EXCERPT:

Join everyone’s favorite hippo, Fiona, and all her loveable animal friends for their first heartwarming Christmas adventure through the zoo to find the answer to the question, “What’s Christmas?” This fun and whimsical book is the perfect read-aloud for fans of Fiona (and hippos) everywhere!

A follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Fiona the Hippo picture book comes A Very Fiona Christmas!

It’s Fiona the hippo’s very first Christmas, and the zoo is sparkling with holiday spirit. When the adorable little hippo asks her friends, “What’s Christmas?” they set out to show her all the wonders and excitement of the season. With each new experience Fiona lets out a snort, wiggles her ears, and asks, “Is THIS Christmas?”

Amidst the snow, twinkling lights, mistletoe, and stockings, Fiona ends up meeting a new friend at the zoo who helps her discover the true meaning of the holiday: Love. Snuggle up with your little ones and join Fiona and her adorable animal friends for a heartwarming holiday romp through the zoo. 

By arranging a few rocks together an entire story can be told. A Savior Is Born, Rocks Tell the Story of Christmas, created by Patti Rokus, is an unforgettable picture book that uses majestic rock art and simple yet powerful text to inspire wonder and awe as the miracle of Christmas unfolds across the pages. Readers will be absorbed in the nature-filled artwork that shows the birth of Jesus and the celebration of the very first Christmas in a powerful and unique way.

The Christmas story you haven’t read: What happens after Santa Claus delivers all the Christmas presents to boys and girls around the world?

Is there a gift waiting for Santa at the North Pole? Cuddle up with your little ones and follow the journey through Santa’s Workshop in search of Santa’s Christmas present. With bright and whimsical illustrations, this new take on the Christmas story is sure to become the newest addition to your holiday reading tradition—especially at bedtime!

Has Mrs. Claus forgotten Santa on Christmas Eve? He searches and searches their cozy North Pole home until he finds homemade gifts waiting for him next to a beautiful handwritten note. But what does it say?

This sweet Christmas book, written by J. Theron Elkins and illustrated by Ag Jatkowska, will become a holiday favorite as children cuddle up with their parents to read this wonderful story of love and gratitude before they close their eyes to go to sleep.

Gather you family together and join in as Mama, Papa, Brother, Sister, and Honey Bear venture out together in the snowy, cold night and go door to door in Bear Country singing Christmas carols.

The Berenstain Bears Go Christmas Caroling also includes 4 postcards and a holiday door hanger!

In The Berenstain Bears Go Christmas Caroling, the whole Bear family is invited by the Bear Country Carolers for a round of Christmas Eve celebrations … and your whole family is invited to sing along!

This fun new book in the popular Zonderkidz Living Lights: A Faith Story series—beloved by parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren alike—will earn a quick spot on your child’s bookshelf. You and your children will want to read and sing along together again and again as the kid-friendly text and easy-to-read, easy-to-remember song lyrics teach valuable life lessons, encourage discussion, and take you down memory lane with each subsequent reading. The Berenstain Bears Go Christmas Caroling also includes 4 punch-out postcards and a festive holiday door hanger!

Thank you for hosting me on your blog for this blog tour, Kate. I'm thrilled to share my favorite aspect of writing this story with your readers.

My favorite aspect of writing RES-Q Tyler Stop is that I have fulfilled a dream.  I've wanted to write a middle-grade novel for the past few years. My other three published works are all in the inspirational romance genre for adults. While I still enjoy writing for adults, I really wanted to work on a historical adventure novel for children.

I was blessed to be a teacher for twenty years plus one year of student teaching. The majority of my career I taught first grade, but I also had the opportunity to teach Kindergarten, second, third, and fourth grades. I was a literacy mentor at my school site for three years which meant I went through additional training in how to teach reading, phonics, spelling, and writing to students. It also meant I trained other teachers and parents using those effective teaching techniques so they could better assist their students and children.

A few years ago when it occurred to me I was being led to write a children's book. I began reading middle-grade novels like crazy, especially historical novels. I reread a lot of books I had enjoyed as a young reader such as the Laura Ingalls Wilder 'Little House' series, 'The Boxcar Children' series, Beverly Cleary's Ramona and Beezus books, 'My Side of the Mountain', the Trixie Belden mysteries, and many more. I discovered some new-to-me authors of historical middle-grade fiction whose work I greatly admire such as Lauren Wolk, Kate DiCamillo, and Kirby Larson. These books inspired me and increased my ambition to write in this genre.

After a few false starts with this manuscript such as making it a contemporary family story then changing it to an inspirational romance, I hit upon the 'write' {please pardon the pun} formula. The story came together quickly when I set the book in the summer of 1968 in Sonoma County in Northern California and wrote to an audience of middle-grade readers.

It was important to me to include many cultural aspects of California history in the book along with some pop culture references of the late 1960s. I enjoyed writing about children who did not have electronics and technology to entertain them. Instead I focused on the ways in which the main characters made their own fun and worked together to overcome challenges. The brother and sister in this book see a need in their community and they work diligently to fill it. Weston and Wendy feel the internal reward humans feel when they have performed a good deed without expecting anything in return for their kindness.

It is my genuine hope that this story will inspire young readers to reach outside of their own comfort zones to do something to help their community, someone in need, animals, or our earth. 

• $20 Amazon gift card (US/International)
• Signed Paperback Copy of RES-Q Tyler Stop (US only) or Digital Copy (International)