Tag Archives: school year 2020

Sep4

Day 5: Back to School Blog Tour 2020

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Welcome to the last day of the Back to School Blog Tour. I hope you have enjoyed all of our featured authors this week, and have added to your home or class online library. I’d like to wrap up this fabulous week by introducing you to my last featured author, Thomasina M. D’Arezzo. She is a published poet, and has written children’s books and women’s fiction.  She lives in New England citing autumn being one of her favorite seasons. She enjoys hiking, acting and listening to music when not involved in writing. She’s proud of her recent college graduate son.

Thomasina M. D’Arezzo is the children’s author of the mystery children’s book, “Marco The Mini Sleuth: Where did the Kitten Go?”

Her recent book, “Marco The Mini Sleuth: Where did the Kitten Go?” is a fun mystery adventure that any kid can get lost in. Great for writing assignments or studying the mystery genre, this book will introduce your child to her fantastic Marco The Mini Sleuth series. I had a chance to talk to Thomasina about her childhood reading interests, writing process, and what writing means to her.

1) Who was your favorite author and how did they influence you?

Thomasina M. D’Arezzo: For Children’s books there are multiple that I like. I enjoy a lot of classic tales. I particularly enjoyed “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter and “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.

2) Do you have a writing routine?

Thomasina M. D’Arezzo: When writing a novel I have a routine where I try to write 5000 words per day. When writing a children’s book, I will sit on the idea for a while in my head before I bring it all to life.

3) What is writing to you in one sentence?

Thomasina M. D’Arezzo: It’s a beautiful escape from reality! A world where you can create what you want!

“Marco The Mini Sleuth: Where did the Kitten Go?” is a great mystery for any child to get lost in. Marco’s cousins have recently lost their new kitten. Marco is on the case. By using his magical magnifying glass, he goes out looking for clues. They all work together to solve the mystery, but they get side tracked along the way. Will the clues lead them to the kitten in time?

“Marco The Mini Sleuth: Where did the Kitten Go?” is available at Amazon.com.

To close out this year’s blog tour, I’d like to announce two things.

  • It’s not too late to still enter the Back to School 2020 Blog Tour $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway. The giveaway will be open through the end of the week, and will close for entries on Sept. 7, 2020. The winner will be announced next week on the blog. CLICK HERE TO ENTER!
  • New picture book release: I Don’t Want to Wear A Mask

I’ve been working feverishly on this project the last few months, and I’m happy to announce it’s release during this year’s Back to School Blog Tour. This picture book is a great way to help children validate their anxiety and concerns about the pandemic and how it is changing our lives.

A little about my new book:

Trying to teach your child about the importance of wearing a mask in school?

Albert is returning to school. But this year is different than all others before. He has to wear a mask. The COVID-19 Virus has spread around the world in the first pandemic in one hundred years. He has been studying at home, and has missed a lot of things. He misses his friends in preschool. He misses his teacher. He misses being outside and playing on the playground. But for his first day of Kindergarten, he has to wear a mask. Will talking with his mother about the reasons to wear masks help Albert understand how he can be a superhero?

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This picture book helps children understand the importance of wearing a mask in school. They can be a superhero just like Albert as they wear a mask like other adult heroes in grocery stores, post offices or libraries. Teach your little one the importance of mask wearing as they return to in-person school or prepare for online distance learning. Help children understand the new normal happening around them and why it is important. This book is recommended for ages 3 to 8. It’s available on Amazon.com as a print or ebook edition.

I want to thank all of the participating authors for sharing a little of themselves and their fabulous books. I look forward to this blog tour highlighting unique, Indie children’s authors at the beginning of each school year.

This year is so very different than many others, and I hope the book recommendations, interviews and my resources are supportive and helpful to parents and teachers during this school year of 2020 -2021.

***Please follow my blog to find out about wonderful, fabulous Indie children’s authors and their books all year long!

Until next year, remember to keep reading and writing,

-Mrs. Turner

Sep2

Day 3: Back to School Blog Tour 2020

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back2schoolbanner2020Welcome to day three of the Back to School Blog Tour. Today, I’d like to introduce you to the featured author for today, Devin Martin. During the day he’s his school community’s “Mr. Lunch Lady”. At night, he writes up a storm of stories to emphasize empathy, understanding, self-awareness, and reassure the next generation. In his book, “Mama Nuni”, he’s brought to life a fantastic character in Mama. Mama Nuni’s ranch is her version of heaven where she teaches her students lessons of life. When she hires a clumsy ranch hand, he becomes the catalyst for teaching kindness and empathy. This book is a teaching treat for many instructors and parents.

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Devin Martin is the author of the children’s book, “Mama Nuni”.

I had the chance to talk to Devin about his childhood reading memories, writing process, and what he has in store for us with future projects.

1) What is your favorite memory from reading as a child?

Devin Martin: My favorite memory from reading as a child, would have to be my 3rd grade teacher reading Witches to the class. She would get all animated and creep through the rows of desks, and use crazy witch voices. She was awesome! She would make us read a paragraph, so I would try to jump ahead and memorize my paragraph so I didn’t mess up when it was my turn. Never worked. HAHA!

 2) Who was your favorite author and how did they influence you?

Devin Martin: My favorite author growing up those early years would have to be Joanna Cole. “The Magic School Bus” was my go-to-the-T.V. show. Matched up with the books, I just retained so much information. After that, I really didn’t start reading for fun again until late in high school. I got into autobiographies of people and athletes I was interested in.


3) Do you have a writing routine? Share what works for you.

Devin Martin: All of my stories start as a poem. I like to think, they are better described as allegories. I use thesauruses often, to help with imagery in the words. Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes. Sometimes it takes me a week to write one story.


4) What subjects would you like to write about in future projects?

Devin Martin: All of my books will be related to reasoning with the human condition. We, as parents, often have a hard time reasoning with our kids (for obvious reasons ;-), let alone trying to educate them on what it means to be reasonable and self-aware, especially in those elementary age years. So in the future, you will see more content related to attitude and effort, understanding, empathy, personal accountability, etc.


5) What is writing to you in one sentence?

Devin Martin: For me writing is what binds emotions and logic.

MamaNuniCover-DevinMartin“Mama Nuni” has a big heart, and loves teaching valuable lessons on her ranch. It’s her heaven on Earth. When she hires a clumsy ranch hand, she discovers that her students are teasing him. Seizing the opportunity to instill a lesson of tolerance, kindness and empathy, she works towards showing her students the importance of standing up for others. This heartwarming story shows the power of showing kindness to others and the ability to use the power of love.

“Mama Nuni” is available at: Amazon.com.

For more information on Devin Martin, please visit his Facebook page at https://m.facebook.com/jrshoocreativeinc.

Don’t forget, there is still time to enter the Back to School Blog Tour Giveaway. You can enter to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card hosted by Rafflecopter.com.

LINK TO WIN YOUR $25 BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING SPREE!

Plus, each day I’m including links to help parents and teachers with distance learning. Back when everyone went into the pandemic lockdown during the spring, I wrote up a complete on-line novel to go along with my first book, The Lost Secret of Fairies. 

Here is the link for the full FREE online novel study. Download all the helpful graphic organizers for journal entries, character traits essay responses, theme & message exercises, and an essay short answer test at the end of the study. I developed it over the last couple of years I taught in the classroom, and offer it for free to go along with my book. Hopefully, it will be helpful in your distance learning planning.

ONLINE NOVEL STUDY LINK!

Tomorrow, another children’s author interview and more links to help support distance learning during these crazy, pandemic times. Until then, keep reading and writing!

-Mrs. Turner