A Bevy of Children's Books

Granny of the Pacifiers by Anat Umansky
Genre: Children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I have reviewed many of this author's books and love them. The idea behind and within this book is great. I do feel the story could have been a little more developed. I will recommend it because as I said the idea within for getting your child to give up their pacifier is a great one.

Mommy What Do I Feel by Sagit Cohen
Genre: Children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This is just one book in a series about the senses. The author has done a great job of teaching about the sense of touch. The book is word friendly in that it is an easy independent read or can be understood by the youngest child being read to. I definitely recommend this book.

How You Were Made by Sagit Cohen
Genre: Children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
This is a great story to tell your young children when they ask where they came from. It doesn't answer the physical question, but it does let them know that a lot of thoughts, love and planning went into making them. I really enjoyed this book.

Can't Catch Calico by Elliott Carlson
Genre: Children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

The storyline is good. My problem with this book is
that since it is for children, most of them won't understand the dialect. It would have been better to throw just a couple of those types of words in and used standard language for the rest. For this reason I didn't rate it as highly as I usually do. It was a good book, I just don't think a lot of kids will understand the language used.

The Boy Who Stopped Time by Michael A. Massa
Genre: children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review, The opinions expressed here are my own.

One of the hardest things for kids to understand is the concept of time. A young boy in a village keeps hearing phrases about time: "running out of time", "living on borrowed time". He believes if he can stop the hands of the church clock that everyone will have all the time they need. Read this wonderful book where this author addresses this issue and see what lesson young Anthony learns.


Oliver and Jumpy Stories 22-24 by Werner Stejskal

Genre: Children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Story 22 finds Oliver and his friends on a train ride adventure. They are taken through many fantastic lands and find themselves on a rollercoaster.
Story 23 finds Oliver with a case of the hiccups. The only way he can get rid of them is to climb a mountain where a special bird lives. Their babies are born with hiccups and the nectar from a special flower. Follow Oliver on this adventure.
Story 24 Oliver is spending time with Joey while his mom goes shopping. After eating breakfast they go out on a boat to go fishing. Follow them on this fishing adventure.

Oliver and Jumpy Stories  25-27 by Werner Stejskal
Genre: Children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Story 25 finds Oliver with his owl friend Ollie. Ollie Owl was the wisest creature in the forest. He would sit on Oliver's porch and creatures from the forest would come to him for advice. When Oliver's ring goes missing Ollie tells him how to figure out where his ring is.
Story 26 Oliver receives a note his sister has had kittens. She would like him to visit. This means he and his friends will need to travel across a desert. Read to find out what happens to them on their trip.
Story 27 Oliver visits a local castle just to explore it. On this trip he meets a lonely ghost who lives in the castle. He plays cards with him and several others who live there. He agrees to return if they agree to help him with Trick-or-Treat. Is this a good idea?  Read to find out.

Sweet as Fruit - Shir Guez

Children's  Book
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
When it comes to authors who write about nutrition, Shir Guez is my favorite. This is not your common picture book. This is a book for parents to read to their older children or for them to read on their own. I loved this book because it teaches about different fruits and their importace to our bodies. One of the reasons I love her books is I always learn something new. This book was no different. She spoke about the Lychee fruit.  I actually found some in an Amish market a couple of months back and loved them. Since I have put more fruit in my daily diet it is great to know how these fruits help my body.  An excellent book I will recommend to all of my friends.

The One Who Sees Me by Kandi J. Wyatt

Genre: Young Adult, Adult, Historical Fiction

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review.

Kandi Wyatt has taken historical fiction and elevated it to a higher level. Her world building pulls you in and puts you right in the middle of the adventure.  This is why I love her books.  I immediately recogized the story line in her newest book.  It is the story of Hagar and her son Ishmael.  However, she has taken the information from the Bible and told Hagars story from her perspective. She also removed it from the Biblical time period and set it in medieval times. For me this works so well. We find Faru (Hagar) traded from her mistress to a young Lord. When his wife is finally returned to him, they keep her.  Things go along well for years with Faru attending to Lady Cwen's needs. She even finds herself falling in love with a young man named Cailean. But all of this is to change because The Existing One has told him he will have a son.

I will say nothing further because to do so will spoil such a wonderful story. However, if you are familiar with the story you know what will happen. The story is full of hope, love, betrayal and the hardship of living the life of a servant in medieval times. It is also full of hope and trust in "The Existing One".  As a Christian it is a reminder to all who follow him that we must always place our trust in God and understand that even through hardships he knows what is best for us.  I will definitely recommend this book to others and because it is such a clean read and one that will appeal to teens and adult, will proudly put a copy on my shelves at school.  I can't wait to see what this author comes up with next.

Guest Post by Brent Ayscough Author of "The Visitor"

In a former life, I was an attorney that handled many types of cases, some of which might seem as fighting impossible odds.  Those odds were often fighting a well-funded establishment. 

To begin with, for this fictional story, I asked myself, what is a seemingly impossible task that I might be able to accomplish?

The idea came to me to put the Dalai Lama back into his Tibet, overcoming the might of the Communist Chinese Government, and which task the civilized nations of the world have not been able to do. 

I came up with a solution.   Implementing it required intensive research in so many areas that it took several years to put together.   The story leaves out no relevant details.  

Tibet has only two races, the native Tibetan and now the Han Chinese moved there by the Communist Chinese Government to dilute the Tibetan population.   

My method is to create a race-specific Ebola that will only attack the Han Chinese race that occupy Tibet.

To do this, I found experts that assisted in putting together a workable method of how to do it.  The place to make it, the medical equipment, medical procedures, lab animals, needed samples, expendable test subjects and from where and how to get them, and the characters that could do it,  are all explained.  It is like a “how to do it” primer.

I also found a place where it could be done as it is dangerous.  The place exits in Kazakhstan.

Funding cannot come from a country, as that would be war.  So, I came up with a method of funding as well as the motivation.

Although having nothing to do with the Ebola, I added an alien anthropologist that comes to Earth incognito to observe and evaluate us as a species as to whether we should be allowed to come into space or be eradicated as a threat.  How she gets around is hopefully entertaining.  She intended to land her gliding shuttle in the middle of the US, in Kansas, as she learned English for the mission, but due to a military test over White Sands, New Mexico, she is detected and moves her shuttle over to Europe where she lands in rural Poland.  Homeland security tracked her and chases her as a threat, although unaware she is alien. 

In Poland, she meets an international arms merchant, a Baron, who becomes her host and guide while on Earth.  He is undertaking the task of creating the race-specific Ebola.  How he is hired, the funding, and his contacts make up the story.  There is also romance between the two as the alien is human like.

The reader might find him or herself looking at humans from an unbiased point of view as does the alien as to whether or not we should be contacted and invited to enjoy the wonders of the universe, or, should we be eradicated as a warring threat of a species that has no business in space.

In writing, I think research is half the fun.  Do you enjoy the research you’ve done for your writing?

Brent Ayscough or Ace, as he is known to friends, retired from the practice of law and lives in a house overlooking the sea in Southern California. He has always loved machines, from airplanes to motorcycles, structural design, and other interests. He has enjoyed the acquaintance of diverse and interesting people, and is widely traveled. Bits and pieces of characters he has known, places he has been, seasoned with the spice of his imagination, help him create unusual stories and characters. Extensive collaboration with experts and sources, hopefully, make his stories credible and interesting.

The Visitor by Brent Ayscough ISBN-13: 9781626942356, Black Opal Books , Trade paper/ebook February 2015  $12.99

http://www.amazon.com/Visitor-Brent-Ayscough-ebook/dp/B00T6S7VEU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442167201&sr=8-1&keywords=the+visitor+ayscough