Hello dear friends! It’s another double-header weekend here at Picture Books Help Kids Soar. Up today for Perfect Picture Book Friday is a brand-new just-about-to-be-launched ONCE UPON A TWISTED TALE. And tomorrow, we’ll be chatting with the author, the lovely Gayle C. Krause who is generously offering the winner of the giveaway the choice of either a signed copy of her new book or a pb manuscript critique…WOW! So please make sure you leave a comment today AND tomorrow…and then you’ll have two chances to win.

But before we get to the review, we need to take care of the prizes from our last giveaway…the fabulous author – illustrator team of Raven Howell and Carina Povarchik. I’m celebrating that they are Storm sisters and the winner will receive a copy of their first book: SHIMMER: SONGS OF NIGHT and their brand-new book: GLIMMER: SING OF SUN. And the winner is:

MARSHAELYN

Congratulations, MARSHAELYN…I’ll be in touch soon for your address to I can send you the books!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program: Perfect Picture Book Friday

ONCE UPON A TWISTED TALE

Written by Gayle C. Krause

Illustrated by Caroline O’Neal

Published by Spork/Clear Fork Press (2019)

Ages: 6-9

Themes: Fractured Fairy Tales, Poetry, Humor

Synopsis: From Amazon:

By the middle grades, children know the storylines of familiar fairytales, which makes them all the funnier when they veer off in different directions. Good ‘fractured fairytales’ twist the child reader’s perspective on the story, showing other possibilities. From a frog, who thinks he’s Sleeping Beauty, to a cool-rappin’ fairy godmother who sends Cinderella to a Hip-Hop Ball, to a boy who waits beneath a stone bridge to fool trolls, Once Upon a Twisted Tale is a rollicking, rhyme-filled poetry collection that can be read for sheer amusement or used in a classroom to compare original tales to the twisted tales as per Language Arts requirements.

Why I Love This Book:

• Rollicking rhyme which I love and kids love it, too.
• Filled with humor and surprises
• Fabulous illustrations that are full of fun

RELATED ACTIVITIES:

Make a Diorama

photocourtesy: http://www.stormthecastle.com/mainpages/dioramas/diorama-ideas.htm

When I was a kid, we made dioramas all the time. Sometimes for school and sometimes just for fun…but what I remember most is that I loved sitting at the kitchen table with my mom, cutting out pictures from magazines and catalogues and fashioning little stick figures from clothespins, cutips, or popsicle sticks. And after reading these fractured fairy tale poems, what could be better than doing a scene where you have fun with the characters and the settings. For detailed instructions, please check out this wonderful website that is chock full of diorama info: http://www.stormthecastle.com/mainpages/dioramas/diorama-ideas.htmhttp://www.stormthecastle.com/mainpages/dioramas/diorama-ideas.htm

Another fun activity might be to have the kids write their own fractured fairy tales in prose or poetry form.

Please remember to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway of either a signed copy of Gayle’s new book (it launches next week!) or a pb manuscript critique from her…what a generous prize!!!!

And don’t forget that the best gift you can give a beloved author is to buy her book, review her book, tell a friend about the book, and/or ask your library to purchase a copy for their collection.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I’ve got a fairly quiet weekend and week coming up…although today I’m expecting kidlit friend and fellow #PictureBookBuzz debut author Laura Roettinger to stop by – she’s on a road trip of sorts and I am the lucky recipient of a visit from her. It’s one of the things I love the most about this writing path that I am on. And last week, in Chicago, I had the absolute pleasure to connect with several Facebook writer friends at the Andersons Bookstore in La Grange, IL. Thank you to Lori Degman, Kathy Mazurowski, Katie Walsh, and Patricia Toht for coming out to support me…I had the best time! We chatted about the publication process and how as authors, we need to be invested in how our books turn out…and some of the things we can do to make our voices be heard.

And I’m hoping to get some photos of the four awesome school visits that I did so I can post those as well. What amazed me was how attentive and engaged the kids were…hundreds of them in each session, sitting shoulder to shoulder, criss cross applesauce on the floor. They loved SWEET DREAMS, SARAH which was the book I read and discussed with them because Sarah Goode lived and worked in Chicago.

While in  Chicago, my son and his family took me to the cemetery where she is buried and we laid flowers and brought the book to ‘show’ her. Maybe it sounds silly or crazy, but I felt I was honoring her in that way and was thrilled that it was my six-year old granddaughter’s idea to do it.

I hope I see you tomorrow, same time, same station, when author Gayle Krause stops by to chat about her writing journey. I’m grateful for the time you spend here, my friends…I know there are a million other things you could be doing. If you do have some more time and you want to check out more wonderful picture book reviews, hop on over to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Book Friday post.