Children's Books

5 FABULOUS CHILDRENS BOOKS –CHECK THESE OUT FOR YOUR LITTLE ONES! CHILDRENS LITERATURE BY MARSHA CASPER COOK

Posted on August 29, 2018 by karenwritesmurder

LEAPING LIZARDS IT’S A CONFIDENCE POTION

The Magical Leaping Lizard Potion is a fun imaginative read. Thirteen little girls make a potion that gives them confidence. This story shows how when a team works together great things can happen. This a fun imaginative read that makes you want to cheer the girls on. 
Also available in Audible. Audible is very helpful in helping kids understand a story better when they listen and read at the same time 


HARD COVER
https://www.amazon.com/Magical-Leaping-Lizard-Potion/dp/1604148845/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
PAPERBACK
https://www.amazon.com/Magical-Leaping-Lizard-Potion/dp/1604141352/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
KINDLE
https://www.amazon.com/Magical-Leaping-Lizard-Potion-ebook/dp/B00KMWR5H2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
AUDIBLE

https://www.amazon.com/The-Magical-Leaping-Lizard-Potion/dp/B015G6I1RQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

This is a GREAT read for young teens!July 25, 2012
By J.D. HolidayVINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
The Magical Leaping Lizard Potion by Marsha Casper Cook
Isabella Pimpinella, her puppy, Milly Van Dilly and her young witch friends are eager to develop into grown up witches. On the one night of the year when this can be done they have the greatest sleepover ever. They fool around with potions and rhythms in order to get it all right by midnight!
The Magical Leaping Lizard Potion is hilariouslyentertaining when it comes to doing what young witches must do. This is a GREAT read for young teens!
~Author JD Holiday


WILL CHIPPY DISCOVER THAT BEING A COOKIE IS JUST A SPECIAL AS BEING A BROWNIE?
Chippy isn’t happy with who he is and wants to be a brownie. With help from his teacher, Mrs. Chipster, he realizes he can be happy with who he is, if he believes in himself. Children will not only relate to what has happened to Chippy they will be pleased as they see sad Chippy become happy being himself. This is a heartwarming storybook for early readers, reading aloud at home, and as a bedtime story. Self Esteem is very important no matter what age.Kids will be learning without feeling this is a message. 
If you also get the audio book children will love hearing the words as they read. 


HARD COVER
https://www.amazon.com/I-Wish-Was-Brownie/dp/1604148837/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535551894&sr=8-7
PAPERBACK
https://www.amazon.com/I-Wish-Was-Brownie/dp/1604148810/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535551894&sr=8-7
KINDLE
https://www.amazon.com/I-Wish-Was-Brownie-ebook/dp/B017KYKTBI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535551894&sr=8-7
AUDIBLE
https://www.amazon.com/I-Wish-Was-Brownie/dp/B014I5PRA0/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535551894&sr=8-7

Great for Self-esteem
November 29, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition
I don’t know how many times I hear my students wish they were someone else, or looked different. This story is just like their’s. Chippy is a chocolate chip cookie who wishes he was a brownie. In his mind if he was a brownie the other chippies wouldn’t laugh at him and he wouldn’t feel so alone. His teacher Mrs. Chipster invites him over to her house and presents him with a costume to try on. It is a brownie costume. As he looks at himself in the mirror he discovers it is what is inside and not on the outside that matters.
What a wonderful story.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
TOO MANY SNACKS IS NOT A GOOD THING!
Addison thinks he’s got the best mommy in the whole world when she lets him have whatever he wants to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner even when it s chocolate candy, cookies and ice cream. Addison quickly learns how easy it can be to have too much of a good thing and that mommies & daddies really do know best!




PAPERBACK
https://www.amazon.com/Snack-Attack-Marsha-Casper-Cook/dp/1604141239/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535552325&sr=1-1
KINDLE
https://www.amazon.com/Snack-Attack-Marsha-Casper-Cook-ebook/dp/B00K22GK64/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535552325&sr=1-1
AUDIBLE
https://www.amazon.com/Snack-Attack/dp/B016J843YK/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535552325&sr=1-1
a yummy story for picky eaters
August 13, 2012
Format: Paperback
SNACK ATTACK BY MARSHA CASPER COOK
REVIEW BY KAREN VAUGHAN
Addison Apple hate oatmeal. He would rather eat chocolate and other goodies all day long.
His mom allows him to feed himself whatever he wants. After chowing down on various kinds of junk food he gets sick and realises that oatmeal is okay after all and that mom is right about healthy food.
This is a great story for picky kids to learn too much of a good thing isn’t that great. It is written from a kids point of view and is suitable for primary school students. I will recommend this to parents with kids from four and older. I give this 5 chocolate chip cookies.

NO CLUES, NO SHOES—BEING DIFFERENT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T BE FRIENDS
A friendship develops between two kids when they solve the first of many mystery cases. At first, they have nothing in common and didn’t see eye to eye on anything. Addison likes to read and write stories inside, and Emelina likes to be outdoors, jogging, skating, and just about anything that keeps her active. She likes healthy food and Addison has a sweet tooth. After a few weeks of friendship they realize even though they are different they can still be great friends.
Also available in Audible. Audible is very helpful in helping kids understand a story better when they listen and read at the same time .


HARDCOVER
https://www.amazon.com/Clues-Shoes-Marsha-Casper-Cook/dp/1604144173/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535552733&sr=1-1
KINDLE
https://www.amazon.com/Clues-Shoes-Marsha-Casper-Cook-ebook/dp/B00K4CA61W/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535552733&sr=1-1
AUDIBLE
https://www.amazon.com/No-Clues-Shoes/dp/B01311BQRU/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535552733&sr=1-1

How much did I love this mystery!!
ByCindy McDonaldon August 3, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Read this wonderful children’s cozy mystery to my three granddaughters (ages: 11, 6, and 5) last night–they just loved it and so did I! Marsha Casper Cook certainly knows how to talk to kids and tell them a glorious tale! Emelina and her rather grumpy but very hungry friend AJ are very entertaining and let’s not forget her dog, Stanley! So much fun as they try to become real detectives while trying to find out who is stealing shoes in the neighborhood! Don’t miss this read! Your kids are gonna love it–5 STARS!

WHAT’S GOING ON ON THE BUSY BUS?
This is a funny short-rhyming book. Kids will enjoy listening to these poems over and over again and still be entertained by the magical words that shout out, ” This is funny stuff.” 
Caesar Burgess walked up to bat.
His knees were shaking, and that was that.
He tried and tried many times before
But was never, never able to score.
He looked out at the crowd
And gave them a nod
The gum he was chewing
Was now a large wad.
He took a deep breath
For hope and for luck.
Trying to remember
To hit, miss or duck.
He slowly moved back
Just a little bit.
He swallowed his pride
And smacked his lip.
All of a sudden
It happened so fast.
He hoped this feeling
Would always last!
He took a swing
And his bat hit the ball.
Suddenly he felt like
He was ten feet tall.
So he ran and he ran
And he ran some more.
And wouldn’t you know it?
This time he did score.
HARDCOVER
https://www.amazon.com/Busy-Bus-Collection-Short-Childrens/dp/1604144718/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535553165&sr=8-1
PAPERBACK
https://www.amazon.com/Busy-Bus-Collection-Short-Childrens/dp/1604140631/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535553165&sr=8-1
KINDLE
https://www.amazon.com/Busy-Bus-Collection-Short-Childrens-ebook/dp/B003NUQPH6/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535553165&sr=8-1
AUDIBLE
https://www.amazon.com/Busy-Bus-Collection-Short-Childrens/dp/B074TW1G9Z/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535553165&sr=8-1

32 adorable poems to make kids giggle. Educational too…
August 28, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Not only do I enjoy reading children’s books to my youngest grand-children, I, myself, like reading them. And I love the illustrations.. I find the best books to be fun, clever and uplifting. And “The Busy Bus” is one of the most special ones I’ve read in a long time.
The 32 poems in this book cover an amazing range of things kids like to giggle about; from mean teachers to pink pigs, smelly socks to singing, flowers, fish and much more. I like that a single poem with a really cute illustration fits on a single page. Author Marsha Casper Cook planned her lay-out well, just as she did the topics of interest to children. She certainly knows a child’s mind.
My very favorite poem is the one about smelly socks; it made me giggle the most. And I really got a kick out of Isabella Pimpinella with her red umbrella. I could name many more, but you will have to read for yourself to truly enjoy this author’s talent.
I can’t wait to read this to little Maya or Christopher, but if they don’t visit soon, I’ll send a copy to their mothers so they can read to them.
This author has many children’s books on Amazon and since Isabella Pimpinella now has her own series, I already have “Isabella Pimpinella’s Magic Potion,”. I’m going to read that next. Looks like I’ll be on a kiddy-kick for a while trying to keep up with this precocious, lovable character.
Highly recommended…
Reviewed by Betty Dravis, August 28, 2014
Author of “The Toonies Invade Silicon Valley”

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About karenwritesmurder

I am a writer, blogger and radio host. I love to read and my love of books has lead me down this path. People tell me I write like Janet Evanovich. I take that as a compliment as I love her Plum books. I feel like Stephanie and Laura could be best friends.

View all posts by karenwritesmurder →

This entry was posted in CHILDRENS LITERATURE, GUEST BLOGGERS, MARSHA CASPER COOK and tagged #BookBoost, ADVENTURE, CHILDRENS LIT, fun, LEARNING, MUSTREAD. Bookmark the permalink.

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Book Review: Little Green: Arnold Rudnick and Illustrated by Marcelo Gorenman

Acceptance, understanding and tolerance are very important to young children and even to adults. Being part of a group, joining a club or even just having fun with a group of friends can be difficult if those in the group do not recognize you for who or what you are. At times even as adults we find that meeting new people can put a strain on us and our own outlook on life if those new acquaintances have any prejudices against race, religion, monetary status and appearance. Children often do the same when someone is overweight, not pretty, has difficulty learning or is not someone they think fits in. Meet Little Green a turtle that will not only inspire young readers but adults too to Believe In Yourself and Who you are!

Little Green was sitting in the center of a swamp when he saw a group of geese flying by. Little Green just wanted to be special and accepted so he joined the group and wanted to learn how to fly. The Great Goose was instructing his students and Little Green listened as he told them to stretch their wings and fly. But, when he asked a question the question of what happens if he does not have wings the response was quite startling. Great Goose seemed appalled and said reminded Little Green that he is not a goose. But, stating that maybe he was a good without wings and he definitely seemed inspired to learn how to fly. But, not being a goose did not help his cause and his question just made the Great Goose angry who told him to leave. He could not stay because he was different. So, he hopped away and guess what! He found and saw some horses. The Head Horse praised all of the foals for trying hard and meeting their goals. Encouraging them that they can win races, do things that are tough changed when Little Green asked about Hooves and said that he did not have one. Can it be that he’s a horse without hooves? Head Horse thought about it and then told him to leave and be on his way. The same thing happens when he goes to a nearby lake and sees a school of Koi. King Koi is instructing the students and teaching them to swim. Explaining that everyone wins and that they were not racing until Little Green asks a question and you have to read to find out what happens next.

The authors bring the story to life with the dialogue and the illustrations help readers understand the emotions that come through in each situation as you look into Little Green’s eyes. Where he goes next and what happens will make readers smile as he finds a group that just might be where he needs to be and just maybe might accept him. Father Frog is patient and when Little Green explains what happened before he tells him he tells him in simple words that everyone will understand: Almost anything is possible when you give it all you’ve got, except that you cannot be something that you are not!

What happens to Little Green as time passes you will have to learn that for yourself? What happens when someone different wants to join his group? Will they accept someone that is not like them? Acceptance is important to all children and even adults. Learning how to be who you are and accepting yourself the way you are is an important lesson learned in this book. So, teachers, parents, children, guidance counselors and adults of all ages look long and hard, deep within yourself, accept others for who they are and you just might find that you are inspired, determined and know that anything is possible: There just might be a Little Green in all of  US!

Fran Lewis: Reviewer

Interview with Author Scott Driscoll

Scott Driscoll, an award-winning writing instructor at UW, Continuing and Professional Education, took several years to finish Better You Go Home (October 2013, Coffeetown Press), a novel that grew out of the exploration of the Czech side of his family in the 1990s after Eastern Europe was liberated. Driscoll keeps busy freelancing stories to airline magazines. 

What are some of the things that have influenced/inspired your writing?

            When I was 21 and taking a break from college to travel, I was sitting on the floor in an American library on an army base in Augsburg Germany (eating a lunch of peanuts in the shell on my break from the nearby American Express bank where I had taken a job so I could afford to stay in Europe) pulling books off the shelf to read when I came across Samuel Beckett’s trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, and the Unnamable. The writing shocked me.  Was it possible to write in this way?  (The words bore directly through to my inner being and I felt unprotected.) I slapped the book down on the tile floor.  But then I picked it up again and each lunch hour hurried across the Kaserne to continue my reading and became so absorbed I began to catch myself muttering in a voice that sounded like Beckett’s narrator. To see my writing today you’d never know that this was the beginning; what endures from that experience is the challenge.  I had to find out how he dared do that, and how he did it.

Can you share some writing experiences with us?

When my daughter was young (in the tough years shortly after grad school) one morning I just couldn’t get out of bed.  Rather, I crawled under the bed (it was a bed from a French hotel and rested on skinny cast-iron legs) and then couldn’t come out. Nothing was going well.  I wasn’t getting the teaching jobs I wanted.  My writing was being rejected (the nonfiction story I was sending around, which eventually was published in the Seattle Review and won mention in that year’s Best American Essays). My ex-wife was using my daughter to make my life difficult.  My paying employment—condominium complex caretaker—was the only part of my life that wasn’t screwing me to the floor that day. Sometime in the late afternoon it occurred to me that this was a wasted opportunity. I crawled out to fetch my clipboard.   Record this, I told myself. It occurred to me it would be easier to jot notes sitting at my writing table. Writing pulled me out of a deep deep hole.

Tell us briefly about your recently published book and what you feel is the most important topic/sub-message you share.

            Better You Go Home took a long time to finish. First I fell in love with my research, then I stopped and started over several times. I wanted this to be a great feast.  A compendium of all things connected to the pressure cooker that at one time had been home to one side of my family.  What I really wanted to write about was what it was like to be the adult progeny of émigrés who’d survived near catastrophe in Eastern Europe.  You cannot say that the boy who grows up playing sports in a sunny Colorado suburban town with wide streets and no traffic jams, originally built as a retirement community, has much in common with the daughter of Latvian escapees who barely spoke English when she was a kid. I grew up dismayed by the unbreachable superficiality of my familiar world.  It was a formless malaise, until I first traveled to Eastern Europe (mid to late 70s) and saw oppression and desperation first hand and felt, perhaps for the first time in my life, oddly at home.

Like all authors, you have had your fair share of rejection letters. You obviously did not let the letters deter you. How did you keep your determination without getting discouraged?

By the time I finished this novel, I had enjoyed enough letters of rejection for short stories that I knew the routine well. Still, I was loathe to send out my baby to be mistreated and misunderstood by total strangers. I only contacted a couple of agents and a couple of editors, and those were selected only because I knew people who knew them. That’s how over-protective I was. Coffeetown Press was no exception.  I knew one of the editors.  She had been tremendously helpful in developmental stages.  When she was hired at Coffeetown I thought I’d give them a try (this happily coincided with the press taking an interest in literary fiction).  No promises, she warned.  At best she could make sure my novel got read. That was all I could ask for. I sent the manuscript via email. I waited. Meanwhile, I feverishly rewrote the final chapters. When after a month I hadn’t heard, I contacted them to ask if I could send the revision? Luckily, they had been busy with other projects and mine had been on a back burner. The new arrival of my manuscript into their in-boxes prompted a read. Ten days later I got a phone call and a contract offer.
  
It has been my experience, some things come quite easily (like creating the setting) and other things aren’t so easy (like deciding on a title). What comes easily to you and what do you find more difficult? 

Physical descriptions of people and places come easily and I enjoy doing them.  Dense sequel. Ramblings in a character’s free indirect discourse. Love doing it. I was told by my writing critique group to tone it down, cut that stuff I enjoyed doing by about a third. It was killing the pace. It’s the scenes that trouble me. It is in these action/reaction dramatic episodes that I feel I have the least narrative control. Precisely when the characters must show who they really are under pressure, I get bogged down. Here is where I am most prone to suspecting that this is pure artifice, and not real writing at all.  This is probably a ghost of Beckett’s influence. Of course, in the end, these segments are the more enjoyable to read precisely because the characters are livelier.

 
Please describe to us your relationship between you and your editor. What makes an author/editor relationship a success?

            I have had a very good relationship with the editor in chief at Coffeetown Press.  Catherine Treadgold understood my story, made only very small changes in my prose, but was careful, careful to a fault to make sure that everything said and portrayed was as accurate as it could be. Also, she shortened some of my most obtuse sentences. What makes it work? Trust and respect.  She respected my work and I respected hers. Once I learned that I could trust her with my baby, I enjoyed our repartee.

 
When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your books and writing? What do you hope they will say about you?

            I hope they will say that I wrote about things that mattered, even if they were sometimes gritty or dark. I hope they will say that I was a helpful teacher. I am an enabler.  I want people with the inclination, to embark on this journey of writing.  Recently on NPR I heard part of an interview with a semi-well known writer teaching at NYU who said essentially he doesn’t teach.  He tells his students to go out and eat pizza and come back and write about it.  If I were paying tuition at that school I’d want my money back. So not every aspiring writer will win a Nobel Prize.  If they are earnest, and respect the process, they deserve any guidance they can get. I’ve learned a few tricks.  Why not pass them on.

  
Is there any particular book when you read it, you thought, "I wish I had written that!"?

            Oh, yes.  Most recently, Mark Slouka’s The Visible World. Such command of telling detail.  Such lovely prose.  Such necessary subject matter. Yes.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? If yes, how did you ‘cure’ it?

            Not really. But, now, about to get busy with the next novel, knowing what will inevitably go wrong, I find myself crouching psychically with dread.  But, I also know that as soon as I get busy with the text, that dread will evaporate and in its place will materialize exultation. 

What type of books do you mostly write?

            What is known as literary fiction.  Or, just fiction.  No special genre. I would write erotica for money if I thought I had a knack for it.

Who or what inspires your characters and/or plots?

            I believe in grabbing things as they appear. Any story I commit to writing is going to be inspired by something I read or saw or experienced personally. But once a story idea is planted, much time (without doing any actual writing) is devoted to mulling over just who the characters are.  While in this mode, I might read about someone who seems to fit the profile. I will steal that real world character profile as much as possible. I see this as directed chance.  For example, I am immersing myself into the world of a Latvian composer.  The one I have in mind loved to use folk music as the basis for his own compositions. While working on a dossier for this character, I happened to read about the Hungarian composer, Bartok, going out of his way to record songs straight from the lips of peasants who’ve always sung their songs and never thought twice about it. Chances are my character, the Latvian composer, will develop an interest in Bartok. Yes, it will be backstory, but it will be imbedded in my understanding of his personal history.

Tell us about your writing space.

            Basement office in a windowless corner, concrete walls on two sides, open on two sides to the Rec space and the laundry space. There are three basement windows that do bring in an indirect natural light but I have to work with lamps on perpetually. I do interviews and rough draft writing at a writing desk overly crowded with the detritus of abandoned and on-going projects. I then turn to my PC computer desk with the sizeable screen.  No cell phone.  A land line on the rough writing desk. Shelves lined with books, stacks of books on three sides. It’s a cluttered cobwebby space, but it’s mine and no one else wants to go here.

Is there anything you'd go back and do differently now that you have been published, in regards to your writing career? 

            I should have gotten more serious about writing a novel using everything I’d learned from writing short stories about ten or twelve years ago. I now have a much more real-world view of what will be tolerated.  If I had had that practical know-how then I’d probably have spent less time playing around with unusable material.   On the other hand, who knows.  Maybe I needed this tortured path.

How do you see the future of book publishing, both traditional, electronic and print on demand?

            I know people who have E-readers and who will down load books for easy travel, but who also want to buy and read hard copy books when not traveling.  I do believe there is something about cracking open a book and holding it in your hand and twisting it this way and that and leafing through (and jotting notes) that is a tactile experience that cannot be reproduced electronically and that is fundamentally more sensorally engaging and therefore more desirable.  Print on demand is a good thing because it allows small presses to compete and to produce books at much lower cost. I see it as a model that will simply grow.  Electronic and hard copy books will co-exist.  The coda that is a book is as old as western civilization and I do not believe modern technology will eliminate it.

Do you do a lot of research for your book(s)?

            Yes. I read books on related topics.  I interview people. I am not averse to checking Web sites for actual photos or physical descriptions. YouTube videos can also be useful. You need an idea of what a barn fire looks like? You can find examples and steal the sensory information.  All that is there.  Why not use it?

What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?

            I prefer first person, only because it causes me to lose some of my natural narrative distance. When writing in third person, which I have done, I tend to create a narrating persona that is too aloof from the rough and tumble of immediate experience. The advantage of third person is it allows you to look more critically at your narrating character. The advantage of first person is it allows you more easily to inhabit that character’s inner world. 

Have you received any awards?

            A few.  When in grad school I won the UW’s Milliman Award for fiction. Writing magazine articles in the meantime, I have won eight Society of Professional Journalist awards. Also, in 2006, I won a UW Educational Outreach Teaching Excellence Award.

What advice would you give to a new writer?

            Devote as much time as possible to writing. Don’t be afraid to imitate a writer you particularly admire (great way to learn), take classes (it will boost your professionalism), and don’t write entirely in a vacuum.  Be aware of your potential audience. And, by all means, be part of a writing critique group composed of people similarly earnest and if possible including one or two writers who’ve already had some success.

 

You can find out more about Scott Driscoll, his books and World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/kpdm5fk

To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit http://worldofinknetwork.com