#Review by Lou of Bibi Saves the Ocean @judithewa_author @LoveBooksTours #LBTTour #LBTKids #ChildrensBook #PictureBook #Ocean #BibiSavesTheOcean

Bibi Saves the Ocean
By Judith Ewa

Review by Louise Cannon

Saving the ocean is a hot topic and here it is packaged into an entertaining picture book story, just in time for the sunnier, better weather is on the horizon.
Find out more in the blurb and then my review below.

Blurb

Clever, resourceful, and bighearted! When this little girl discovers nature has taken a beating, can she use her head to rescue the day?

Bibi loves the beautiful world. Hitting the beach with her two best friends, the joyful nine-year-old can’t wait to have fun in the sun, surf, and sand. But she’s shocked when the pristine playground she was expecting is covered in garbage.

Determined to solve the mystery, the conscientious child discovers the recycling area is hidden, the no-littering signs are faded, and the trash bins are neglected. But with a job so big, she fears rolling up her sleeves and getting her hands dirty won’t be enough to set things right.

Can Bibi recruit her community to jump in and turn the dump into a paradise?

Bibi Saves the Ocean is the heartwarming second book in the Preserve the Planet Series of children’s picture books. If you or your young reader like protecting the environment, working together for the good of all, and discussing the power of caring for the Earth, then you’ll love Judith A. Ewa’s illustrated tale of hope.

Buy Bibi Saves the Ocean to be part of the solution today!

Review

Bibi is just a normal child. She loves hanging out with her friends. On this occasion their chosen destination is the beach and they have a fun-filled day planned. What she hadn’t banked on is that their day will be ruined by other people’s rubbish scattered across what should have been a pristine beach of golden sands and blue sea. Bibi and her friends go on an adventure around to see what needs improvement and discover how to get the community involved in cleaning it up, so it can be a beach people can use responsibly again.

Bibi Saves the Ocean is poignant and relevant. It’s as emotional as it is fun with a good plot line. The author manages to get the point across about the ocean and beaches needing to be clean and recycling your litter without it being overly preachy, which is clever. The illustrations are punchy and fun as well, that get across the story, well. The book also shows team work and what can be achieved when we work together for a cause and how much fun can be had on a beach when it’s clean.

It sits well with similar books that are about the environment and taking manageable action, being aware of the environment and aware of our own actions.

About the Author

Judith A. Ewa is the award-winning author of the new children’s book Bibi Saves the Ocean. Her international career as a finance professional, currently working in the area of climate change, has spanned the areas of humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and peacekeeping. The focus of her career has been on improving the lives of children around the world, especially in developing countries. Her latest work is the second book in the Preserve the Planet Series. Through her books she aims to bring awareness to children about the importance of preserving the environment. Each book also offers a simple solution that children can actively carry out to bring about small changes today, to make a big difference tomorrow. Judith holds an MBA from the University of Leicester. She enjoys listening to jazz, is an avid football and tennis fan who currently resides in Switzerland. Find out more about Judith at www.judithaewa.com

#Review By Lou of War of the Wind @NeemTreePress #TheWriteReads #BlogTour #YoungAdult #MiddleGrade #EcoThriller

War of the Wind
By Victoria Williamson

Eco-Thriller with neuro-diverse characters, War of the Wind has energy to it that sweeps you away into its locale to find out what’s mysteriously happening on the Scottish island. Crossing Middle Grade and YA, War of the Wind is good for 11 to 15 year olds, although ages above this will also get something from the characterisation and vibe.

Find out more in the blurb and my thoughts in my review below.
Discover more about the author who also works for widely known and used, education company Twinkl, her other books. For schools, there is also a link to free education resources and to request a school visit.
Thanks to The Write Reads for the blog tour invite and book.

Blurb

AN ADVENTUROUS ECO-THRILLER FROM AWARD-WINNING CHILDREN’S AUTHOR VICTORIA WILLIAMSON

On a remote Scottish island, fourteen-year-old Max’s life changes forever when he loses his hearing in a boating accident. Struggling to make sense of his new life and finding it hard to adapt in school, he begins to notice other — even stranger — changes taking place when a new wind farm appears off the island’s coast.

With the help of three school friends with additional support needs, Max discovers that a sinister scientist, Doctor Ashwood, is using wind turbines to experiment on the islanders. They must find a way to shut down the government’s secret test before it spins out of control…

Review

Set on a remote Scottish Island that is surprisingly inhabited by humans as its a tough terrain and is so cut off from the rest of the world, it doesn’t even have internet. No one has even installed anything like that for their own use, like I saw someone miraculously get onto the net in factual programme: Ben Fogle’s programme, New Lives In The Wild.

Life is precious and not to be taken for granted. 14 year old, Max, had it all ie a normal, healthy life, until he was involved in a boat accident and lost his hearing. He has 3 friends who also have additional support needs. Each are portrayed fairly accurately for the higher functioning end of spectrums. For Max’s character, it is good that struggles are portrayed in adapting to a different type of life as opposed to gone deaf and gets on with things. Readers will gain a sense of either themselves or empathy and understanding as well as it being more realistic.

As other senses sharpen and Max gets more curious about what’s going on about him, he notices a new company has moved in and is erecting wind turbines just off the island’s coast and there are scientists too. Science, of course has many advantages, but some scientists and some science is not all good as Max and his friends are about to find out. This is where the mystery really begins and the book becomes more captivating as weird experiments are carried out on the islanders, using the wind turbines to see how they react and what happens and you discover what Doctor Ashford’s motives are and what he hopes to achieve…
It has a sinister vibe to it that keeps you wanting to know how it will all end.

About the Author

Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.

Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.

Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore. Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.

You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and free resources for schools on her website: www.strangelymagical.com

Hedgy-A and the Honey Bees by Ryan Mizzen @ryan_mizzen #Bookreview by Lou #ChildrensBook

Hedgy-A and the Honey Bees
By Ryan Mizzen
Illustrated by Paul Winward
Rated: 4 stars ****

Hedgy-A and the Honey Bee by Ryan Mizzen, is a charming book that has an important environmental message which is written well for 5-7 year old children. It has great rhythm to its story-telling rhyme, which really captures children of these ages and has a good energy to it as well as some humour. Check out more in the blurb and review, then find out more about the author and how he has become quite a man of influence in matters of the environment. Find out why he has decided to write a book for the 5-7 years old range in a section below as well and why he is writing, what is The Time To Care Series of which this is book 1. Each further book will have a different character and ecological issue being addressed in story form in a way that has been written through being inspired by Julia Donaldson.
You can also discover a bit more about the illustrator, who has delightful pictures to entice children in and bring the story alive. You will also find buy links too.

I thank Ryan Mizzen for contacting me via my Contact Me part of my blog and for sending me, at first a PDF copy of Hedgy – A and the Honey Bees and then one of his “author copies” amongst his busy keyworking schedule.

Blurb

“We have to do something before its’ too late,
To help save the bees from a horrible fate”

One day – Hedgy-A is visited by his friend Brizzy the honey bee. Hedgy-A learns that honey bees are becoming sick because chemicals called pesticides are being used on plants. But he knows just what to do and sets off for London to see the Queen, who he hopes can save the bees!

Link to purchase: Amazon
Libraries can order from Ingram Spark

Review

Hedgy-A is a very cute hedgehog who lives beneath a beehive in this lovely rhyming book with beautiful illustrations of Hedgy – A and his friends and surroundings. The book gently encourages kindness and helping others. It is also about how bees make their honey and the impact the environment created by human’s, including farmers have on them. Hedgy – A wants to save the bees and travelling off to London, he visits in hunt of the Queen to tell her what is going on and to ask for her help to also save the day for the bees. It becomes fun, but also really packs a punch as it draws young children to the realities of what is happening.

You of course don’t need to see The Queen to help the bees, but it does all however create a very fun and inspired story that has a healthy helping of passion and strength of character at its heart that shows working together and caring can help make a postive impact in what is a lively story.

This is a book that schools and parents/caregivers alike can use well with their 5-7 year old children. It has enough to entertain and feed their curiosity about the natural world as it delivers an important message.

A note from the author:

What’s unique about the story and why did I write it?

This story is unique in the sense that it is drawing attention to pesticide use for a younger audience,
who will inherit the world we leave behind. Bees are crucial to our food supply and their numbers
have drastically plummeted in recent years, raising massive concerns. Research has shown that this
is linked to pesticides and neonicotinoids, some of which are banned in the EU, but still available
elsewhere. Meanwhile the UN has shown that it’s possible to eliminate pesticide use and still
produce high yields of crops with other measures. But the pesticide companies have formed a strong
lobby group and have no intention of stopping production.

About the Author

www.ryanmizzen.com

Ryan is a Children’s Book Author. He holds a First Class BSc in Climate Change (Hons) from Coventry
University and a Distinction in an MA in Creative Writing (via Distance Learning) from Teesside
University. He has also completed online writing courses with Oxford University and the University
of East Anglia.
In 2018, Ryan was named as an Environmental Changemaker, following on from the UN Young
Champions of the Earth competition, where he proposed using fiction as a form of science
communication to spread awareness about the climate crisis to a wider audience. Prior to which, he
worked in the energy efficiency and offshore wind industries for four years.
He’s had climate change articles published by The Independent, Africa Geographic, Thomson Reuters
Foundation, The South African and he’s been interviewed about sustainability by Thrive Global. He’s
also written for outlets including IKSurfMag, Kiteworld Magazine, Age UK, The Writing Cooperative
and Holistic Health Magazine amongst others. His other interviews appear in the Huffington Post
and Authority Magazine.
His debut self-published picture book, Hedgey-A and the Honey Bees is now available using the buy link – Amazon
“A person of great influence.” – Thrive Global

About The Illustrator

www.paulwinwardillustration.com
Paul has over 30 years’ experience working in advertising and in a freelance capacity. He is an
illustrator with extensive experience designing books, e-books, logos and illustrations for websites.
Some of his other illustrated books include The Three Detectives, Kob the Antelope, Snowflake’s
Adventure on Mount Lifelong, The Journey to River Rose, and 1,2, Think!

Aunt Jodie’s Guide to Evolution by Jordan Bell #ChildrensBook #Kidslit #NonFiction #parents #school

Aunt Jodie’s Guide to Evolution
By Jordan Bell
Rated: 5 stars *****

Sent to me all the way from Australia, by the author Jordan Bell, I present this lovely and well-written and illustrated book about basic evolution for children. Thanks to Jordan Bell for getting in touch on my contact page, asking me to review it for her.

Blurb

Are you ready for an amazing science adventure? Join Sophie and Matt as Aunt Jodie takes you on an imagination expanding journey back in time. Learn about evolution in two different species, millions of years apart: the Plesiads, ancient lemur-like creatures from 55 million years ago, and colour changing Peppered Moths from the 1800s. What happens to the Plesiads when a volcano erupts? How do moths survive when their camoflage stops working? Discover the secrets that help all creatures transform and develop when big changees happen in the world around them.

Review

Meet Sophie and Matt and their Aunt Jodie in this beautifully produced chapter book. It’s an easy guide into Darwin for children, in story format, with great illustrations. The book is all about Darwins theories and science. It fits well into STEM.

In basic terms it walks children through Darwin’s theories of selection processes, giving, in story form, examples, through adventure with the plesaids (ancient lemurs). It also takes a journey to a volcano, where children are almost prompted to think about climate and about groups of animals as well as cause and effect. The book does it in such an easy, natural way and in a way that children will be able to understand.

The adventure with the intrepid explorers then jumps forward in time to the Industrial Revolution and how changes like that correlate with changes within evolution. Now the plesaids have been left behind, further into the past, a peppered moth emerges and its natural biology and science.

The tone of the book is just right for upper primary school/middle grade children. It’s pitched perfectly well, with the characters and the facts interacting and intertwining with each other. There’s an intense curiosity from the children within the book, that may spark curiosity within the children reading it. There is a great glossary at the back of the book that explains the words, some children may not be familiar with yet. The glossary is well produced and in such a way that I feel will aid children well enough.

The book would sit well in schools, school libraries, public/community libraries and bookshops.

#Review of Betrayal by Adam Croft and Steven Moore @AdamCroft #StevenMooreAuthor #CrimeFiction #PoliticalThriller #Thriller #ReadingCommunity #WritingCommunity #NewBook

Betrayal
By Adam Croft and Steven Moore
Rated: 4.5 stars

I am delighted to be reviewing again for Adam Croft, after receiving an email from his wife Joanne Croft. This time I return to the writings of Adam Croft and Steven Moore in their political thriller series, featuring the detective Sam Barker (the first being Absolution, which is a gripping read). They do act as stand-alone too. I thank Adam and Joanne Croft for inviting me to review again and for providing me with a book.

Blurb

In Edinburgh, the British Prime Minister prepares to launch a worldwide project to tackle climate change. But there’s a far more sinister motivation behind her plans.

After successfully thwarting a terrorist attack in London a few months earlier, Sam Barker is tasked with investigating a scheme which will turn his life — and the world — upside down.

As he delves deeper into the network of players, Sam uncovers a conspiracy which leads to the one person he loves the most — his son.

But in revealing the facts, Sam risks flushing out a far more sinister, unknown enemy — a rogue agent inside The Firm who will stop at nothing to stop Sam from exposing the truth.

Review

Sell your land! Promise of a better life! Promise of an exciting job! Hidden Secrets, Betrayed!
That’s what Obefemi’s family is confronted with. Obafemi is promised – a new life in Dubai, with a job to build a geothermal plant with Mr Riley. Not all is as it should have been. There lies a secret within the company.

The setting is between Sub-Saharan Africa and Edinburgh, Scotland, which is wanting greener energy and to do deals with the company EcoHope and have the treaty, which would include them, all signed off at the climate change summit. This is incredibly current as this is what is happening in Scotland. Locations, names and groups have been changed, but the fact that is cleverly weaved through the fiction is all there and is recognisable. There are a few real people mentioned, such a Greta Thunberg, Emma Thompson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, all in context of climate change activism on the grander scale and the good that they had been doing, sort of a bit of a nod to them.

Sam Barker is then invited to re-locate from London to Edinburgh, which he is delighted about as his son Benji lives there. Early on I also get the feeling Sam Barker is in for an education about Scotland to debunk the myths he believes about the country. It really doesn’t always rain in Scotland and as I write this, it is dry, although the week before, there were hailstones and that’s a whole other thing. I’m expecting glorious sunshine this weekend, just like last. Back to the book…

Bridget Hazelwood is the new PM fronting the summit at Edinburgh Castle and all eyes or on it and climate change activist group Eyes on Extinction as well as green energy group EcoHope. They have a darker streak, threading its way through all the eco-friendly mantra that’s got them to the summit and to be the company that’s the player in the treaty. Professor Mctavish also seems to know more than he is letting on. It’s the curiosity and the entire plausibility of companies that may be unscrupulous that keeps the need to read further, going. There is also a death and the killer could be one of the climate change activists or someone connected to EcoHope. The further and deeper Sam Barker investigates, the more the book picks up pace, the more gripping it becomes.
As the investigation takes Sam around Edinburgh, readers will get a good sense of the city and some of the geography of it. I found myself being just a bit impressed by what was included. For readers of my blog, who don’t know, I do actually live in Scotland and under normal circumstances, I visit this city.

Sam and colleagues also have a real need to keep Benji (Sam’s son) safe as there’s a real threat something could happen to him. It just adds to the twists within this story even more.

Adam Croft and Steven Moore have brought a very-well observed, current climate situation to life in this book with flair and shows all the murky sides, as well as the good.

About the Author

With almost two million books sold to date, Adam Croft is one of the most successful independently published authors in the world, and one of the biggest selling authors of the past few years, having sold books in over 120 different countries.

His 2015 worldwide bestseller Her Last Tomorrow became one of the bestselling books of the year, reaching the top 10 in the overall Amazon Kindle chart and peaking at number 12 in the combined paperback fiction and non-fiction chart.

His Knight & Culverhouse crime thriller series has seen huge popularity worldwide, with his Kempston Hardwick mystery books being adapted as audio plays starring some of the biggest names in British TV.

In 2016, the Knight & Culverhouse Box Set reached storewide number 1 in Canada, knocking J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child off the top spot only weeks after Her Last Tomorrow was also number 1 in Canada. The new edition of Her Last Tomorrow also reached storewide number 1 in Australia over Christmas 2016.

During the summer of 2016, two of Adam’s books hit the USA Today bestseller list only weeks apart, making them two of the most-purchased books in the United States over the summer.

In February 2017, Only The Truth became a worldwide bestseller, reaching storewide number 1 at both Amazon US and Amazon UK, making it the bestselling book in the world at that moment in time. The same day, Amazon’s overall Author Rankings placed Adam as the most widely read author in the world, with J.K. Rowling in second place.

In January 2018, Adam’s bestselling book to date, Tell Me I’m Wrong became a worldwide bestseller and quickly went on to outsell Her Last Tomorrow.

Adam has been featured on BBC television, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, the BBC World Service, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Bookseller and a number of other news and media outlets.

In March 2018, Adam was conferred as an Honorary Doctor of Arts, the highest academic qualification in the UK, by the University of Bedfordshire in recognition of his services to literature.

Adam presents the regular crime fiction podcast Partners in Crime with fellow bestselling author Robert Daws.

Click below for links to websites:
Adam Croft Website

Partners in Crime

Steven Moore Website

Steven Moore

Steven hails from the south east of England, where he grew up (the jury’s still out) surrounded by the North Sea on one side and the Norfolk broads on the other.

As well as writing fction, Steven is an amateur painter and photographer, though his frst love is the great outdoors.
Restless and unfulflled by his late teens, the travel bug bit early, and to date Steven has lived and worked on fve continents and has visited close to sixty countries, combining that age-old writing adage with his own mantra: ‘Write not onlywhat you know, but where you know.’

A late entry into further education yielded a degree in Anthropology, Archaeology and Art History, and those disciplines, as well as the travelling and the endless adventures, all feature prominently in Steven’s bestselling action thriller series featuring Hiram Kane.

When not on the road with his travel-writer wife Leslie,
they call San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, home, where they live
with their two cats, Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald
(Ernie & Fitz).

You can find more of Steven’s books at: stevenmooreauthor.com

Feasible Planet by Ken Kroes @ken_kroes #Lovebookstour @Lovebooksgoup #Environment #EnvironmentalBook #Climate #BookBlitz #NonFiction #BlogTour

Feasible Planet
By Ken Kroes

Today I am on a quick blog tour for a book blitz. The quickest blog yet, to inform you of a new book – Feasible Planet. Check out about the author and then head on further down to the page to the blurb to find out what it’s all about. If you like Non-Fiction and are also concerned about the planet, this just could be the book for you. So, go ahead and check it out!

About The Author

Ken Kroes is the author of the Percipience Eco-Fiction Series and the non-fiction books, Feasible Planet and Feasible Living. He is passionate about our relationship with our planet and applies his diverse background which includes agriculture, mechanical engineering and information systems into his writing. Born in Calgary, Canada he has bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and has had the pleasure of living in many locations in North America and has travelled extensively.

He can be reached on Ken@feasibleplanet.com

Blurb

Are we doing enough?

Are you concerned about the state of our planet and hope that governments and corporations will find a sustainable way for us to live? If you do not think about it too hard, that may work, but will it? Left on their own, with drivers of popularity and profits, I am not too convinced that it will.

The missing part of this equation is you and me. Individuals who believe that corporations and governments can do better. Individuals who believe that through action, we can buy a bit more time to develop and implement solutions to our critical issues.

Did I hear a groan out there when you read the word ‘actions’? Do not worry! Most of the actions that I am referring to will not only help save the planet, but will benefit you right away through saving money, time, better health, and having a happier life in general.

Sustainability goes beyond controlling our consumption and pollution. There are key social, political, and economic areas that need to be addressed as well, and there are several steps that individuals can take to help in these areas.

For those of you who feel we could do more, this book is for you and is loaded with actionable activities, the reasons for doing them, and explores why we are not doing them already.

Every journey starts with a first step. Hopefully, this book will lead to those first sustainable steps and that will change the world.

*Thanks to Kelly for inviting me to show you what this book has to offer and I hope that all my readers are well. Take care.