Around the World in 50 Ways – Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.

If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

~ Albert Schweitzer ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

I really like the feature Writer’s Digest has now and then showing successful query letters and what about them works. It is very educational. HERE is a good one.

I feel like I could just link to all of Janice Hardy’s posts and fill up this section every week. Everything she has is so good. Her post HERE on Character Development is great and has tons of terrific links in it.

Writing an author bio can be a bit daunting. Most of us are not comfortable tooting our own horns, but you just have to do it. Anne R. Allen has a good post HERE to help you do this task well.

Just a reminder — if you haven’t signed up to subscribe to this blog, please go to the upper right and do so. This is especially important if you came here via the link on my old blog. Thanks!

Last week I offered a gently read paperback copy of Karen Rivers‘s terrific new book, The Possibility of Whales. This week’s winner is Myra. Congratulations, Myra! I will get the book out to you this week. For the rest of you, please keep reading. I have a fun one to give away this week.

I think it’s so fun that travel books for kids are becoming popular and there are quite a few out these days. I was interested when I saw a new one from Lonely Planet, Around the World in 50 Ways. I always like their travel books, so I grabbed this one for review for the Seattle Book Review. Here is the review I wrote for them.

Wouldn’t it be fun to take a long, long trip visiting lots and lots of places around the world? Most people are fascinated by the idea of travel, and kids are no exception. This book gives kids the opportunity to take control and imagine a glorious trip to strange and exotic and amazing places. Each spread in the book is a different interesting destination. Readers are led to a starting point where they will learn something about the destination — some historical fact or something about the local transportation or some kind of experience that can be enjoyed in the place or something else — and then the reader is given a choice of two places to go to next. Most are interesting places with two more traveling choices, but a few are dead ends. But worry not. One can just start a new journey.

Lonely Planet has great travel books, and this is one a lot of kids will enjoy. It’s perfect for a long car trip or some other time kids need to be occupied. The writing is good and the facts are fascinating and edifying, but the illustrations are simple and uninteresting. Otherwise, this is a fun concept.

I have a gently-read paperback copy for one of you. All you need do is be a follower or subscriber (it’s free!), have a U. S. address, and leave a comment below. If you would like extra chances, please share the link to this post on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media outlet and let me know you have done that. If you are reading this in your email, please click HERE to get to my blog, then click on the title of the post, and leave a comment. And don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at the Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.