to rear, send a meerkat scampering away, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a trumpeting elephant, a tree crashing to the ground or even a barking meerkat.

The Snake Wants To Be A Horse

App Details: 71 animations, 35 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can tie Snake's tongue in a knot, send a herd of horses galloping, put band aids on Snake, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including galloping hooves, horses neighing or even snakes laughing.

If you enjoyed these apps, would you let us know? We'd love to hear your response and we'd appreciate your reviews in the Store. 

Thanks!!

~Valerie Harmon

Creating An App Version Of A Book

My illustrator, Carol Stevens, is amazing. With no coding experience, she has taken two of our books, The Chipmunk Who Wanted To Be A Bear and The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog, and turned them into interactive apps for IOS (Apple products). They aren't available in the iTunes store yet (I will announce that soon!!), but I thought it might be helpful to share what we've learned here, since I believe that any product that makes text interesting, from books to ebooks to apps, aids the goal of childhood literacy.

Stevens used InDesign to create the apps. No coding is required, just design experience and a willingness to learn new things from video tutorials. I LOVE how Stevens took our book illustrations and made them animated and interactive. It is not a quick process, but she was able to create all the animation slides in Adobe Illustrator and then upload them into InDesign and create a Folio. She shared this Folio with me on my iPad, which I can read after I downloaded Adobe Viewer (which was a free app).

Here is a screen shot from The Chipmunk Who Wanted To Be A Bear App:

The Chipmunk Who Wanted To Be A Bear App

The icons along the left margin are for sound effects: A hawk, a growling animal, and a howling wolf. Since Chipmunk is afraid to leave his home (tapping on him makes him hide in his hole), these are sounds that he would find scary. Our beta testing children love to tap and hear the sounds over and over!

The icons along the bottom are: page up, hear the narration, hear the music, home page, page down. I happen to be a free-lance voice actress, so I was able to read and record the narration myself. We recorded in a sound studio, but it doesn't have to be that fancy if you don't have a studio handy. If you make sure you have a good microphone or headset, then you could record the narration without a sound studio. 

We just barely added the icon star on the right margin, thanks to feedback from our beta testers. When you first turn the page, stars appear indicating locations to tap to begin an animation. You can see those stars below in the screen shot from The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog App:

The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog App

See the four stars, three in the picture and one above? Those are the places where tapping once will begin the animation. The stars appear for a couple seconds, and then disappear. But we discovered that kids want to be able to see the stars again and again, so they always know where to tap for animations. Tapping the star icon on the right reveals the animating stars again for a couple seconds.

Stevens is brilliant with her animations! They add so much to the story. In this illustration Alligator is lonely, looking for a friend, and sad when the animals run away from his trying-to-be-friendly smile. Tapping below Alligator's chin makes a mouse run away through the grass. The star by his jaw makes a rabbit appear, see Alligator, and then disappear. While I enjoy books tremendously, I admit that an app animation adds a lot to a story too! Tapping above Alligator's eye makes his eye look forward and then back again. Tapping the star inside his mouth makes him close and open it. Tapping the star at the top of the page begins a ball bouncing from one side to the other.

Our beta testers, after a little experimenting, tend to touch the narration so that the story is read to them, and then listen while they tap all the animations. 

InDesign has provided a way for an illustrator/graphic designer to create an app without coding. That's fabulous! And I believe we will see more quality interactive books emerge in the app store thanks to that bridge. However, there were a couple limitations that I should mention. 

My favorite interactive book app is Miss Spider's Tea Party. It costs $2.99 and it's lovely! That app is what whet my appetite for an animated book app of my own. The illustrations and animations are fabulous, the storyline endearing, and the narration beautifully spoken. Using that interactive book app, I listed all the parts I wanted our books to include. We accomplished most of them, but not all. Without an animation and coding team, and using only InDesign, we had to compromise in a couple areas.

Without coding, we couldn't combine the animations with the sound effect. That hasn't been a problem for our beta testing kids, but it was on my ideal list, and we couldn't do it. 

The other limitation: when children tap on an animation more than once (and they love to do that), it can freeze or glitch the animation. It's no problem, pulling the page to the left (to the title page) and then to the right again, resets the animation. We also added the text "To reset animations pull page to left, and then the right" to help overcome that issue. So, it was fixable, but just an InDesign limitation to remember.  

We have yet to add our apps to the iTunes store, so I'll let you know how that goes, but if you're thinking about doing an app using InDesign, here are some links that'll help:

This is a white paper explaining how to take InDesign into iBookstore for Apple

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/indesign/pdfs/indesign-to-ipad.pdf

This is a video walk through for submitting the app to Apple (you might want to see older videos in this series too, this looks like a great tutorial).

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-digital-publishing-suite-single-edition/submitting-your-single-edition-app-to-apple/

Step by Step guide to submitting the app from a DPS file

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ppcompdoc/Step_by_step_guide_to_dps_se.pdf

Some important quotes: "Creative cloud subscribers can create an unlimited number of “single issue” apps free of charge. if you are not a creative cloud subscriber, you can purchase serial numbers for creating single issue apps from the Adobe store. if you want to create a “Multi-issue” app, you will need a Professional or enterprise subscription to DPS."

"Note: Apple rejects many apps for being too “book-like.” Make sure that your folio is substantive and includes interactivity not available in ebooks. Also, do not select the “Books” category when submitting the app."

Best of luck to you all! Let me know if your books turn into animated apps too!

Children's eBook Review: Isabella's Special Wish by Deborah Belica

My Rating
Illustrations: 5 Stars (simple and dainty water color illustrations)

Cover: 4.0 stars (it doesn't do the story justice, just read it anyway!)
Storyline: 5 Stars (unusual and mysterious rhyming story)
Total: 5 stars

I won't spoil the surprises in this imaginative book, so I'll just quote the beginning, "There once was a girl named Umbrella. You can't name a girl Umbrella! There once was a girl named Isabella."

This adorable book is about a girl named Isabella who is on a quest to make a special wish. On the way she walks and climbs up and down...things. You see, things are not what they seem in the book. At first it's something silly, and then it's corrected to something more practical that rhymes. I've not read a book like it and it is not only well-illustrated, but it's fun to read aloud.

My 8 year old liked to predict what the practical rhyme was, although she didn't always guess it right, which made her giggle. I enjoyed the fun rhymes and element of mystery (what is Isabella really doing?).

I enjoyed this book tremendously. So I interviewed the author, Deborah Belica.

VALERIE HARMON: What inspires your writing?
DEBORAH BELICA: My grandchildren who are 6, 5 and 3. I find it so easy to slip into their way of
thinking when I am around them. We play rhyming games which is really how the book began. We would
look out of the window of the car and see a tree then say: “tree, bee” or see a house and say: “house,
mouse”. Each taking turns to find something and make a rhyme with it.

VALERIE HARMON: What is your favorite thing about being an author?
DEBORAH BELICA: There is no doubt that the most wonderful thing about being a children’s author is
the children and their response to the book. When I hear a giggle or see a hug and think that my words may
have made that happen, well I feel very special indeed. A great deal of my readers have sent in photos of
the children reading the book or the parent reading to the children and I feel wonderful.

VALERIE HARMON: What is the toughest part of being an author?
DEBORAH BELICA: I have owned my own business but still this has been big learning curve for me. From authors pages, facebook pages, QR codes, ISBN numbers, Library of Congress Control Numbers, layout and design, book signings to public speaking all new to me. I would like to say here that finding the right publisher is key. My publisher has been awesome and we have a great working relationship.

VALERIE HARMON: What is your favorite book of all time?

DEBORAH BELICA: Illusions by Richard Bach, I have read this many times in my life and each time it 

taught me something different. A quick and wonderful read.

VALERIE HARMON: Which character from ANY book are you most like?

DEBORAH BELICA: Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Curious and trying to make sense of it all.

VALERIE HARMON: Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting 

your book.

DEBORAH BELICA: Well I had mentioned earlier that I do receive picture of children reading Isabella’s 

Special Wish, I got this picture from a reader:

VALERIE HARMON: That is hilarious! I LOVE that picture! Are you working on something new?

DEBORAH BELICA: Yes, Isabella’s newest adventure will be out in 2014.

VALERIE HARMON: Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping 

by?

DEBORAH BELICA: Hi and welcome to the world of Isabella. Hope you enjoyed your visit. If you are a 

reader I think you will enjoy her adventures and if you are an author keep on writing!

To connect with Deborah Belica and hear about more Isabella, click here for her website and Facebook page.

~Valerie Harmon

We are blogged: by Theo Lightfoot

Thanks to Theo Lightfoot for spotlighting the Wants To Be book children's eBook series. He says, 

"This children’s ebook series teaches kids the valuable lesson that they can be anything they want to be, no matter how unlikely it first appears."

and...

"The point is, no matter how ridiculous someone’s goal seems, don’t disparage it. The more unlikely it is, the more the person will work to make it happen. And I think that’s the idea we want our kids to learn from these books."

Great review!

~Valerie Harmon