Unwrapping today's book....
This book is authored by Troy Kent and illustrated by Elisa Moriconi. The illustrations are soft, loving and muted...perfect for sharing with someone his whole life through.
Unwrapping what's between the covers....
This book will tug at your heartstrings and inspire you to hold onto your little one a lot closer and commit yourself to his reading growth and well-being throughout his entire life.
This young mom, struggling with her finances, has a beautiful baby boy. She finds it hard to just supply his daily living needs but knows in her heart the importance of giving him the gift of reading good books. She commits to him that not a day will go by without her sewing into his mind and spirit the love and joy that is found in reading good books.
She repeats to him often:
"The day you were born, I loved you a lot,
So I'm making a promise, here on the spot.
My promise to you goes something like this:
I'll read to you every night, and end with a kiss."
And she is true to her promise. Because of her lack of money she uses the library to borrow books for her mission of love. She gets to the point where she can afford some books to build her little boy his own library shelf and yes, every night she fulfills her promise of reading to him....ending in a kiss. But as little boys do, they grow up....
The circle of life continues in that little family and the boy grows into a man, his beloved mom gets very ill and he eventually has his own precious baby to nurture and care for. And guess what the common thread is that never falters or fails? .... the importance to install the love of books and reading them into your little one!!!
I really treasure the message and the whole vibe of the book. It seems the pages are overshadowed by a spirit of Love. Not only is the story inspirational, it renders hope to the reader, because a committed promise of reading to your child every day (no matter what your money situation) is a blessing and a bonding between a child and a parent that transcends everything else and money cannot buy them.
I highly recommend this book.
For author Troy Guindon, getting emotional reactions is so much better than rejections.
Guindon, a long-time teacher in the Upper Canada District School Board, has had his share of rejections from publishers - every would-be writer gets them - but his children's book "The Reading Promise" is drawing some rave early reviews.
"It's exciting as a writer to evoke some sort of emotion - and surprising for me, (because) I can't get over the response it's getting," said Guindon, who is having two kids' books published by Mascot Books in Herndon, Va.
"The Reading Promise" is the story of a young mother whose promise to read to her newborn becomes her legacy. In the book's dedication, Guindon writes, "To my wife Robyn, who not only encouraged me to publish this story, but was also the inspiration behind it."
He took a year off from coaching a high school football team to spend time with the book project and it's not Guindon's first one.
"I've always been dabbling in (writing) stuff," Guindon said. "This particular one (The Reading Promise), my wife encouraged me to see if somebody would publish it."
Mascot did, but the book did get some rejections, including, Guindon noted, from several publishers in Canada.
It was a year ago in May when Mascot representatives called Guindon to tell him they were very interested in his manuscript and he was asked if he has anything else.
"That made me feel really good," he said
So Guindon sent them "Stinky Blinky," which Mascot said was "Troy-tastic." While it pushes the boundaries of a children's book, it'll also be published by the company.
"Stinky Blinky" was released to Amazon, Barnes & Noble et al on June 3, with "The Reading Promise" hitting stores July 1.
"In Stinky Blinky," the only thing better than laughing gas is laughing at gas. Young readers are invited to join Blinky as he dodges a real-life problem that's quite a hoot - or toot.
Guindon dedicated the book to his sons Kent, Andrew and Alex, "who encouraged me to publish this book, despite the fact that my wife and daughters didn't want me to. They think the subject matter stinks!"
Advance copies of the books are available at Kid's Korner (Cornwall), R&L's Book Nook (Alexandria) and Your Friendly Neighbourhood General Store (Long Sault).
Both are currently being reviewed by Scholastic, a world-wide publisher and distributor of children's books and success in that realm would take Guindon's hobby to a whole new level.
He has more kid's books on the way, with a third manuscript soon to be green-lighted by Mascot.
His pen name is Troy Kent, a semi-pseudonym as those are Guindon's first two names and "The Reading Promise" is illustrated by Elisa Moriconi, an Italian artist.
How many copies will his books sell? That's hard to say, of course.
"(Mascot has) no idea, (but) they have a lot of confidence in them," he said.
Guindon, a graduate of Acadia University in New Brunswick, has been a high school English teacher for over 20 years, most of his career at Tagwi Secondary School near Avonmore. He resides in Long Sault with Robyn and their five children.
Read on and read always!
It's a wrap.
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