Thursday, August 27, 2015

and with a great voice, Noffke keeps the pages turning with both ...



Roya Stark has just found out she's a Lucidite. Lucid can mean articulate, comprehensible, cogent, or bright and luminous. Either way the 16 year old understands she is vastly different from her Middling family. Sarah Noffke has created a brave, new world, where people flit in and out of dreams chasing villains that attack when a person is most vulnerable; when they sleep. Threatened with the destruction of her family, Roya must chose whether to trust the beings that are pulling her in a dangerous direction or allow herself to ignore their warnings. Either way, the outcome is dangerous and life threatening. Roya never belonged in her old life, but courageously chooses to forge ahead and find her place among the Lucidites where perhaps she will shine brighter than anyone else. Witty, and with a great voice, Noffke keeps the pages turning with both intrigue and excitement. A fun introduction to the endless horizon of our dreams.

Happy Reading!
Carole P. Roman

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Snapshot of lives



If you were to get on a magic carpet and fly past peoples homes and peer into their windows to catch a glimpse of their lives, then you would probably be reading On Your Own by Jonathan Miller. Fourteen short stories that are a slice of different time periods of American life. Touching, heart-felt and honest, they are tales about irony, broken dreams, broken hearts. Colorful, insightful, and real, Miller draws sepia toned pictures of life through the eyes of a child going to school the first day, the raw fear of separation, the primal love of his mother. Teen angst, dealing with the unfairness of life, or even the barrenness of existence, disappointment, or even the longing for a child challenged with learning problems to just be normal in her parent's eyes. I loved this book, the honesty and attention to detail to the innocuous, those small insignificant moments in time that shape and define us, without us even realizing it. A profound book that is deceptively simple because of it's sparse and unpretentious way of grabbing life and bringing the small moments into the spotlight.

Happy Reading,
Carole P. Roman

Monday, August 3, 2015

And The Finalists Are...



Three of my fiction books were selected as a ‘Children’s Fiction’ Finalists in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards. 

The Crew Goes Coconuts!: A Captain No Beard Story

The Treasure of Snake Island: A Captain No Beard Story 

Fribbet the Frog and the Tadpoles: A Captain No Beard Story

Each book is still in the running for the Outstanding ‘Children’s Fiction’ Category Winner! 






Five of my Non-fiction books were selected as a ‘Children’s Non-Fiction’ Finalists in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards. 

If You Were Me and Lived in... Scotland 

If You Were Me and Lived in... Greece 

If You Were Me and Lived in…Peru 

If You Were Me and Lived in…Turkey 

If You Were Me and Lived in…Russia

Each book is still in the running for the Outstanding ‘Children’s Non-Fiction’ Category Winner!  :)

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Comprehensive study of nineteen queens



Lisa Hilton has written a comprehensive study of nineteen queens of England spanning five hundred years. She identifies each wife of the reining monarch, then proceeds to describe the life, times, and political climate of the time period. Sometimes colorful and full of vivid pictures, other times confusing with the complicated bloodlines of the princesses, she does manage to build a detailed picture of the queens and their impact on the country. Hilton points out, "One picture of medieval woman, now thankfully dismissed, presents them as scarcely more than 'animated title deeds',". Hilton takes pains to prove that they were so much more. Educated, cultured, political, and savvy, they not only shaped an era, but a nation as well, paving the way for their own female descendants to literally embrace kingship and rule as effectively, and in some cases as ineffectively as their male ancestors.

Happy Reading!
Carole P. Roman