It truly is a small world after all… (giveaway ends 3/31/16)

 

I am a very sentimental person. I have A LOT of wonderful memories from my youth. I have things around my home and in storage that have a lot of great memories attached to them. All I need to do it look at an object and all those wonderful memories come pouring back into my mind.

Take for example the poreclin dog I have sitting on my bookcase. It belonged to my great-grandparents. Every time I visited their home (they lived next door to me), I always saw that dog.

From what I know they had the dog when they got married. Usually these dogs come in pairs and sit on the mantle or on the fireplace. My great-grandparents didn’t recall what happened to the other one.

The dog I have much be close to 100 years old. It might be worth something to someone ($$$) but that doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me are the found memories attached to that dog. The same applies to a kitchen magnet that I also have that belonged to my great-grandparents. It’s just a magnet but whenever I look at it I remember the times I spent in their kitchen.

I have a lot of toys and books that I held on to from my youth. In my father’s basement are all my Fisher Price Little People I had grown up (the original wooden ones). I also have the first two plush animals I ever owned from when I was a baby. They don’t look like much now, but they went on many adventures with me growing up and traveled all over the place with me.

I loved to read as a child and young adult. These days I barely get a chance to read.

I kept my favorite books from my youth to share with my children (which I did). I saved my children’s favorite books too so that they can share them with their own children, as well as my books. I hope they do the same for their children some day.

Some of my favorite books included:

The King, the Mice and the Cheese

Ma Ling and the Magic Paint Brush

Put Me in the Zoo

Gidappy (pictured above) was the first book I ever purchased from the school book fair.

I still have my original copies of these books. They are currently stored in my father’s basement because we ran out of room in our bookcases to keep all of my childhood books.

Another favorite book of mine is called One Kitten by Kim. My name is Kimberly so I thought it was super cool to have a book with my name on it, even though the name was Kim and in the book, Kim is a boy. I didn’t care. The book was named after ME.

In the book, a boy name Kim has a cat who has kittens. His parents tell him he can keep ONE of the kittens as long as he finds homes for all the other kittens. Kim does find home for them, but he also picks up a lot of “things” along the way that also need homes (I won’t spoil it by telling you what the “things” are).

I love that book. I read it over and over again. It never got old for me.

One Kitten for Kim is the reason why I always wanted a Radio Flyer Red Wagon. In the book Kim toted around his kittens in a wagon. I always wanted a wagon so that I could do the same. Sadly, I never received a wagon.

One Kitten for Kim was written by Adelaide Hall and illustrated by Don Madden.

Fast forward several DECADES.

I was chatting via Facebook with a relative. She was married to my brother-in-law’s brother. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago at a very young age.

I won’t mention her by name for her security. I’ll refer to her as Ms. C.

Ms. C. and I were chatting on Facebook one day and I had mentioned to her that writing a book and having it published was on my “Bucket List.” She told me that her father wrote and illustrated books. She told me his last name and I tried to look him up on Amazon. One of the first books that came up with his name was ONE KITTEN FOR KIM!

No way!

It’s true! The man who illustrated one of my all time favorite books from my childhood was her father – Don Madden.

Talk about a small world! That is crazy!

Her father went on to write and illustrate several books over the years. He’s also alive and well and living in upstate New York.

He was kind enough to send me a copy of One Kitten for Kim that he personally autographed for me (along with beautiful illustrations). He also sent me an autographed copy of one of his books, The Wartville Wizard, which I think it a fantastic book to give to a child.

The Wartville Wizard is the story of tidy old man who lives just outside Wartville. He has a clean and tidy home, just the way he likes it. Sadly, the people of Wartville think differently. They litter all the time. The tidy man’s garden and yard gets filled with trash and he is constantly cleaning up after others.

Time goes by and the tidy man spends his days cleaning up the garbage and litter the people’s of Wartsville mindlessly toss aside every day.

One day the tidy man took a walk into the woods and sat in a field and apologized to Mother Nature for not being able to stop the people of Wartville from littering. Mother Nature heard him and gave him a special power – the power to make litter find it’s way to the person who tossed it aside and have it become stuck on their body and unable to be removed.

Soon the careless people of Wartville find the trash they mindlessly tossed aside sticking to them. Some residents – the biggest offenders – find themselves covered in trash.

After a young sees the tidy man commanding that litter he found be returned to it’s owner, she tells the people of Wartville that he’s a wizard and they confront him.

Will they learn from the tidy man and stop littering? What will they do with the so-called “wizard?” To find out you need to pick up a copy of The Wartville Wizard.

The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other book seller locations.

This book is a fun way to teach children the importance of not littering. Not only could parents/grandparents utilize this book to teach children an important lesson, but teachers could use it too to segue into lessons about our environment and the importance of doing what we can to take care of it.

Earth Day is on April 22, 2016 this year. This would be a perfect book for Earth Day.

Both of Mr. Madden’s books sit in my bookcase in the living room along side other autographed copies of books, some of my favorite books and the porcelain dog that belonged to my great-grandparents.

Mr. Madden was kind enough to offer a lucky reader an autographed copy of The Wartville Wizard. There is even a place where the lucky winner can insert the child’s name among the author/illustrator’s autograph.

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and will end on April 1, 2016. The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be notified via email and will have three days to reply or a new winner will be chosen in their place.

To enter please comment on this post and tell me why you would like to win an autographed copy of The Wizard of Wartville?

For extra entries you can use the Rafflecopter widget (below) but you must complete the initial entry requirement or the additional entries won’t qualify.

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Kimberly

*I received a free copy to review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.