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DBR Books The Books Magazine August 2013

Read our weekly newspaper, DBR Book News Weekly!

DBR Books would like to hear all about your reading experience;

share with us on our Blog, and on Twitter!

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Read our weekly newspaper, DBR Book News Weekly!

DBR Books would like to hear all about your reading experience;

share with us on our Blog, and on Twitter!

In June’s issue of The Books Magazine, we highlighted the importance of having a summer reading list and doing it early. In this month’s issue, we want to keep you abreast of what’s on our sum-mer reading list and what we’re reading now. Remember your reading list can be comprised of: Start with Your WishList! We read An Ordinary Toad’s Extraordinary

Night by Joanne McGonagle, an endearing children’s illustrated book that found its way on our WishList!

Books outside your usual reading genre to catch up on your

quota for the 2013 Reading Challenge. Our read of Persuasion by Jane Austen is now our #10th challenge read!

Books you want to review or blog about. The Maid of Fairbourne

Hall by Julie Klassen is an absolute must-read that we wanted our read-ers to know about!

Also, check out our updated Summer Reading List on page 13. Feel free to take from our list and add to yours! Read to learn! Read for fun! Read! Happy Reading!

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O ur reviewed author Chanz’e Witcher was recently featured on CBN - 700 Club. All I Want,

written by Chanz’e Witcher and illustrated by Sherilyn Jones, is the first in her new series of spiritual empower-ment books for children ages 4 to 8. Recently, author and book were featured on CBN - 700 Club, and in her interview Witcher mentioned that when she was young she wanted to be an author, and

is happy that she is able to realize her long time dream and is glad to be ‘living it!’ Witcher attributes her recent success to God and the laws of reciprocity (sowing the seeds to reap success) and then “watch God show up in your life and really bless you beyond reason,” she says. “Give and it shall be given onto you.” Also, see our Interview with Witcher in which she speaks of her work and aspirations. All I Want has also been featured in The Dallas Weekly and interviewed by talk show host Dr. Lelitia Wright, on The Wright Place (TM) TV Show. The book was nominated for Book Design of the Year 2013; selected for The Hudson Book Festival; and Witcher nominated Los Angeles Book Festival Author of the Year 2013. Follow the progress of this new author plus get your own copy of All I Want on her website. [Article written by Children’s Book Examiner]

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“Children’s books can shine a

light of observation on the good

things in life and I want to be

apart of that.”

Illustrations for children’s books and graphic novels.

Graphics for business cards and posters.

Commissioned art work - portraits (humans & animals),

still life, & abstracts. Your idea, my artistic flair!

Phone: 607-427-3863 Email: aaronrayallanbennett@gmail.com

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1. What made you choose the dream

of a graphic artist and illustrator?

Well ... I have always enjoyed draw-

ing ever since I was young. I probably kept doing

it simply because I was good at it. To be honest

most of my motivation when I was younger was

the attention and admiration I got for being

talented. After high school, I was doing art for

other people but soon realized that I really did not

enjoy doing art just to impress. I wanted and

needed something more. Today I am pursuing

graphic art and illustration because I want a

creative career that speaks life into other people’s

lives. I want and need purpose. Children’s books

can shine a light of observation on the good

things in life and I want to be apart of that. Pur-

pose…now who does not want purpose? That’s

why I’m choosing this dream of art. God gives us

gifts and this is mine and I know there is a

purpose.

2. Your work is pretty outstanding, realis-

tic yet abstract when you want it to be!

What's your inspiration?

I would have to say my largest inspiration is

the people God has put in my life. My wife

Lorraine and all my family and friends. I

have been encouraged to pursue art professionally by so many people. I have a

real large cheering section and I’m thankful for all their support.

My inspiration really flows in the mornings and these are the most produc-

tive moments in my day. My joy truly comes in the morning. I put fresh contacts

in and sit on my front stoop with my coffee.

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The light shines through the trees and all the birds and squirrels are making their

morning sounds. It is very inspiring. I make my rounds watering my plants, my

new hobby this year. Tommy, our little “cat-boy” follows me around attacking

me from under the foliage of my potted plants. Typically after that my music

plays a large role in my morning creativity and I pray, sing, make up songs while

doing dishes and other household chores. My mornings are prime time for me.

Growing up my visual art inspiration was everywhere. I was inspired creatively

by the artwork of Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Mother Goose and Grimm, the

Peanuts. I also enjoyed the Disney movies of my time like Aladdin, Beauty and

the Beast, The Little Mermaid and I always was excited about Saturday morning

cartoons. This was when watching cartoons was a special privilege and very

much an exciting fun thing. Another source of inspiration was from instructional

art books. I can’t say I have ever read one all the way through but I have visually

soaked up many of them front to back or back to front whatever direction my

hands felt like flipping. The half drawn sketches and step by step visuals intrigued

me. I felt like I have absorbed techniques and approaches with my eyes more than

my mind.

Today I love going to galleries and shows, they are very inspiring. When I ride

my bike to work I sometimes take an alternate route so I can ride by a display

window that slowly rotates local talent. I still look at instructional books, now

they are more in depth than the ones I used to sign out at the town library as a kid.

3. I notice your drawings are pretty free form and linear, and although your

subject may be common your interpretation is far from common! How do

you manage to maintain such distinctiveness in your work?

I do have a real distinct style with my

ballpoint pen work. I feel my style has

developed over a period of time to

exactly what you described above. I

went through a time of being free from

what I thought things should look like

and what I slowly allowed myself to

let become. In other words, I stopped

forcing the image but instead allow an

image to be. When I’m drawing with

Ball point I have to work with every

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line that goes on the paper, and I have learned to accept things as they unfold. I

enjoy that more when I’m being abstract because I make marks when I’m flowing

that just find meaning over time. I used to have a note on my cork board that basi-

cally said “find more in what already is”. That line that you really were not mean-

ing to put there but out of passionately letting the pen fly, you made and because

it is “tied or weaved” with the rest there is continuity and you can find meaning

and purpose in it. It will become something if you don’t fight it.

4. You do very well in creating depth, and light and dark with your cross-

hatching technique? Is ink your favorite medium? If so, why?

Um…I don’t have a favorite between the two mediums I am currently using. I en-

joy both styles. One being the more cartooning style with color, and the black and

white ball point being the other. Both are fun. Well I guess it all depends on the

day and hour. My cartoon style with the Steadtler pigment liners and colorful

markers are more playful, so if I’m being more playful that day then that would

be the flavor of the moment but if I am rather moody, the clouds could collect and

circle round and I may just have to fly with my Bics.

5. If commissioned, would you be interested in working on graphic novels

too?

Yes. I would like to do graphic novels in which the illustrations are used to high-

light the important aspects of the story line. Graphic novels and children's book

illustrations are indeed challenging but I love that they compliment the story in

the most creative and imaginative way kids can appreciate.

6. What are you currently working on?

I, like most artists, have a whole slew of ideas and some in the works. I have

some commissioned pieces I’m working on now. I’m doing a Ballpoint pen draw-

ing of a former classmate’s pit bull. I am in the process of finishing a t-shirt

design for a local beer distributor. I have some more commission requests for

favorite animals and a memorable piece for a wedding dress. I have a show at a

local restaurant The Whole In the Wall on the First Friday Art walk this month.

My Mom is helping me get my art out to the public and showing a lot of my

pieces at events and shows. She has been very creative in finding more ways of

advertising my art for public viewing and display.

Link with the artist/illustrator on Facebook to view more of his work!

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DBR ‘s WISHLIST books for August 2013! Why not make them yours too?

Posie Pixie and The

Copper Kettle

by Sarah Hill

One More Candle

by Merry Susiarjo

Too Much Glue!

by Jason Lefebvre

The Mouse with the

Question Mark Tail

by Richard Peck

Friendship Troubles

by Patti Kelley

Criswell

Geronimo Stilton and The Volcano of Fire

A Scholastic Book

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The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall,

written by Julie Klassen, is

indeed an unusual, suspenseful

and intriguing story of a woman’s (Margaret

Macy) escape from her step-father’s plan to marry

her off to his dishonorable nephew. She left

London disguised as a housemaid and fled to rural

Maidstone where she landed her first job as a maid

in the home of non-other than Nathaniel

Upchurch, her former suitor! Now she must try to

keep her identity a secret until her next birthday, months away, to receive her

inheritance and her independence.

The main appeal to Klassen’s book The Maid of Fairbourne Hall is the detailing

of an entirely different and unique world - belowstairs. This world is usually cut-

off from the reader, but the book gives great insight and an up-close, unabridged

perspective of the world belowstairs - the servants’ perspectives of their own lives

and of their masters’, their ups and downs, contentions and personal relationships

with each other. As Margaret Macy, disguised as Nora Garret, fumbles her way

through servitude in the Upchurch household, readers can’t help but be intrigued

by the amount of secrets and information servants are privy to about their

masters, but yet are required to be mum and almost invisible about the things they

have seen and heard.

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task - as she herself struggled to com-

plete these same tasks. Her apprecia-

tion for those who had given their

lives to servitude grew and so did her

maturity.

It’s said that things don’t happen by

chance, there’s always a grand

purpose behind the scenes. One could

say that Margaret Macy’s situation,

disguised and working as a maid,

prepared her for marriage to the

mature and responsible Nathaniel

Upchurch. Now she was much differ-

ent from when Nathaniel had first pro-

posed to a very young, childish and

immature girl who had been selfish in

her intentions when she rejected his

first proposal.

This book is a great read. The plot and

characters are well-developed and the

scenes are beautifully written. The

Maid of Fairbourne Hall will

definitely not disappoint!

[The Maid of Fairbourne Hall was reviewed

by Books Examiner for Examiner.com.]

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall

by Julie Klassen

Paperback: 416 pages

Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

(January 1, 2012)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0764207091

ASIN: B00A18JGHE

Klassen successfully captured the es-

sence of life belowstairs and in the

discussion questions at the end of the

book, Klassen asked her readers “Did

anything surprise you about the life of

servants in the early 1800s?” The an-

swer would be yes.

Their movements and lives were not

really their own - everything was dic-

tated by and under the liability of their

masters.

Not only is the reader taken on an in-

triguing journey belowstairs, but Klas-

sen also kept the reader abreast of the

drama unfolding abovestairs. The

book allowed the reader to be able to

compare and contrast life between

both worlds, which were so vastly dif-

ferent for those involved, only because

their stations in life dictated it to be

so.

While the scenes unfold and the story

moves along, readers are also privy to

the transformation which quietly took

place in Margaret Macy. Due to the

temporary shift of her station in life,

Margaret became more sensitive to the

needs of servants and had come to the

realization of how important servants

were in the lives of their masters. The

question is asked “Does Margaret

change during the course of the novel,

and if so, how?” The answer would be

a resounding yes and readers see the

change. No longer did she take ser-

vants for granted, even in the slightest

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The Woman on the Bus by Dawnette Blackwood-

Rhoomes, is a short story of a girl's (Melissa) unexpected

encounter with a mysterious passenger and seat partner

on a bus heading toward Rhode Island.

"The bus buzzed to life as she watched a

well-dressed woman burst through the ter-

minal door, obviously fearful she was too

late. She had one piece of luggage, which

she carried unsteadily on her shoulder as she

lengthened her stride toward the bus door."

That day when she boarded the bus, she entered Melissa's life. As they journeyed

together, it became apparent that the woman on the bus was the last person Melissa

wanted to meet!

Title & Author: The Woman on the Bus by Dawnette Blackwood-Rhoomes

File Size: 98 KB Print Length: 13 pages

Publisher: DB-R Designs; 2 edition (June 2, 2011)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Lending: Enabled

ASIN: B00BHMHDCI

What if the person seated next to you was

the last person you’d ever want to see!

Now on Your Kindle!

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What We’re

Reading Now! In keeping with the 2013 Reading Challenge of reading outside our

usual genre, here’s a sneak peek of what we’re reading now!

The Inconvenient Duchess

by Christine Merrill

The Lightkeeper’s Ball by Col-

leen Coble

Ivy Secrets by Jean Stone

One Year in Coal Harbor by

Polly Horvath

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by

Julie Klassen

An Ordinary Toad’s Extraordi-

nary Night by Joanne McGonagle

Persuasion by Jane Austen

The Wedding Planner by

Stephanie Laurens

The Wish List by Gabi

Stephens

Sweet Salt Air by Barbara

Delinsky

The Language of Flowers by

Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Secret Zoo by Bryan

Chick

The Icecutter’s Daughter by

Tracie Peterson

DBR’s Summer

Reading List

Book Description:

Dear Cici and Father, I have come to Devon and married a duke. And I'm more tired and hungry than I have ever been in my

life. Please let me come home.

Compromised and wedded on the same day, Lady Miranda was fast finding married life not to her taste. A decaying manor and a secretive husband were hardly the stuff of girlish dreams. Yet every time she looked at

dark, brooding Marcus Radwell, Duke of Haughleigh, she felt inexplicably compelled—and determined—to make their marriage real!

Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Harlequin (October 1, 2006)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0373294212

ISBN-13: 978-0373294213

An absolutely great read so far!

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T here are times when even as humans we are not satisfied with

ourselves in the way we were made and sometimes we even go

as far as to wish we were different. Joanne McGonagle high-

lights this feeling of a toad’s dissatisfaction in her book An Ordinary

Toad’s Extraordinary Night.

Andrew, a young toad, wondered whether his life would be more inter-

esting if he had been hatched a frog. He embarks on a journey to his

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grandfather’s house in his quest to seek the wise old toad’s advice. As

Andrew hopped along, he met a slew of nocturnal animals of the forest,

each causing him to realize that toads are indeed special creatures.

This book highlights the differences between frogs and toads in a

delightful, story-telling way that is not only informative but also

provides a fun way to learn a lot of important information. Teachers

and parents will definitely appreciate the list of comparisons between

frogs and toads as Andrew’s grand-pa reads off the differences between

both amphibians and how they use these differences to maximize their

survival skills. Teachers can use this as a spring board to develop their

teaching plan on diversity in both animals and humans.

The book also touches on lessons in prejudice and bullying. I like that

the book teaches that we are all specially made and that we should

appreciate each other’s differences as they are the key to making each

species unique in its own right.

A well-illustrated and informative book, An Ordinary Toad’s Extraor-

dinary Night will be one of those books that won’t gather dust on your

shelf!

[This Book Review was written by NY Poetry Examiner, a frequent contributor to The

Books Magazine.]

An Ordinary Toad’s Extraordinary Night by Joanne McGonagle

Paperback: 78 pages

Publisher: Ainsley Press (May 17, 2013)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0989008800

ISBN-13: 978-0989008808

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b00k r3vi3ws invites you to

participate in its 2013 Reading Book

Challenge!

So you want to read books by

authors you’ve never read before?

Well here’s your chance to do it!

Then here's what you need to know about b00k r3vi3ws 2013 Reading Challenge:

1. Read as many books as possible, by authors that YOU haven't read before.

2. You do not have to be a blogger to participate.

3. Books read may be any form (audio, print, e-book).

4. The books can overlap with other reading challenges.

5. Post your links to your reviews each month to share with other participants.

6. The challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 1, 2013. Its never too

late to Join In!

Challenge Levels are: Amateur : Choose to read 1 - 10 New Authors

Lover : Choose to read 11 - 20 New Authors

Expert : Choose to read 20 - 25 New Authors

Fanatic : Choose to read 25 or above New Authors

To know more about this Reading Challenge and to join in with countless readers

and authors, sign up for free on b00k r3vi3ws website and begin today!

2013 Reading Challenge

Join in the FUN!

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Reading Challenge Books you might be

interested in!

O You Have No Idea by Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams

O The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriar ty

O Coming Clean A Memoir

by Kimberly Rae Miller

O The Proverbs 31 Project Kindle Edition

by Melissa Calloway

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DBR Books The Books Magazine August 2013

Here is a list of newly released books to keep your kids busy! These are now available in our local libraries nationwide or anywhere books are sold:

For Ages 8 to 12:

1. DORK Diaries: OMG! All About Me Diary by Rachel Renée Russell

2. Leon’s Share: The Young Conquerors Book 1 by Mabel Singletary

3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

4. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

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For Ages 3 to 7:

5. Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses by James and Kimberly Dean

6. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

7. Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton

DBR Books The Books Magazine August 2013

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A Note to Children’s books and YA fiction Authors:

DBR Books reviews children’s and YA fiction books, which are featured in our magazine.

Reviews are done by the Children’s Book Examiner for Examiner.com.

Do you have a recently published book in this genre and

would like a free review? Then contact us at: Editor at dbrdesigns1@gmail.com

ADVERTISE WITH US!

Are you an author or an illustrator? You can now advertise your books, illustrations, and websites with our

online source for books - The Books Magazine!

For our upcoming issues you can advertise with us and you'll receive a full page ad!

Ask how you can receive this offer! Email us at

dbrdesigns1@gmail.com

DBR Books The Books Magazine

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