Four Wonderful Picture Books with Important Messages

Genre:  Children's Picture Books

Source: I received copies to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Giant Tortillas Make Me Proud: A Story from Mexico by Jan-Henrik Johansson

This story explores cultural  identity through  the use of Mexico’s giant tortillas. Follow Yej Susen a doll as she and her mice neighbors discuss the giant tortilla and its use in their homes. The book also has some wonderful resources in the back to give you more information on giant tortillas and the making of chocolate from cacao beans.  A wonderful way to learn about different cultures.

Bravo and Elphie - Hagit R. Oron & Or Oron

Elphie receives a pet mouse from his mother. He is afraid to play with him because he is afraid he will step on him. His mom suggests they go to the park. Here we see Bravo climb the monkey bars, which is something Elphie doesn’t do. He’s afraid he will get hurt. Then Bravo climbs to the top of the really tall slide and doesn’t come down. Elphie must find the courage to go up and rescue his new pet. He must face his fear.

Wholesome Together We Can Save the Planet by Grace Nava, Ed.S.

This wonderful book teaches children how to care for the world they live in. A small peach pit sets off on a walk one day. It thanks the soil, rain clouds, bees and other things it encounters for helping it live a happy and healthy lie. Then it comes to the city and sees the opposite happening. Can the little peach pit find anyone who will help? A wonderful story, full of vocabulary, and resources. This is a wonderful tool for any classroom

Storm of Joy by Sherri Sengsouvanna

If you are looking for a book to help you talk to a young one about death and grieving then this book is the one for you.  In this wonderfully illustrated book based on the author's loss of her own son we meet a queen and her son. She heals the earth and makes people all around her feel better. When her son dies she becomes so distraught that she can't help heal anyone or anything.  She only wants to see her son again. It is the visit of her son in a different form that brings new life back to the Queen and at the same time to her kingdom. This is a fairy tale of love and hope after something  tragic.

Guest Post: Katherine Prairie

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved books, and I started that love affair early. My mother always had a book in hand, and she introduced me to Trixie-Belden and the wonderful stories about a young girl who solved crime when I was still in elementary school. But books were a luxury, and the store-bought books that came through our door were few and far between. I soon discovered though, that the library had what seemed to me, an endless supply.  

As a teenager, I spent hours in the library, browsing the shelves, searching for interesting stories and when I found an author I liked, I read everything they published. One summer, it was Jane Austen’s books, another year Agatha Christie filled my days. My tastes were eclectic – and still are – I just wanted a good story and authors like Isaac Asimov, James Clavell, Robert Ludlum, J.R.R. Tolkien, Emily Bronte, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark delivered.

But the books I read about far-away places, Russian spies and early Britain, also sparked an interest in world politics, history, geography, art and culture. They opened up the world to me, and they stirred my imagination.

I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a scientist, and that’s where my education and career took me, but there’s always been a part of me that wanted to write. In science, we explore, discover and experiment –  we investigate mysteries.  So I suppose it’s only natural that when I did take that first step, I wrote Thirst, a suspense thriller.

But as a writer I’ve taken on the challenge of creating a mystery rather than solving one, and it is a challenge!  Too many clues or too few, a simple plot or one that’s too complex, slow vs fast pacing – all of these elements have to be carefully considered as I construct my story.  Above all, I want to give people a story they can immerse themselves in, a story I would like to read too.

There’s no doubt that the authors of my childhood greatly influenced me, and so have the many authors I discovered as an adult. I still prowl the library, searching for a good read, and I still take great delight in finding a new author. And if you had told me when I was a young girl that I would one day see my own novel on those library shelves, I wouldn’t have believed you, but a few weeks ago that’s exactly what happened.  

As much as I’m been overjoyed to see Thirst in stores, it’s the libraries that I’m most proud of. Libraries make books that entertain, teach and inspire available to everyone regardless of age, income or education, and they power dreams. Without that library in my small hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

I’m at the beginning of my writing career, but perhaps one day a reader will find my Alex Graham series on the library shelves and it will inspire them to search out more authors, or to write their own book.   

Author Bio

Katherine, a geologist and IT specialist, stepped away from the international petroleum industry to follow her passion for writing. An avid traveller with an insatiable curiosity, you never know where you’ll find her next! But most days, she’s in Vancouver, Canada quietly plotting murder and mayhem under the watchful eye of a cat. She is an award-winning presenter and the author of the thriller THIRST.

www.katherineprairie.com

www.facebook.com/katherine.prairie

www.twitter.com/authorprairie

Buy links for Thirst:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thirst-Katherine-Prairie-ebook/dp/B019RC0YQG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468433630&sr=8-1&keywords=thirst+prairie

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thirst-katherine-prairie/1123763867?ean=9780994937704

www.katherineprairie.com

Guest Post: Researching Other Cultures for Historical Fiction by J.J. White

 Imagine a knock on your door in the middle of the day to find military police outside with orders to take you and your family to a concentration camp, immediately. They have arrested your spouse, removed your children from school, and told you the only possessions you can take with you are a suitcase and the clothes on your back. It sounds like Nazi Germany but it isn’t. This story and hundreds of thousands of similar stories are what happened to Japanese-Americans soon after the Pearl Harbor attack when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, essentially incarcerating Americans of Japanese heritage.

Now also imagine it’s 1944 and you are a Japanese-American soldier in the US Army in WWII France and you are ordered on a suicide mission, along with 3000 other Japanese-American soldiers of the 442^nd Regimental Combat Team, to attack 10,000 crack German troops to save the lives of 211 white GIs. You would obey the order because you know the newspapers back home will say you’re a traitor for refusing because you are a Japanese-American.

These were stories I found while doing research for my Historical Fiction book, Nisei, and it was during this research that I discovered in order to get the facts and atmosphere correct, I had to learn both a new language and different culture to understand why these Japanese-American Nisei, though citizens of the United States, reacted to these struggles the way they did.

My novel, Nisei, is the story of Hideo Bobby Takahashi, a Hawaiian-born Japanese-American who must overcome prejudice, internment, and the policies of his own government to prove his loyalty to his country. Narrated by Bobby Takahashi and read by his son, Robert, 46 years after Bobby’s death, the story details the young Nisei’s determination to fight honorably for his country and return to the young love he was forced to leave, a girl he cannot have because she is white.

The notebook of research material I gathered to write the book was almost twice as large as the book itself. Had I been writing a book about a white, Irish-American I could have used my own life and experience for material, but when writing about a different culture, it was necessary to research so deeply that I literally became the character with my words and actions. It was very much like method acting, where you get into the head of the protagonist.

In order to write realistic dialogue, I learned to speak Pidgin, a mixture of Japanese, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and English that the Nisei of Hawaii speak. I think I drove my wife crazy as I spent most of my time speaking in the short, choppy Pidgin, mixed with Hawaiian colloquialisms, on a daily basis. I also had to dig deep into Asian culture in order to understand the Japanese-American’s preference for honor and bravery over self-survival.

This may have seemed like a lot to go through to write a book, but readers of Historical Fiction obsessively scrutinize an author’s work more than fans of other genres, and they expect those facts to agree with historical events.

I hope my importance to detail comes out in the book and I also hope the reader will identify and empathize with Bobby Takahshi as he deals with the obstacles and struggles that all Japanese-Americans had to deal with in those volatile times of American history.

Author Bio

J. J. White is an award winning novelist and short story writer who has been published in several anthologies and magazines including, Wordsmith, The Homestead Review, The Seven Hills Review, Bacopa Review, and The Grey Sparrow Journal. His story, The Adventures of the Nine Hole League, was recently published in The Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, #13. He has won awards and honors from the Alabama Writers Conclave, Writers-Editors International, Maryland Writers Association, The Royal Palm Literary Awards, Professional Writers of Prescott, and Writer’s Digest.

His crime fiction book, Deviant Acts, was released by Black Opal books in November, and was followed by his Historical Fiction book, Nisei, in 2016. He was recently nominated for the Pushcart Prize for his short piece, Tour Bus. He lives in Merritt Island, Florida with his understanding wife and editor, Pamela.

Links:              www.jjwhitebooks.com

Facebook Author Page

Deviant Acts on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Deviant-Acts-J-J-White/dp/1626942854/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1447440390&sr=1-1

Nisei on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Nisei-JJ-White-ebook/dp/B01HQOY92C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471634066&sr=1-1&keywords=Nisei+White