Author Guest Post: Shelly Nicholson

Please join me in welcoming Shelly Nicholson to The Clock Monkey!

Wow! I’ve visited lots of blogs this week on my tour to promote A Stinky Surprise for Jake the Snake and I’ve had a great time! I wanted to do something fun for Ella’s blog, because she has such a creative blog with her “monkey ratings” and her fresh outlook on books.

So I’ve decided to do a bit of an untraditional self interview…

Do I have any children? I have four children, 3 sons and a daughter! They are 13, 11, 7 and 4. Jacob, my youngest son, was inspiration for my two books Jake the Snake and the Stupid Time-Out Chair and A Stinky Surprise for Jake the Snake.

What kind of music do I listen to? I listen to a collectic mix; I love classic rock and anything I can dance to especially 80’s :) …I don’t really like country music. :(

What is my favorite movie? My favorite movie is probably the Notebook. I also love Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates.

Do I have any fears? I am terrified of mice and rats. Just like “Jake the Snake’s” mom in Jake the Snake and the Stupid Time-Out Chair and A Stinky Surprise for Jake the Snake.

When I was a kid, did I want to be a writer when I grew up? When I was a kid, I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy’s Cheerleader when I grew up.

Who is my favorite children’s author? Kevin Henkes. I love his books Chrysanthemum, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, and Julius, the Baby of the World
What was my favorite TV show as a kid? The Brady Bunch

What is my favorite TV show now? Lost!
What is my favorite kid’s show now? iCarly or Drake and Josh

Thank you, Ella, for inviting me to visit your blog!
I am addicted to writing, so being a guest blog poster has been so much fun!
Right now, I think that writing for kids is my favorite pastime.
Partially, I believe, because I am still a kid at heart and imagination. I like to ride my bike with my sons, fly a kite (when I can actually get it to stay up in the air), walk around in moon shoes, sing Hannah Montana with my daughter as we travel down the highway with sunroof open and breeze blowing through our hair, read Harry Potter books, watch Disney movies, comb Barbie’s hair, bake in the Easy Bake Oven (and the real oven too), and just act plain silly.

Through my writing, I can really sink myself into the mind set of my youthful characters! It’s my intention to get early readers hooked on reading through humor and realistic characters. I want kids to be able to laugh-out-loud while they are reading my stories and relate to the situations. But I also want readers to be able to learn a valuable lesson at the end of my stories. I hope that my “Jake the Snake” books provide all of these qualities.
Writing for children is like a fountain of youth to me! :)
So, write, I say! It’s healthy and fun!

Shelly Nicholson
-------------------------------------------------

It's been fun to have you Shelly!
I'd never seen an author do a self-interview before!

You should definitely check this book out, especially if you have little siblings,
cousins, kids in general!

Click here to read my review on A Stinky Surprise for Jake the Snake

This was part of the Blog Book Tour for A Stinky Surprise for Jake the Snake

Read more

Feliz Día del Niño! (+ Review)

(or: Happy Kid's Day!)

(this bird/duck/animal of some sort looks like it's on crack,
but I love it :P )

Today in Argentina it is Kid's Day, so I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Day, cause even if you're 19, 25, or 47 you'll always have a child within you :o)

And since it's Kid's Day, I have a special review for today.


A Stinky Surprise for Jake the Snake by Shelly Nicholson

Summary:

Jake the Snake is having the “worstest” year of his whole entire life. With an “all day kind of school,” a scary school nurse, a new first grade teacher, plus a stinky new baby; how could things get any worse? All Jake the Snake wants is a shiny new bicycle. Except Mom is too busy decorating for the stinky baby to go shopping for a snazzy bike with dangly streamers. When Jake the Snake barfs all over the clean floor on the first day of school and has to visit scary Nurse Pickadilly, he is sure life couldn’t get any worse. That is, until Grandma Nelson announces that Mom and Dad have gone to the hospital to get the stinky baby! Find out what other stinky surprise is in store for Jake the Snake.

My Opinion:

I loved this book! It was one of the " bestest" children's books I've read in a while.
I could really picture my brothers when they were little in Jake's shoes, wanting a bike instead of a sister! The entire book was very fun to read, but it also touched themes that sometimes worry parents, such as the birth of a new baby, already having a 4/5-year-old, and how their children will react to the new baby. Jealousy is always in these parents' minds, and Shelly's book is a great example of that.
Jake is a very funny, but insecure, kid, who's scared that his Mummy and Daddy won't love him anymore. He'll learn that this is not the case, and will get a few "stinky" surprises along the way.

I Recommend this book to such Parents -the ones who have small kids, and are waiting for a new addition to the family-.

Monkey Rating: 4 Monkeys!

Shelly's Page on Book Blogs
Shelly's MySpace

Read more

Today's Book: Fairy Hunters, Ink.

Summary (from lulu.com):
Have you ever wondered why your child's clothes, or even your own, always end up on the closet floor? Or why your socks go missing from your laundry? Or why ants inevitably show up at your picnics? If you want the answer to these and many other vexing questions, then "Fairy Hunters, Ink." is the book for you. All this and more await you as you follow the adventures of the intrepid band of Fairy Hunters made up of a little girl named Ashley, her friend Big Rabbit, and their fellow companion, Turtle. You will discover which fairy hates to fly, what Teacup Fairies eat, and the favorite games of the Mud Puddle Fairy. And you’ll delight to the the dry, amusing voice of Laura, the narrator whose age is uncertain, but whose gentle management of occasional conflict amoung the band’s members teaches wisdom and tolerance in a way that children can fully understand.

My Opinion:
I love magic. I do. I love Harry Potter, and Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. I love fairies, and have a fairy friend, Blossie. I had never asker her what kind of fairy she was, I was just happy she’d agreed to be my friend. But after reading Fairy Hunters, Ink., I started wondering about this.
So, I went to Blossie’s room the other day (her room is the little theatre I built for her, which I placed in my room), and asked her what kind of fairy she was. She laughed and said “Well, I’m a Theatre Fairy. Isn’t it obvious?”. I had to admit that it was.

But it was great learning about different kinds of fairies.
There’s the Teacup Fairy, which lives in your teacup, except when you’re using it, of course. There are Sock Fairies, which live in your socks; so when you’re wondering what could have happened to your socks, you know a Sock Fairy took it to turn it into its home.
But my favourite kind of fairy is the Book Fairy. They love to read and have Book Club meetings, just like me. Now I know that when I find a book out of place, it means that a Book Fairy must have been reading it.

Fairy Hunters, Ink. is really a journal, where Sheila, Ashley, Big Rabbit and Turtle share with us their Discoveries.
If you like fairies like I do, and you’d like to learn more about them (things like what they eat, where they live, what is their favourite form of Mischief), then this is the book for you!

Monkey Rating: 3 Monkeys

Monkeyshines:
*How long did it take Ella to read the book?
- She read it in the course of three days.

*Did she like or relate to any of the characters?
- I loved Ashley! She reminded me of myself when I was her age (she’s 5) and I wanted to know everything.

*What was her favourite line/part of the book?
- The part about Turtle finding the Blue Bottle Fairies was my favourite! Turtle is a lovely Hunter.

*Was this a good read for Ella? Did she get stuck at some point?
-It was a great read! She enjoyed the book from beginning to end.

*Website:
http://www.fairyhunters.net/

Get It!
-From Fairy Hunters, Ink.

Be on the lookout for a special Interview with author Sheila A. Dane and her friend Big Rabbit!

xo,

Read more

Today's Book: The Little Vampire and The Mystery Patient by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg

The Little Vampire (original title: Der kleine Vampir) is a children's fantasy series by German author Angela Sommer-Bodenburg that follows the adventures of young Anton Bohnsack and the child vampire Rüdiger von Schlotterstein (Tony and Rudolph in the English Version).



In this particular book (there are 19 in total) Anton goes to the psychologist, Mr. Schwartenfeger, who tells him he has a pacient that could be a real vampire. Anton proves that no member of the Schlotterstein family is such patient, but it's a new character (Igno Rant), who indeed is pale and leaves a rather strong moldy scent around him.



My Opinion: I didn't like it very much. It was OK, but it left out too many things, left me with a lot of questions. And I thought it ended at the last page, but apparently, you have to read the entire collection to know everything about it, the ending was a bit off. No one told me this.



Monkeyshines:

*How long did it take Ella to read the book?

-Five days. Not in hours, though. Maybe, 20 some hs. In the course of 5 days. :P



*Did she like or relate to any of the characters?

No, the characters are too young, and she didn't relate to any one of them.



*What was her favourite line/part of the book?

There wasn't one.



*Was this a good read for Ella?

It was OK. She liked it, but the rather abrupt ending threw her off. Maybe she should read the next installment to find out what happens next...



Monkey Rating: 3 Monkeys.



*Authors' Website?

http://www.angelasommer-bodenburg.com/



*Statistics:

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Wayland (April 1992)
• ISBN-10: 0750011858
• ISBN-13: 978-0750011853

xo,

Read more