Author: cvegnad

August 26, 2019

Find Courage, Creativity, Compassion and the Artistic Spark with Beautiful Picture Books from Raincoast Books

With back to school right around the corner (the countdown is on), it is important to nurture your child’s creativity, compassion and confidence in themselves. Books have a magical way of taking us on an adventure where we can be anything we want to be and will take risks we may not always be brave enough to do. Books can also spark a passion and love for a subject area – I find there is nothing a good book cannot do.

These beautiful, picture books from Raincoast books bring together fantastic stories that will encourage and support your child in their dreams and passion.

I Have an Idea!

Join the magical hunt for one little idea: From one of the true creative geniuses of this generation comes a unique meditation on and celebration of the magic of the birth of a simple idea. Sparkling with visual wit and bubbling with imagination, I Have an Idea! is a richly emotional exploration of the creative process: from an initial tentative inkling, to the frustration of chasing the wrong notion, to finally the exhilaration of capturing-and nurturing-just the right idea. I Have an Idea! is a scrumptious cloth-spined package of color and inspiration equally at home on a child’s bookshelf, in a new graduate’s backpack, or atop a creative’s desk.

About the Author: Herve Tullet is known for his prodigious versatility, from directing ad campaigns to designing fabric for Hermes. But his real love is working with children, for whom he has published dozens of books, including the New York Times bestsellers Mix It Up!, Let’s Play!, Say Zoop!, and Press Here . He lives in New York City.

Our Thoughts: Children have this wonderful way of looking at the world, of seeing change and being excited to be an agent of change. This beautiful and simple book encourages creativity and sparking new ideas. It explores how ideas can come from out of nowhere or from anywhere, we sometimes make mistakes (but this is okay) and sometimes we soar! Sometimes ideas can be hard to come up with, whether it is writing an essay, coming up with an art project or coming up with a solution at work and it is so important to think outside of the box. We need to learn to look with eyes and mind open and then we will be open to finding. I loved the simplicity of this book, it was easy to read and follow – the illustrations were simple and stayed with the same colour patterns of blue, yellow and red. The illustrations were childlike which I loved – I think we all need to find that child in us and this will help us tackle anything in life.

You can learn more about I Have an Idea here.

Rabbit and the Motorbike

Rabbit isn’t sure he’ll ever be brave enough to go on an adventure. He’s a homebody who lives in a quiet field of wheat he dreams of leaving every night. His world is enlarged by his friend Dog and Dog’s tales of motorbike adventures. But one day, Dog is gone, and with him, go the stories Rabbit loves so much. Dare Rabbit pick up the motorbike and live his own story? This timeless fable of the journey from grief to acceptance will touch every reader. For those confronting loss and those eager to explore and experience, Rabbit’s bravery in the face of sadness will console, nurture, and inspire.

About the Illustrator: Sarah Jacoby grew up wandering the woods outside of Philadelphia. She now draws for many people and places, including the New York Times, and she is the author and illustrator of Forever or a Day . She lives in Philadelphia.

About the Author: Kate Hoefler received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan, where she studied as a Colby Fellow. She is the author of Real Cowboys and Great Big Things . She lives in a quiet village in Ohio where she can hear the distant sounds of the highway.

Our Thoughts: This is a beautiful story of the power of friendship and being brave. Rabbit is scared of change and the world around him – he is not comfortable with the unknown. His friend, Dog, understands this and supports him and always makes time for Rabbit, ensuring he feels loved and shares in his adventures through his stories. When Dog is gone, Rabbit feels alone and empty. He has his friend’s motorbike – the bike that he took around the world visiting new places. At times, the bike calls out to Rabbit but he is still too scared. He is too scared of the unknown and change. Then one day, he gathers the courage to go just up the street on his dear friend’s motorbike but what he doesn’t realize is how long that road is and how much he would enjoy. This was the experience he didn’t even know he needed! This is a beautiful story of loss, accepting our fears and being able to step outside of our comfort zones – important messaging for our youth especially now. We loved every moment of this beautifully illustrated and written story.

You can learn more about Rabbit and the Motorbike here.

Claris: Fashion Show Fiasco

It’s Fashion Week in Paris and there is no way Claris is missing the show of her favourite designer! But when a fashion emergency occurs, will Claris and Monsieur be able to make it to the show in time to save the day?

The Claris series follows an adorable mouse who moves to Paris to follow her fashion dreams. Can Claris use all her wit, warmth and – of course – style to make her dreams come true?

About the Author: Megan Hess is an acclaimed fashion illustrator who works with some of the most prestigious fashion designers and luxury brands around the world, such as Chanel, Dior, Cartier, Montblanc and Tiffany & Co. She is the official illustrator for Bloomingdales New York, and completed the cover artwork for all of Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell’s books, as well as a private commission for Michelle Obama, and has collaborated with Gwyneth Paltrow for the ‘Blo’ Blow Dry Bar campaign. TheClaris Collection is her first children’s book series.

Our Thoughts: I fell in love with this book the moment I saw it – from its glittery and fun cover to the adorable Claris, how can you resist not falling in love? Claris is quite the chic mouse and I love how the story is told with flair and in beautiful pinks, gold, black, white and pastels.

Claris lives in Paris, in a flat with two parents and a brat (the way I laughed – and yes she is a brat!). Claris loves fashion and designing dresses and she cannot wait to attend Fashion Week. She creates the most beautiful dress but almost misses out! This takes on her quite the journey (with help from friends) in order to get her to the show on time.

This is a wonderful story with a mix of French words that any young fashion designer will love. I loved the story and warmth of Claris – while she is one chic and fashionable mouse, friendship and kindness come first. This will make a beautiful gift for any young creative, fashion forward child.

You can learn more about Claris: Fashion Show Fiasco here.

A Life Made by Hand

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was an influential and award-winning sculptor, a beloved figure in the Bay Area art world, and a devoted activist who advocated tirelessly for arts education. This lushly illustrated book by collage artist Andrea D’Aquino brings Asawa’s creative journey to life, detailing the influence of her childhood in a farming family, and her education at Black Mountain College where she pursued an experimental course of education with leading avant-garde artists and thinkerssuch as Anni and Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham, and Robert Rauschenberg. Delightful and substantial, this engaging title for young art lovers includes a page of teaching tools for parents and educators.

About the Author: Andrea D’Aquino is an artist and author. Her previous books include an illustrated edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Once Upon a Piece of Paper . Her work appears in magazines and newspapers around the world. She lives in New York City.

Our Thoughts: This is a beautifully told and illustrated story of artist, Ruth Asawa. She is an artist that I did not know about but we loved learning about. She came from humble beginnings, and like many artists saw the beauty in everything around her. In college, she explored the world of art – learning, engaging and immersing herself in every aspect. It was in Mexico, where she learned the art of wire basket weaving. I have never seen wire baskets but on a trip to Zimbabwe – I was amazed at the skill and beauty that local artists could create with wire and bottle caps! Ruth took this teaching and became famous for her work in wire sculptures – which are admired and loved in museums. The book highlights her work and her love and connection to the natural world. The author highlights some of her life moments at the back of the book, including when her family was forcibly relocated to an internment camp in the US during World War II. The book is a beautiful tribute to a special artist, that many young artists can connect with. It also includes instructions on how to create your own paper dragonfly! It is beautifully written and illustrated, honouring this very talented artist.

You can learn more about A Life Made by Hand here.

Make sure to follow Raincoast Books on Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with the newest releases and more.

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned books in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 23, 2019

120 Days Book Review

When Blake and Soto meet in the San Cristobal, California courtroom, they begin a 120-day journey that will invariably alter both of their lives.

About 120 Days

BARBARA BLAKE is a bright, young, attractive, and ambitious defense attorney. Alejandro Soto, an inmate already serving two life sentences for the brutal murder of a drug dealer and the man’s mother, is on trial for a third murder, one he did not commit but that could well result in the Death Penalty. When Blake and Soto meet in the San Cristobal, California courtroom, they begin a 120-day journey that will invariably alter both of their lives. Together, they spiral ever more deeply into the dark heart of a quintessentially American story of sex and love, truth and lies, justice and prejudice, crime and punishment, and, ultimately, life and death.

My Thoughts

I could not put this incredible book down that centers around two very different characters. We have Barbara – an ambitious and intelligent woman who is incredibly smart and powerful in court but her personal life is quite different. She struggles with relationships and love – she has had failed marriages and she seems to have resigned herself to not meeting ‘the one’. Then we have Alejandro – a convicted murder serving two life sentences. Someone that you start off not having much sympathy for but as the story unfolds, we see a whole new side of his character. Yes, he is flawed and committed awful acts, but he has this different side of him that was created because of his upbringing.

The two characters meet in a courtroom and this begins a 120 day spiraling journey that we are left guessing constantly at where they are going. Barbara tries to feel no compassion or attraction to this man, especially a man who could jeopardize her whole career. But as we learn more about Alejandro, you sympathize with his story and you can feel the attraction and love these two have that could destroy both of them.

Their love is definitely forbidden and could destroy so much and we are left on the edge of our seats throughout the whole novel, wondering will they be caught, what future could these two have? While the ending was fantastic and suited the story, my heart was a bit sore!

This is a fantastic read – full of raw emotions, heartache, pain and forgiveness. I loved every moment of this story!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Ronald L. Ruiz is a retired attorney whose entire career was spent in criminal law as a deputy District Attorney, a District Attorney, a Defense Attorney and a Public Defender.

You can connect with him on his website and Facebook.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a digital copy in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 22, 2019

Make BTS a Smooth Transition with the Hamilton Beach Dual Breakfast Sandwich Maker

I am not going to lie and I am not proud to admit this, but I remember going off to my first year at University and being unprepared to tackle basic life skills like cooking for myself. The only things I knew how to cook were 5 minute rice, breakfast sausages and cereal. I remember a friend asking if I could make a fried egg and I just looked at her, like fried egg – where do I start? I wasn’t a spoiled teen, I just wasn’t given the opportunities to learn or the tools to learn.

This is why it is so important to me for my boys to have the skills and confidence that they need to take care of themselves and make nutritious meals for themselves, even when I am not around. I want them to feel comfortable in the kitchen and be able to use tools in the kitchen to help them prepare their meals.

I can also appreciate that they are busy, they are tired (I feel like this is the number one thing I hear all the time) and they don’t have enough time. While I can understand, relate and appreciate these concerns – it is also super important that they ensure they are eating healthy meals especially breakfast, trust me a year of five minute rice, breakfast sausages and my very famous Ketchup based tomato sauce (although to be fair this is actually really yummy – probably because it is so sweet) is not good for anyone.

Hamilton Beach has a great line of products that make life easier for young adults and fits in with their busy schedules. My favourite is the Dual Breakfast Sandwich maker.

The Dual Breakfast Sandwich maker is as simple as plug in and go (no lie!). We pulled it out and expected it to be a bit more complicated and were pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t. We plugged it in and during its warm up period, we got our other ingredients ready to go (cheese, eggs, chicken slices). We laid out the ingredients – English muffin on the bottom, cheese, chicken and then slide the grill part for the egg over and placed the scrambled eggs on top (we didn’t pay enough attention the first time and didn’t ensure it was sealed properly and the egg leaked!) and then topped it off with the other half of the English muffin. All that was left was to set the timer for 5.5 minutes and let it cook.

Removing the finished sandwich was quite simple, lift the lid and slide over the plate that the egg was cooking on. We used a spoon to press down a bit on the bread to ensure we could lift each plate easily. The handles do become a bit hot, so make sure you use oven mitts or a towel to lift each plate. They used a spatula to remove each sandwich from the appliance. Voila! Hot, delicious and nutritious breakfast sandwiches ready in under seven minutes.

Our favourite features of the Dual Breakfast Sandwich Maker were:

simple set up and easy to use (only buttons are for the timer and the plates were easy to figure out
you can set the sandwich maker and continue on in your morning routine, getting ready for school
easy to clean – the plates wipe clean easily even with a piece of paper towel
small and discreet design that can fit anywhere
excellent price point and value for money

You can create a variety of sandwiches with this appliance so don’t feel limited to the traditional ideas of an English muffin breakfast sandwich. This Pepperoni and Veggie Mini pizza looks delicious and very easy to follow!

The Hamilton Beach Dual Breakfast Sandwich maker can be purchased from Amazon, Best Buy (both online and in-store), Wayfair, The Bay (both online and in-store), London Drugs and Walmart (both online and in-store) and has a suggested retail price of $64.99.

This product will make an excellent gift for students that are heading off to college or university but also a fantastic item to have in your home for high school students to learn independence and confidence in their own abilities in the kitchen. It is a definite must have item for back to school.

Make sure to stay connected with Hamilton Beach on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest products, recipes and more!

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 15, 2019

Summer Battles with Zing HyperStrike and Zax

My kids love to run around, make noise and compete with each other. Summer months can be spent chasing each other and battling for the top spot of champion in a variety of games. The hardest part? Trying to think of new ways to keep both an eight and a fifteen year old entertained!

Zax is a soft, foam suction cupped axe that you can use to compete in axe throwing competitions (or if you are like me, to catch your husband off guard when he is walking around the corner!!).

The suction cups work great on any flat surface either inside or outside. For convenience, we tested the Zax out in our living room first. There is definitely a trick to how you flick the axe, so don’t get discouraged on your first few throws! Our first throws were unsuccessful and would bounce off the walls, but once you got used to the way that you had to flick your wrist when throwing it, it easily stuck to the wall. Important to note, it did not damage the paint at all – which I was a tad bit worried about at first.

Our youngest was by far the champion in the competition. He picked up the skills the quickest and loved throwing the axe (although there were a few throws that ended up at his brother that I am not quite were as accidental as he made them out to be!). He perfected the flick and underhand throw but none of us were good at the two handed throws.

Zax come in a variety of colours and can be purchased at Walmart and Target in the US and Mastermind Toys, Canadian Tire, Indigo and Toys R Us in Canada.

The HyperStrike is a high performance bow and arrow that can shoot over 250 feet due to its the bungee cord design. The arrows are made out of soft form and are easy to use. It is designed for ages fourteen and up, and while it was definitely easier for our eldest (and my husband to use), after a few tries our eight year old had no problem loading the arrows.

There are many ways to play with the HyperStrike and the Zing website has some great ideas to get you started, such as: attack and defend, capture the flag, elimination and battle royal. My husband came up with the idea to use his feet to hold the bow in place and would shoot the arrows across the floor in our house at targets (this was a huge hit in our home), along with our youngest shooting arrows off the porch at various targets in the front yard. The arrows come out very fast and make a very loud noise, which my boys and hubby loved but I have to admit the noise sounds terrifying. You expect the arrow to be coming at you a lot faster than it does with the noise it makes.

Both the HyperStrike and Zax will make for hours of fun for your children outside as they battle to be the champions of the summer!

Make sure to follow Zing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest news, toys and more.

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 13, 2019

Big Breath Review

Calm your worries and build your bravery — or relax during a busy day or wind down before bed.

About Big Breath

All day long, you breathe — in and out, in and out — without even thinking about it. But did you know that you can play with your breath, use it to take you on an adventure? All you have to do is find a comfy spot and close your eyes.

Does your breath sound like ocean waves? Like the wind before a storm or a breeze at the start of spring? Can you feel it all the way down to the tips of your toes? By the time you open your eyes, you might just feel a little lighter, calmer, more relaxed.

Our Thoughts

I did not start mediating until I began yoga roughly four years ago. I remember being in my first yoga class and unable to truly unwind and relax enough in order to be present in the moment. It was in that moment that I realized I was letting life take over, I was not present, I was stressed out and not appreciating the tiny moments. It took a lot of practice but eventually I was able to learn how to breathe properly, how to turn my mind off and be present in the moment. This is a skill that I can not stress enough – life is too hectic and busy to not know how to calm the mind. It can be done anywhere, at any time when needed.

This book is beautifully written and illustrated. I read it alone at first and I loved the calming tone of the words. It felt natural, easy to follow, easy to read and fell in a natural progression. I was so excited to practice it with our youngest, who participates in mediation at school but it is not something we do at home on a regular basis. If I am being honest, this is mostly because I don’t know how to help him through the process.

After work and soccer practice, we found a quiet space in our basement and sat across from each other. I read the book aloud to him, slowly and with purpose – giving him the time he needed to follow the directions. We did this without any noise but I do remember how much I loved listening to my class instructor walk me through a guided meditation with the sounds of nature in the background. If you think this would be distracting for your child, this may not be the best idea but if you think it will help – go for it.

This book was incredibly helpful for me as a parent, it helped give me the skills and words to use to help my child through his meditation. He found it relaxing and helped calm his mind and focus. It also helped bring us closer together, as we spoke about his day and his feelings. This is a definite must have book for parents and their children as we look for ways to bring calm and clarity in a rather crazy busy world!

You can purchase a copy of this book here.

About the Author

William Meyer is a high school teacher, longtime meditator, and author. The author of the newly released Three Breaths and Begin: A Guide to Meditation in the Classroom, he is currently working to augment his MA in education from Harvard with a PhD from NYU. He lives in Mamaroneck, New York.

About the Illustrator

Brittany R. Jacobs is a librarian and the author-illustrator of The Kraken’s Rules for Making Friends and other children’s books. She lives in Westminster, Colorado.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.