The September 2014 issue of Guardian Angel Kids celebrates “Extraordinary Animals.” In this month’s issue, our special feature is Katrina and Winter: Partners in Courage by award-winning author Nancy Stewart.
You’ll find the poem “Tail Tales” by Ellen Javernick inside, as well as a ton of non-fiction articles about a variety of animals including bats, the Mountain Beaver, and the platypus. This month’s kid’s activity has to do with manatees.
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Best wishes,Donna M. McDine
Multi Award-winning Children's Author
Ignite curiosity in your child through reading!
Connect with Donna McDine on Google+
A Sandy Grave ~ January 2014 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2014 Purple Dragonfly 1st Place Picture Books 6+, Story Monster Approved, Beach Book Festival Honorable Mention 2014, Reader's Favorite Five Star ReviewPowder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Story Monster Approved, Reader's Favorite Five Star ReviewHockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Story Monster Approved, Reader's Farvorite Five Star ReviewThe Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist
The Guardian Angel Kids April 2014 Ezine now available. Take some time out and visit for a spell in a safe online environment with your young muses.
Special Features
Flowers of the World
Reported by GAK, our very own Angel Gecko
Features
POEM
Predatory Petals by A.J. Huffman
Shades of Exaltation by A.J. Huffman
FICTION SHORT STORIES
A Flower Expedition by Joyce Wold
Coming Up Roses by Felicity Nisbet
NON-FICTION ARTICLE
Flowers that Grow on Volcanoes by Sherry Alexander
The Legend of the “Cry in Your Sleep” Flower-A Retelling of the Legend of Tagimoucia, Fiji’s National Flower by Sherri Alexandaer
ACTIVITY
Flower Girls Word Puzzle
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Best wishes,
Donna M. McDineAward-winning Children's Author
Connect with
Donna McDine on Google+A Sandy Grave ~ January 2014 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
Powder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
Hockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist
Available Now...
Guardian Angel Kids September 2013 Bullying issue - www.guardian-angel-kids.com.
Unfortunately, bullying is an every day occurrence that needs to be stopped. Especially with the advances of technology, there are people that use it to their advantage. Taunting others from behind their keyboard.
Share this month's issue with your children and young adults in your life today and help stop bullying.
Book Feature
Benjamin Jay was a Bully by Emma Glover Art by KC Snider
Features
POEM
Chy’s Guys by Donna J. Shepherd
SHORT STORIES
Finding Frankenfeet by Jennifer Buchet
Saving Hercules by Debbie Allard
Shrimp by Felicity Nisbet
Frank and the Forever Flute by Elizabeth Glann
NON-FICTION ARTICLE
Hen Pecked by Shari L. Klase
PARENT TEACHER ARTICLE
Cyber Bullying: Its Prevalence and What to do about it? by Irene S. Roth
ACTIVITY FOR PARENTS/ TEACHERS & KIDS
Teaching Empathy Helps Stop Bullying by Kathy Stemke
Thank you for your interest!
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Best wishes,
Donna M. McDineAward-winning Children's Author
Connect with
Donna McDine on Google+Powder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
Hockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist
A stagnate mind squashes the imagination. To keep one’s creativity and imagination flowing it’s essential to explore the unknown and take chances to think outside the box. Imagine for a moment if everyone thought, worked and acted the same way. What a boring world this would be! Read beyond the normal genre you gravitate to, explore the what if’s of everyday life, enjoy nature and soak in the wonders all around you. Challenge yourself on a daily basis and watch your imagination soar to new levels.
Come explore the world of Guardian Angel Kids
www.guardian-angel-kids.com through the thought provoking poetry, short stories and articles to expand your imagination and have fun along the way.
To the dedicated GAK readers and contributors after soul searching her own writing career path, Donna McDine has decided to step down as GAK Editor-in-Chief and dedicate more time to her personal writing and book promotional efforts. This decision did not come lightly, but to be able to expand her imagination and efforts she needed to lighten her work responsibilities. McDine shares that it has been a distinct privilege working with Lynda Burch, Donna Shepherd, Kevin McNamee, and Mary Sue Roberts over the course of the last two plus years. And of course, her daily interactions with the valuable contributors, without whom Guardian Angel Kids Ezine would not exist.
McDine wishes you all the very best in imagination and inspiration throughout 2013 and beyond! She looks forward to staying in touch. Please feel free to drop her a line any time at
[email protected].
We also invite you to stay connected with Guardian Angel Kids through our Facebook Fan Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Guardian-Angel-Kids-Ezine/163785080346247.
Please feel free to drop Editor-in-Chief, Mary Sue Roberts an email at
[email protected]and let them know what you think of Guardian Angel Kids and what you'd like to see in the future. They aim to please.
The Guardian Angel Kids Ezine staff and contributors look forward to your visit. Thank you for your time and interest.
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Best wishes,
Donna M. McDineAward-winning Children's Author
Connect with
Donna McDine on Google+The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist
My story “The Juggler Triplets” will appear in the November issue of Abe’s Peanut, a micro-magazine for kids ages 6-10. Delivered in four postcard installments, the story appears on one side with full-color illustration by Lichen Frank on the other.
Independently published by editors Anna and Tess Knoebel, Abe’s Peanut launched this year after the success of Abe’s Penny, a micro-magazine for adults: “Off-set printed on double thick matte card stock, each issue dispenses art and literature while becoming a collectible, temporal object.” (In kidspeak: “They look cool tacked to your bedroom door.”)
Recent Abe’s Peanut contributors include Audrey Vernick, author of Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?, and Lisa Tharpe, author of P is for Please: A Bestiary of Manners.
Kids love receiving their own mail, so here’s a chance to receive four postcards with your child’s name on the label.
Leave a comment naming your child’s favorite picture book for one contest entry. Mention the giveaway elsewhere for two additional entries. A winner will be chosen on Friday, October 22nd.
And stay-tuned for PiBoIdMo in November, when there will be several itty-bitty (plus some hugantic) giveaways!
New Bilingual Books from Children's Book Press
Quinito, Day and Night / Quinito, día y noche
Story by Ina Cumpiano
Illustrations by José Ramírez
Little Quinito and his family take the reader through a day filled with opposites, including short/tall, quiet/loud, and rainy/sunny.
From first thing in the morning until he goes to sleep, Quinito is off and running— fast or slow, depending on the day. If it’s sunny, he’s off to the park to swing high and low. If it rains, it’s time to stay home and be quiet at naptime and loud at playtime. There’s so much to do before the sun sets.
Ina Cumpiano teams up with José Ramírez once more to show young readers that everywhere they look, opposites abound. Quinito, Day and Night is a delight for readers young or old, tall or short, messy or neat .
24 pages Full-color illustrations Ages 4 to 6 Bilingual English/Spanish
Animals Poems of the Iguazú / Animalario del Iguazú
Poems by Francisco X. Alarcón
Illustrations by Maya Christina Gonzalez
The animals of the Iguazú speak for themselves in their own soaring, roaring, fluttering voices in this bilingual environmental poetry collection about Argentina's Iguazú rainforest.
In the magical rainforest of the Iguazú National Park, toucans have two papaya slices for a beak, and butterflies are the multicolored flowers of the air. Great dusky swifts watch over the park, and the untamed spirits of jaguars roam the jungle. Spanning three countries—Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay—the thundering waterfalls and lush green rainforests of the Iguazú have dazzled visitors for centuries, and are now in danger of being lost.
Following the Amerindian oral tradition, award-winning Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcón lets the animals of the Iguazú speak for themselves in their own soaring, roaring, fluttering voices, and the resulting poems are as urgent as they are beautiful and humorous. Maya Christina Gonzalez’s mixed media illustrations bring the colors and textures of the Iguazú rainforest to vibrant life.
Animal Poems of the Iguazú initiates Children’s Book Press’ goal of an eventual conversion to the use of recycled paper for all new titles and reprints of backlist titles; the book is printed using 100% recycled paper.
32 pages Full-color illustrations Ages 6 and up Bilingual English/Spanish
A New Young Adult Novel from Cinco Puntos Press
The Smell of Old Lady Perfume
Claudia Guadalupe Martinez’s debut novel for young adults is a bittersweet story about death, family, and the resilient emotional strength of the human heart.
Chela Gonzalez, the book’s narrator, is a nerd and a soccer player who can barely contain her excitement about starting the sixth grade. But nothing is as she imagined—her best friend turns on her to join the popular girls and they all act like Chela doesn’t exist. She buries herself in schoolwork and in the warm comfort of her family. To Chela, her family is like a solar system, with her father the sun and her mother, brothers, and sister like planets rotating all around him. It’s a small world, but it’s the only one she fits in.
But that universe is threatened when her strong father has a stroke. Chela’s grandmother moves in to help the family. The smell of her old lady perfume invades the house. That smell is worse than Sundays. Sundays were sad, but they went just as sure as they came. Death was a whole other thing, and Chela doesn’t understand that’s what everyone is waiting for. In her grief and worry, Chela begins to discover herself and find her own strength.
Claudia Guadalupe Martinez was raised in El Paso, Texas. She learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns for her father. She went on to graduate from college and moved to Chicago to become one of the city’s youngest non-profit executives.
A new magazine from the editors of Highlights!
Highlights High Five is perfect for young children aged 2-6!
Highlights High Five is the newest offering from the publisher of the nation's #1 children's magazine, Highlights for Children. Like its older sibling publication, Highlights High Five is founded on the belief that children are the world's most important people and helps set children firmly on the path to becoming curious, creative, caring, and confident individuals.
Highlights High Five celebrates the early years of childhood—a time of discovery when learning happens at every turn. Our magazine is dedicated to helping parents, educators, and other caregivers nurture young children by:
* encouraging a natural sense of wonder about the world;
* promoting reasoning, problem solving, and creative self-expression;
* fostering a love of language and a rich vocabulary;
* and inspiring them to be kind, to get along with others, and to grow in self-confidence...for
children are the world's most important people.
This is the time of years for lists, lists, lists. Favourites and bests. Least favourites and not-bests! I re-read this blog, and I am pleasantly surprised how many good books I was able to read this year. But what of the bests and worsts? Well, this is not a place for the worsts...but there definitely were a few...one of which sits on my nightstand right now. I so wanted to like it.
Sigh.
But.
My favourites for the tween set are:
Hands down, my favourite book of the year. Folks are up in arms. "It's YA", "No! It's cross-over!", "No, it's solidly written children's lit!" I have put my arguing about the shelf placement for The Wednesday Wars aside (aren'tcha happy, Jen?!). I am simply all about loving this book from characters to setting. Simply the best.
Ahhh...Enola Holmes (granted this title isn't 2007, but The Case of the Left-Handed Lady is!) My feminist self is SO pleased with Enola, and with Springer's crafty use of detail that has our students exclaiming when we tell them said details are true. Fast, fun, feminist...woot!
The Secret History of Tom Trueheart did not get the buzz that I thought it would. The same thing happened in the past to the superb Capt. Hook. Simply a delightful read, equally appealing to boys and girls. A great adventure! And a fab cover too!
And last, but not least, Amelia Rules! Superheroes. (Again a 2006, but there is a new 2007 volume out called "When the Past is a Present" and I have faith it'll be just as good!). In my opinion, Jimmy Gownley can do no wrong. Such smart books, with great characters and hilarious details. I champion Amelia Rules whenever and wherever possible. What a great series.
So there you have it. Not easy to whittle things down, let me tell you! For some other favourite lists around the kidlitosphere check out:
There is a question being raised over at Wizards Wireless.
What were your favourite picture books when you were young? Not those recent wonderful things, but the ones that spoke to your child self.
It's funny, because Jen and I were just talking about childhood trips to the public library, and I mentioned to her that I would check one particular book out over and over again.
There was just something about Madeline that I loved. And I remember the creakiness of this particular volume's spine, and the library book smell that it had. Looking back, I think it was the idea of so many girls getting to live together, and have adventures in the streets of Paris, that appealed to me. I may have secretly coveted the yellow outfit, as well.
The Mitten by Tresselt is one that I had totally forgotten about until I made the move from Young Adult librarian to Children's librarian. As soon as I opened this book at my school, I was transported back to my babysitter's house. Mrs. VanDerVeen used to read me this book over and over again. I was especially fond of the colour palette. And each snowflake was worthy of examination!
Now, this is not the wonderful cover of the 1970s that graces my copy of Garbage Delight. The art in my copy is by none other than Frank Newfeld. The illustrations in this wacky book of poetry were just as important to me as the hilarious poems. I still have "The Puddle" memorized, and can break it out at will. This is the book that made me want to write for a living.
So, what were your favourites?
What a wonderful idea!