Check out this #illustrated children's book! Unicorns, magic and evil sorcerers, oh my! #childrensbooks #unicorns

The Blue Unicorn's Journey To Osm
Illustrated Book: Full Color Illustrations

by

Sybrina Durant

“The metal horned unicorns are doomed!”

That’s what Lauda Lead Horn wailed when she first saw the tribe’s new savior. OK, so his horn was not metal... and he did not have a magic power... and he was really a puny little runt. But doomed? 

Were things really that bad?
Well, things were pretty bad in the land of MarBryn. Magh, an evil sorcerer utilized unicorn horns and hooves to create his magical potions and spells and to increase his power and to conquer everyone in his path.

All of the unicorns from the Tribe of the Metal Horn were now gone... except for twelve survivors.

Amazon | Goodreads

Before the blue unicorn was born, Numen told Alumna, the aluminum-horned oracle, that he had a plan to bring the tribe back home to Unimaise. His prophecy was, “Only the blue unicorn can join with the Moon-Star. Until then, no new unicorns will be born.”

Blue was the last unicorn born. Twenty years later, his horn was still covered with a plain blue colored hide. There was not a glint of metal to be seen on it or his hooves. And he still didn’t have any magic. But he was no longer scrawny and he had his wits.

Although no one else in the tribe thought he had a chance, Blue felt ready to make Magh pay for his evil deeds. And he went off to do it alone.

That was Blue’s first mistake.

If the entire tribe was not standing horn-tip to horn-tip at the proper time and in the exact place to help usher the Moon-Star Spirit into Blue’s horn, he would die.

Then, the rest of the tribe would really be doomed.

Readers will follow along two journey paths in this book. Blue is joined in his travels by his mentor Gaiso, the Stag and his friend, Girasol the Firebird as they try to find their way across a danger-filled MarBryn to Muzika Woods. The rest of Blue’s tribe is forced to follow another route due to Nix Nickle Horn’s unfortunate incident with a Manticore. Nix, the great unicorn defender must safely lead the way for Ghel, the Golden-Horned unicorn; Silubhra Silver Horn; Cornum the Brass-Horned unicorn; Steel Horned Style; Cuprum the Copper-Horned unicorn; Tin-Horned Tinam; Dr. Zinko; Iown the Iron-Horned unicorn and the others in an action packed adventure to their destination in Muzika Woods. Both journey paths converge there in the Nebulium Circle.

This chapter book is a collector's dream containing page after page of lavish artwork. It contains nearly 100 pages of story text by Sybrina Durant and the same number of pages of magnificent water-color illustrations by Dasguptarts. This book, written by Sybrina Durant and illustrated by Dasguptarts, offers readers a visual feast of over forty beautiful water-color pictures that each span two pages. Forty-two - easy to digest two-page chapters are chock full of adventurous and entertaining morsels. This illustrated book will become a favorite of teen and older fantasy readers.  A companion coloring/ character description book is also available at any online bookstore.  

Children's writer and illustrator Joanna Cook with her second in the series of The Wrenolds

 The "Wrenolds," a family of wrens, have survived a tornado and rebuilt their home just in time to celebrate Grandma's birthday.  

5-12 years.

This is the second story in the delightful and whimsical series about a bird community.  Join the cardinals, Sir Al and Alberta, the robins, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, and the elegant hummingbirds, Tony and Mary Hummingway, and others.  

See what happens when Jackie Wrenolds finds the perfect birthday gift for Grandma and the story takes a mysterious turn.

Children will delight in this charming story written from the perspective of birds - and learn something too!


Published by Mirror Publishing:  www.pagesofwonder.com Written/illustrations by Joanne Cook. 


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Grumpy Wombat Tania McCartney...

Riley and the Grumpy Wombat Blog Tour

Children and Travel

by 

Tania McCartney

I have a quiet obsession with travel. Of course, like most of us, I never do it often enough but I still feel grateful to have devoured some large and delicious slices of the world. One curious thing about travel is that its beauty and life-changing experiences are only heightened and intensified through sharing (a bit like slices of cake)… most especially when it comes to children.

In 2005, our young family was posted for Beijing for four years. My children were only aged two and four, and although I’d already lived and worked overseas, I must admit, I was daunted about taking my babies to live in Asia. China had always been an unknown entity to me – it had sort of slipped to the lower end of a very long Must-Visit list – and this is why it surprised no one more than me how quickly we stumbled and fell head-over-heels in love with this ancient and diverse country.

We simply adored our time in China, and it was truly some of the most enriching years of my life, not to mention that of my children. Our life in the capital inspired my very first children’s picture book – Riley and the Sleeping Dragon: A journey around Beijing. This book was originally a ‘project’ I wanted to create as a memento for our life in Beijing, but it soon grew into something more than that. After self-publishing and selling out of two print runs in bookstores across China, I was surprised and delighted when the book did so well upon our return home to Australia. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised – we are a nation of voyagers, after all.

For me, travelling with children is a priceless way to hone a vital psychological skillset in youngsters. Tolerance, understanding, openness, acceptance, courage, curiosity, self-confidence, awareness, a hunger for adventure – these are just some of the benefits of opening the world to kids.

My children, Ella and Riley (now 11 and 8) have travelled to eight different countries in their short years on earth, and never have I seen faster and deeper development in my children than both during- and post-travel. From the subconscious absorption of language and culture to the wide-eyed fascination of life so different to their own, through the mind-boggling flavours, scents and sounds experienced each time we voyage abroad… the educational and soul-stretching benefits of travel cannot be underestimated.

 

I have also noticed greater independence, less fear and more curiosity in my children since taking them abroad – and, most unexpectedly, a deeper love of both home and coming home. Travel most certainly instills a sense of self- and national-pride in our kids, and allows them to [so vitally] see just how good they have things here in Australia.

But travelling overseas is not the only way to broaden your children through travel. Voyaging interstate, to country towns or even to the other side of your city are ways we can embrace the concept of travel in children. Setting out on an adventure, whether it be to Paris or the local park, is not only exciting and great fun, it enhances spatial awareness and learning, invites problem-solving and planning, stretches mental and physical boundaries and – importantly – allows that priceless (and increasingly rare) one-on-one time between parent and child.

I never expected to morph Riley and the Sleeping Dragon into a series of books. It sort of happened naturally, especially when I witnessed the delight children experienced when reading the book out loud – whether it was in recognition of their home town of Beijing, revisiting the Beijing they once knew, or visiting Beijing for the very first time through the pages of a book.

The Riley series may be serious armchair travel in itself but it was important for me to embrace and encourage cultural and traditional elements in each book, to enhance the obvious visual elements. Not only can kids experience new places through black and white photos, they can also learn more about the unique idiosyncrasies of each destination in the Riley series through iconic words and images, metaphors and of course – the local faunal element each book introduces – a dragon for Beijing, a wombat for Melbourne, etc.

Not all children have the opportunity to travel far and wide but I feel passionately about offering every child the chance to travel through the pages of a book. If my Riley series can ignite the barest flicker of interest in foreign places… that will be enough for me.

As long as children love to explore, the Riley series will continue. And if I have to keep travelling to research each exciting new destination for Riley and his travelling team of critters, then I guess that’s just what I’ll have to do. Sigh. It’s a tough job. Paris, anyone?