Sybrina Durant's Blog, page 268

Unicorn Book Feature – Hope by Deby Adair

Sybrina’s Unicorn Book Pick



Unicorns!  How we love them. . .Luckily for all of us unicorn lovers there are hundreds of unicorn books available for all age groups.  I have gathered information about as many as I can find and have placed them here for you in one convenient spot on my blog.  Today’s Unicorn Book Feature is















Hope

 By Deby Adair







Heart’s flame sing loud and long, bring me home with your brave song.

When a cryptic messenger reveals veiled words of prophecy, things change in Wish, forever. It is now that the High Tower Keepers are challenged with their most perilous task. Can the unicorns and the enigma of the violet flame – the Ambit of Light – save the day?

Get it at Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store.








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Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store – Unicorn Dress

Unicorn Dress


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Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store





Where you’ll find unicorns, more unicorns and nothing but unicorns! Visit now.

  Brought to you by Journey To Osm















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Unicorn Book Feature – A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L Engle

Sybrina’s Unicorn Book Pick



Unicorns!  How we love them. . .Luckily for all of us unicorn lovers there are hundreds of unicorn books available for all age groups.  I have gathered information about as many as I can find and have placed them here for you in one convenient spot on my blog.  Today’s Unicorn Book Feature is














A Swiftly Tilting Planet

 By Madeleine L’Engle







In A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle, a companion to the Newbery Award winner A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, the Murry and O’Keefe Families enlist the help of the unicorn, Gaudior, to save the world from imminent nuclear war.



Fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace and the unicorn Gaudior undertake a perilous journey through time in a desperate attempt to stop the destruction of the world by the mad dictator Madog Branzillo. They are not alone in their quest.

Charles Wallace’s sister, Meg–grown and expecting her first child, but still able to enter her brother’s thoughts and emotions by “kything”–goes with him in spirit. Charles Wallace must face the ultimate test of his faith and his will as he is sent within four people from another time, there to search for a way to avert the tragedy threatening them all.

Books by Madeleine L’Engle



A Wrinkle in Time

A Wind in the Door

A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Many Waters

An Acceptable Time

A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle; adapted & illustrated by Hope Larson: A graphic novel adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic.

Intergalactic P.S. 3 by Madeleine L’Engle; illustrated by Hope Larson: Visit the world of A Wrinkle in Time in this standalone story!

The Austin Family Chronicles

Meet the Austins (Volume 1)

The Moon by Night (Volume 2)

The Young Unicorns (Volume 3)

A Ring of Endless Light (Volume 4) A Newbery Honor book!

Troubling a Star (Volume 5)

The Polly O’Keefe books

The Arm of the Starfish

Dragons in the Waters

A House Like a Lotus

And Both Were Young

Camilla

The Joys of Love









Get it at Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store.








 Check out Journey To Osm – The Blue Unicorn’s Tale while you’re there, too.

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Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store – Unicorn Tee Shirt

Unicorn Tee Shirt


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Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store





Where you’ll find unicorns, more unicorns and nothing but unicorns! Visit now.

  Brought to you by Journey To Osm














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Journey To Osm – The Blue Unicorn’s Tale Reader Review by Victoria M.

  Journey To Osm – The Blue Unicorn’s Tale
 Reader Review by Victoria Mariposa

Journey to Osm: The Blue Unicorn’s Tale by Sybrina Durant is a magical fantasy story that is well written. The plot of the story begins when Miral gives birth to a unicorn with neither metal nor magic. Not only that, the baby unicorn is small and weak. This is after Alumna, the oracle, had received a vision that the baby unicorn would grow to be strong. What then, given his current stature, was he going to do if confronted with the worst Magh army?

I loved how the author built her characters and scenes gradually, pulling me in with each page. Also, the story is quite thrilling. It kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time. I can definitely see this being turned into a movie. That you Sybrina Durant for such a great read!

Get the book in print for your fantasy library collection.

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Unicorn Book Feature – Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard

Sybrina’s Unicorn Book Pick



Unicorns!  How we love them. . .Luckily for all of us unicorn lovers there are hundreds of unicorn books available for all age groups.  I have gathered information about as many as I can find and have placed them here for you in one convenient spot on my blog.  Today’s Unicorn Book Feature is













Lore of the Unicorn

 By Odell Shepard






ON the table before me there lies a long straight wand of ivory. Cut to the length of a walking-stick, it is somewhat more than two inches in diameter at the top and it tapers evenly to a blunt point. Smooth-backed ridges, not more than a quarter of an inch in height, spiral round it counter-clockwise, making about two turns and a half between one end and the other. As a whole, it is a twisted spear. One can fancy that it has been taken in powerful hands and wrung, as one wrings a wet cloth. Thomas Fuller, having seen another such ivory wand as this, said excellently that to his dim eyes and at some distance it seemed “like a taper of wreathed waxe”. This walking-stick has been fitted at the upper end with a gilded silver cap which bears the arms of a certain noble house and a motto in Welsh. Four inches below the cap a hole has been bored through the stick—one would say, at first, to receive the cord to which some gentleman of the grand old days attached the silken tassel that adorned his cane. I scarcely think, however, that this particular stick ever tapped its way along Birdcage Walk or through the gardens of Versailles, partly because there are no signs of wear on its point and partly because it weighs something like three pounds. More probably, the cord that went through this hole was used not to carry a tassel but to hang the stick against the wall in some great house of three or four centuries ago. And yet I do not doubt that some of the former owners of this wand carried it about with them, but when they did so they carried it neither for comfort nor display; rather, it was their companion on dark nights and in perilous places, and they held it near their hearts, handling it tenderly, as they would a treasure. For indeed it was exactly that. It preserved a man from the arrow that flieth by day and the pestilence that walketh in darkness, from the craft of the poisoner, from epilepsy, and from several less dignified ills of the flesh not to be named in so distinguished a connection. In short, it was an amulet, a talisman, a weapon, and a medicine-chest all in one. Small wonder that such a wand as this, in the days when such things were appreciated, sold for twenty times its weight in gold, and that one alone, as Thomas Dekker said, was “worth a city”. Small wonder that perfect sticks like this were to be seen only in the treasure-chambers of popes and emperors and kings, or, when some opulent church like St. Mark’s of Venice did manage to acquire one, that it should be shown to the public only on gala days and beneath a pall of purple velvet. The stick before me, although of ivory, was not cut from an elephant’s tusk or even from the tusk of a mammoth or mastodon. It grew as it is, and according to the most learned. opinion of many generations it grew single on the brow of a beast so glorious, so virtuous, so beautiful, that heaven vouchsafed the earth, as in the case of the phoenix, only one specimen at a time. For this is the horn of the unicorn.




Get it at Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store.








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Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store – Unicorn Wig

Unicorn Wig


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Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store





Where you’ll find unicorns, more unicorns and nothing but unicorns! Visit now.

  Brought to you by Journey To Osm













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Journey To Osm – The Blue Unicorn’s Tale Reader Review by Seraphia

  Journey To Osm – The Blue Unicorn’s Tale
 Reader Review by Seraphia







Journey to Osm is a beautifully written tale of a herd of unicorns waiting on their prophesied savior to be born. He will be the one with the horn and the magic to save them all from the evil who wishes to destroy them all and enslave the world. The author builds such a beautiful world in this story. We meet unicorns, pendragons, two-leggeds (humans) and other strange creatures. This story tells the reader about young Blue who is made to not feel as if he belongs simply because his horn is not metal when he is born. “No metal. No magic.” You will feel the sadness that he feels as he seeks to hide from the herd and learn the extent of loss that they have all suffered at the hands of an evil man who seeks more and more power.


The story flows so well and kept me engaged the entire time. I kept turning page after page to learn what was going to happen next. There are moments of where I am annoyed or disappointed with certain characters, but for me, it helps make them even more “real” or at least relatable as believable characters. I love the romance that the author throws into the story. You see it coming when you learn of Blue’s stable-mate and how they came to be so close. It’s heartbreaking but beautiful at the same time.


There is nothing that I don’t like about this story. The author never becomes too focused on one particular part. The story flows well and keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end. I love the twists and surprises that the author throws into the story. It’s a wonderful story to read.


I am rating this book 5 out of 5 stars. If you are a fantasy lover this is a book to pick up. If you love stories about unicorns then this is a book to grab. I’m sure that you will enjoy.

Get the book in print for your fantasy library collection.

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Unicorn Book Feature – Acorna by Anne McCaffrey

Sybrina’s Unicorn Book Pick



Unicorns!  How we love them. . .Luckily for all of us unicorn lovers there are hundreds of unicorn books available for all age groups.  I have gathered information about as many as I can find and have placed them here for you in one convenient spot on my blog.  Today’s Unicorn Book Feature is












Acorna

The Unicorn Girl

 By Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball






“Something’s Alive In There!”

She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free.

But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by “The Piper” — a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own. . .

Get it at Sybrina’s Blue Unicorn Book Store.








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Lone Star Book Blog Tours – Light From Distant Stars by Shawn Smucker

LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS
by
SHAWN SMUCKER
Genre: Christian Fiction / Magical Realism / Rural Fiction
Publisher: Revell
Date of Publication: July 16, 2019
Number of Pages: 400

Scroll down for Giveaway!
 

When Cohen Marah steps over his father’s body in the basement embalming room of the family’s funeral home, he has no idea that he is stepping into a labyrinth of memory.

Over the next week, Cohen’s childhood comes back in living color. The dramatic events that led to his parents’ separation. The accident Cohen witnessed and the traumatic images he couldn’t unsee. And the two children in the forest who became his friends–and enlisted him in a dark and dangerous undertaking. As the lines blur between what was real and what was imaginary, Cohen is faced with the question he’s been avoiding:

Is he responsible for his father’s death?

Master story weaver Shawn Smucker relays a tale both eerie and enchanting, one that will have you questioning reality and reaching out for what is true, good, and genuine.

 


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Chapter Two of
Light from Distant Stars
By Shawn Smucker
Click to visit the Lone Star Book Blog Tour to read chapter one!

PART ONE
Monday, March 16, 2015

Darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Genesis 1:2

two
The Preacher
When Cohen was a small boy, lying on the floor under the church pews on a humid summer Sunday night, the bright ceiling lights shone. He listened to his father’s voice boom through the quiet, the heavy pauses filled with scattershot responses. “Amen!” and “Preach!” and semi- whispered versions of “Hallelujah!” so hushed and sincere they sent goose bumps racing up his skinny arms. 

Under the pews, on the deep red carpet, drowning in the hot, stuffy air, young Cohen drifted in and out of sleep. It was as if he had descended beneath some holy canopy and settled into the plush red carpet surrounded by a rain forest full of trees, which were actually the legs of pews and the legs of people and women’s dresses draped all the way to the floor, rustling ever so slightly with the sermon. He could smell the hairspray and the cologne and the sweat mingling like incense, a pleasing offering to the Lord. 

Far above him, like branches moving under the weight of resettling birds, people waved paper fans created out of their Sunday evening bulletins, folded an inch this way, an inch that way, stirring the air. But to no avail. Sweat came out of their pores. Sweat welled up in droplets like water on a glass. Sweat trickled down, always down. And even there, from the floor, Cohen could imagine it: the sweat that darkened the underarms of Mr. Pugitt’s light blue collared shirt, the sweat Mrs. Fisher blotted from her powdery temples, the sweat that made his father’s bald head shine like a beacon, and the sweat that sweetened the nape of Miss Flynne’s slender neck. 

Ah, his Sunday school teacher, Miss Flynne! Cohen was only nine years old in 1984, but he could tell that something about Miss Flynne opened doors into rooms where he had never wandered. Why couldn’t he speak when she looked at him? Why did the lines of her body push his heart into his throat? She was all bright white smiles and straight posture and something lovely, budding. 

His mother was not all smiles, not in 1984 and never before that and never since. Sometimes, from his place of repose under the church bench, he could peek out and see his mother’s stern face, eyes never leaving his father. The intensity with which she followed his father’s sermon was the only thing that could distract her enough to allow him to slip down onto the floor. No one else seemed to notice her lips, but Cohen did, the way she mouthed every single word to every single one of his father’s sermons, as if she had written them herself. Which she had. 

Sometimes, when Cohen’s father said a word that synchronize with his mother’s mouth, she would pause, her eyes those of a scorned prophet, one not welcomed in her own town. Cohen could tell it took everything in her not to stand up and interrupt his father, correct him, set him back in the record’s groove. But she would shake her head as if clearing away a gnat and find the cadence again. Somehow their words rediscovered each other there in the holy air, hers silent and hidden, his shouted, and Cohen’s mind drifted away. 

If Cohen rolled over or made too much noise or in any way reminded his mother of his existence there beneath the canopy, she hauled him back up by his upper arm or his ear or his hair, whatever she could reach, hissing admonitions, hoisting him back to the pew. He felt the eyes of the hundreds of other people on the back of his own neck, sitting there like drops of sweat, their glances grazing off his ears, skimming the top of his head, weighing down his shoulders. There was a certain weight that came with being the only son of a popular country preacher. There were certain expectations. 

His sister Kaye was always there, waiting for him in the canopy, only four years older than him and sitting completely still. She had an unnatural ability to weather even the longest of sermons without so much as twitching, without moving a single muscle. Sometimes she didn’t even blink for long minutes at a time. He knew. He watched her, counting the seconds. When they got older, she told him her secret to this, the things she thought about to keep her in that central spot, the stories she made up. She told him about the things in the church she would count: the wooden slats on the ceiling, the imperfections in the wooden pew, the number of pores on the back of the person’s neck in front of her and how those tiny hairs became an endless forest through which she embarked on an adventure. 

When Cohen became bored contemplating his sister’s stillness, which took only moments, his gaze joined with those hundreds of other gazes, the way small streams drown into bigger ones, and he stared at his father on the stage. Cohen was transfixed by what he saw. His father reached up with his long, slender fingers and loosened his tie. He raised a pointed finger to the heavens and made a desperate plea, his voice a cadence, a rhythm, a kind of calling out, and the congregation heaved with emotion. People shouted. Women’s shoulders shook with poorly suppressed sobs. Men leaned forward, their faces in their hands, as if scorched by Isaiah’s coal. 

Cohen’s father pulled a pure white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his bald head dry, and the lights shone. An usher opened the windows that ran along the east side of the building, and a cool night breeze blew through, leaking in and spreading along the floor, gathering in pools that Cohen slipped into when his mother had been taken up again by the words of her own sermon.









Shawn Smucker is the author of the young adult novels The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There, as well as the memoir Once We Were Strangers. He lives with his wife and six children in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.



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