Stanley and Katrina's Blog, page 4

Cats should have their own VOLITION. Word of the Week with Guest Rena Marthaler (1/26/2015): #KidLitWow

We are thrilled to have young author, Rena Marthaler  here to introduce this week's Word of the Week. This is Rena's third guest appearance introducing a Word of the Week (First one: Respite, Second one: Effervescent), and she was recently spotted in the latest American Girl Magazine! Thank you, Rena, for being a paw-riffic guest, and for introducing this week's word of the week: VOLITION. 
Can you use the word VOLITION in a sentence? 
Connect with our guest, Rena Marthaler, Author: Website * Facebook 

GloGirly DesignStanley & Katrina Don't forget that we have free printables to go along with the Words of the Week. Visit Cool Mom Printables on Teachers Pay Teachers to download our printables.

If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); Pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!  Our Guest Spots are filled for the entire School Year. Click here if you would like to sponsor a video. 

This post has been included in:  We are most creative with our videos. How are you creative this week? Find great homeschooling blog posts.Thank you for reading and sharing, Did you catch the newest episode of The Write Chat?
Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
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Learn how you may Skype with our author.

January 27th is Multicultural Book Day! Book Review: Lowriders in Space

We are thrilled and honored to be one of the bloggers participating in the second annual Multicultural Children’s Book Day. This paw-some day is the brainchild of co-creators Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom, and Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book/Audrey Press. These two paw-riffic children's reading and play advocates created this much needed event as a way to draw attention and raise awareness about diversity in children’s literature. It has been exciting to see the growth of this special day in only one year's time.Congratulations, Mia & Valarie!
Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.
Mission: Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day, Mia and Valarie are on a mission to change all of that. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries. Another goal of this exciting event is create a compilation of books and favorite reads that will provide not only a new reading list for the winter, but also a way to expose brilliant books to families, teachers, and libraries.
“MCCBD team hopes to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.”


Thank You Sponsors:MCCBD’s  2015 Sponsors include Platinum Sponsors: Wisdom Tales Press, Daybreak Press Global Bookshop, Gold Sponsors:  Satya House,  MulticulturalKids.com,   Author Stephen Hodges and the Magic Poof, Silver Sponsors: Junior Library Guild,  Capstone Publishing, Lee and Low Books,  The Omnibus Publishing. Bronze Sponsors:Double Dutch Dolls, Bliss Group Books, Snuggle with Picture Books Publishing,  Rainbow Books,   Author FeliciaCapers,   Chronicle Books   Muslim Writers Publishing ,East West Discovery Press.

CoHosts: Africa to America, All Done Monkey, The Educators’ Spin on It, Growing Book by Book, InCultural Parent, Kid World Citizen, Mama Smiles, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Sprout’s BookshelfFirst Book MCCBD is partnering with First Book to offer a Virtual Book Drive that will help donate multicultural children’s books through their channels during the week of the event. We want to help get diversity books into the hands of kids who most need it and now we have a way to do it! The Virtual Book Drive is LIVE and can be found HERE.
Children’s Book Council MCCBD is also collaborating with Children’s Book Council to highlight wonderful diversity books and authors on an ongoing basis all year.



Our Review
The first thing we want to do is thank Chronicle Books for sponsoring this fantastic event and for sending us a review copy of Lowriders in Space. 
 Title: Lowriders In Space Author: Cathy Camper Illustrator: Raul the Third Year Published: 2014 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pages: 112
 Age Level: Amazon says 8-12 years old. We believe the younger side of the age range is better suited for this book.  Summary (Amazon): Lupe Impala, El Chavo Flapjack, and Elirio Malaria love working with cars. You name it, they can fix it. But the team's favorite cars of all are lowriders—cars that hip and hop, dip and drop, go low and slow,bajito y suavecito. ...Read more on Amazon.The Book's Trailer
Our Thoughts
 This was a tough review for us. Our normal policy is not to review books that we don't love. Why? Well, we aren't professional reviewers, and there are so many GREAT books out there that we find those should be our focus. You probably see where we are headed...we did not love this book. If we didn't have to give the book an extra chance, we would have stopped reading on the first page. The change in perspective of the illustrations made it difficult to tell who was who and made us have to put too much thought into the opening pages of a book. Lose us on page one, and we won't be around for page two.    We wanted to LOVE it. We were hopeful. The main character is a female car mechanic, after all - how cool is that? However, as much as we tried to love it, we weren't successful. 
   There were inconsistencies in the book that drove us nuts. One example is the order of objects that the characters came upon in our Solar System: Pluto...the Moon...Jupiter? We decided they must be ping-ponging through the solar system (?).    Honestly, the book video above is a fair representation of the book. If you view the video and are intrigued - you very well may enjoy the book. Our awesome friend, Erik, of This Kid Reviews Books enjoyed reading it, so we leave you with a link to his positive review of the Lowriders in Space. ActivitiesHow about an episode of Popular Mechanics for Kids about Cool Cars? 

Disclosure: We received a copy of Low Riders in Space from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. We received no monetary or in-kind compensation for our honest review. This post does NOT contain affiliate links. We will be donating this book to our local library.
We hope your 2015 is MOMENTOUS!Thank you for reading and sharing,

Did you catch the newest episode of The Write Chat?
Katrina's Word of the Week.
View videos on YouTube or view our most recent blog post.
Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Katrina is a NOBLE cat, of course! Word of the Week with Guest Jennifer L. Holm (1/19/2015): #KidLitWow

We are thrilled to have NY Times BestSelling author Jennifer Holm here to introduce this week's Word of the Week.You know... Baby Mouse, Squish, The Fourteenth Goldfish, and more - yeah, THAT Jennifer Holm. :) Thank you, Jennifer, for joining us, and for introducing this week's word of the week: NOBLE. 
Can you use the word NOBLE in a sentence? 
Connect with our guest, Jennifer L. Holm: Jennifer's Books on Amazon * Website  * Twitter

GloGirly DesignStanley & Katrina Don't forget that we have free printables to go along with the Words of the Week. Visit Cool Mom Printables on Teachers Pay Teachers to download our printables.

If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); Pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!  Our Guest Spots are filled for the entire School Year. Click here if you would like to sponsor a video. 

This post has been included in:  We are most creative with our videos. How are you creative this week? Find great homeschooling blog posts.Thank you for reading and sharing, Did you catch the newest episode of The Write Chat?
Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Sign up to receive our Newsletter in your inbox.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Time to Grab your Favorite Beverage! There is a new episode of The Write Chat available.

Felicia and Erik had the good fortune to interview NY Times Bestselling author, Chris Grabenstein, and their interview just went live over on www.TheWriteChat.com. We invite you to grab your favorite beverage, and watch their entertaining interview. Oh, be sure to sign up for their newsletter while you are there! 

In this episode, you will: -  Learn where Mr. Grabenstein keeps his drafts.- See Mr. Grabenstein market portable mustaches. -  and more! 
Be sure to give the video a thumbs-up, subscribe to Stanley & Katrina's YouTube Channel, and leave a comment saying, "Hi!" 

The kids are also doing another giveaway this month - it is easier than last month's giveaway, so be sure to check it out!
We hope your 2015 is MOMENTOUS!
Thank you for reading and sharing,




Katrina's Word of the Week.
View videos on YouTube or view our most recent blog post.
Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Find out when Katrina CHORTLES. Word of the Week with Guest Meg Dendler (1/12/2015): #KidLitWow

We are thrilled to have award-winning author Meg Dendler return to our Word of the Week videos (she also introduced the fun word: HOBNOB) .Thank you, Meg, for joining us once again, for sharing Max with us, and for introducing this week's word of the week: CHORTLE. 
Can you use the word CHORTLE in a sentence? 
Connect with our guest, Meg Dendler: Meg's Books on Amazon * Website  * Facebook * Twitter *  Pinterest * YouTube

GloGirly DesignStanley & Katrina Don't forget that we have free printables to go along with the Words of the Week. Visit Cool Mom Printables on Teachers Pay Teachers to download our printables.

If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); Pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!  Our Guest Spots are filled for the entire School Year. Click here if you would like to sponsor a video. 

This post has been included in:  We are most creative with our videos. How are you creative this week? Find great homeschooling blog posts.Thank you for reading and sharing, Did you catch the newest episode of The Write Chat? [image error] See what Lego is up to on our Wordless Wednesday posts.
View our most recent WW post.

Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Sign up to receive our Newsletter in your inbox.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Stanley & Katrina Highlights of 2014 & What to Expect Here in 2015

Happy 2015!


We thought it would be fun to review highlights from 2014 from our online playtime. We wouldn't be where we are now if we did not have your paw-riffic support. We are thankful for you and wish you the best for the year ahead.
Thanks for being a part of our online community. Now for our year in review by sharing our "top twos."

Note: We had fun testing out the new .gif creator on YouTube for this post. If you don't see the moving pics (.gifs) then be sure to view this post online.
Book Highlights
#1 We published our second book, The Observations of the Obstreperous Animals.  
#2 Our first book, The Perpetual Papers of the Pack of Pets , won an award!
Events

#1 Neighbor Girl (Felicia) and her friend, Erik of This Kid Reviews Books, had the opportunity to interview Rick Riordan on Huff Post Live. Felicia named this MOMENTOUS day the "Best Day Ever." 

#2  Felicia and her friend, Erik, successfully launched their interview show, The Write Chat, in September. 
Blog Milestones

#1 Our blog went over 100,000 page views. #2 We have posted over 300 times on our blog since we created it. 
Most Viewed YouTube Videos of 2014

#1 The trailer video for The Perpetual Papers of the Pack of Pets.
#2 The second most viewed video of ours from 2014 is a #flashback video (from 2011) of Neighbor Girl reviewing Judy Moody Goes to College.  


Most Viewed Word of the Week Videos for the 2013-2014 School Year
#1 Alacrity starring the Steel River Playhouse cast of The Music Man
#2 Respite starring Rena Marthaler
Most Viewed Word of the Week Videos for the 2014-2015 School Year (so far)
#1 Analyze starring Lovable Lobo
#2 Sojourn starring Matt Phelan

Most Viewed Blog Posts of 2014
#1 We want you to be a part of our Word of the Week Posts!   We are radiant over the level of participation that has grown for the guest spots in our Word of the Week videos. Last year we had 12 guests in total. This year, we booked the ENTIRE school year in only a few months- 40 guests!! The deluge of guests does give Cool Mom a ton of work, and we appreciate her beneficent time creating and organizing our videos. Thanks, Cool Mom!

#2 Authors: Five Simple Ways to Increase Your Book's Reach  We aren't surprised this is one of our top posts of the year. Good stuff. 
Top Commenters of 2014Thank you friends! You always make us smile and remind us that we aren't alone in the blogosphere.
#1 This Kid Reviews Books#2 WriterSideUp
Our Top Two Referring Sites of 2014
These are two paw-riffic sites that we often visit. If you don't already know them, take some time to check them out in 2015!
#1 Create with Joy
#2 Mother Daughter Book Reviews

Kickstarter
We are giving this one a special shout-out as we are proud pets that we successfully launched and (due to your wonderful support), fully funded our Kickstarter Project. We gained funding for a professional book cover for our second book. Not only did we get a great book cover but we ALSO came out of the process with great new images for our website thanks to Cool Dad's illustrations and GloGirly Design's know-how. 

2015 Plans

Stanley and I have enjoyed our journey from the mind of our author, Felicia, to the pages of our books and our online presence. 

Our dear author, Felicia, has decided to focus on new interests for 2015. The Word of the Week videos, run primarily by Cool Mom, will be wrapped up in June and may or may not return in the 2015-2016 school year - time (and sponsorship) will tell. Felicia will continue to co-host The Write Chat as she enjoys that immensely. The goal is to slow down posts here as much as possible, although it may take a few months to notice the change. 
What to expect on our blog in the next six months:
Weekly Word of the Week posts through the end of the school year.Posts letting you know when a The Write Chat episode is live.Possibly a few book reviews that we have had in our queue for months.A handful of other posts we have committed to doing, as well as sharing news about us and our author. Thank you for reading and sharing, Did you catch the newest episode of The Write Chat?
Katrina's Word of the Week.View videos on YouTube or view our most recent blog post.
Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Sign up to receive our Newsletter in your inbox.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Tell us about your MOMENTOUS day. Word of the Week with Guest Kelly Bingham (1/5/2015): #KidLitWow

We are thrilled to have author Kelly Bingham as our first guest of 2015 in this week's Word of the Week video. Neighbor Girl is impressed that Ms. Bingham's book Shark Girl was chosen for Oprah's Book Club for Kids and that she is a former Disney Animation Storyboard Artist. I am impressed that she has two cats. Thank you, Kelly, for introducing this week's word of the week: MOMENTOUS. 
Can you use the word MOMENTOUS in a sentence?  Connect with our guest, Kelly Bingham: Website * Facebook * Twitter

GloGirly DesignStanley & Katrina Don't forget that we have free printables to go along with the Words of the Week. Visit Cool Mom Printables on Teachers Pay Teachers to download our printables.

If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); Pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!  Our Guest Spots are filled for the entire School Year. Click here if you would like to sponsor a video. 

This post has been included in:  We are most creative with our videos. How are you creative this week? Find great homeschooling blog posts.Thank you for reading and sharing, Did you catch the newest episode of The Write Chat? [image error] See what Lego is up to on our Wordless Wednesday posts.
View our most recent WW post.

Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Sign up to receive our Newsletter in your inbox.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Happy New Year from our gang to yours!

Happy 2015. May this year be your best year, yet!
Tail Wags and Kitty Meows,

Merry Christmas from our gang to yours!

That is all,

Katrina has written a SPLENDID book. Word of the Week with Guest Mrs. P (12/22/2014): #KidLitWow

We are thrilled to have the splendid Mrs. P return as a guest for another Word of the Week video. She brings stories to life on YouTube, and now she brings a couple of our Words of the Week to life, also. Thank you, Mrs. P, for introducing this week's word of the week: SPLENDID. 
Can you use the word SPLENDID in a sentence?  Connect with our guest, Mrs. P: Website * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * YouTube * Pinterest

GloGirly DesignStanley & Katrina Don't miss any of our news by signing up for our Newsletter:Yes, sign me up for your newsletter!Email Address View previous campaigns.
Don't forget that we have free printables to go along with the Words of the Week. Visit Kid Lit Printables to download them now.
If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); Pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!  Our Guest Spots are filled for the entire School Year. Click here if you would like to sponsor a video.  This post has been included in:  We are most creative with our videos. How are you creative this week? Find great homeschooling blog posts.Thank you for reading and sharing, Did you catch the newest episode of The Write Chat? [image error] See what Lego is up to on our Wordless Wednesday posts.
View our most recent blog post.

Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Sign up to receive our Newsletter in your inbox.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.