We read for enjoyment, but literature plays an important role in human development, and one of those roles is teaching us about being a good friend. When we read, we live vicariously through the characters, we observe the way they respond to situations and think about how we would respond faced with the same stimuli. In that way, books are a little like flight simulators. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Colin Bootman
Charlie Sand Giveaway
Best friends Sirus and Bubba fit together like salt fish and bakes. That is until Charlie Sand moves into town. All of a sudden Bubba is having adventures with his new friend and Sirus doesn’t fit in. Can he find a way to share Bubba’s friendship with Charlie Sand?
Set in Trinidad and aimed at children aged 6-10, the Blessing of Charlie Sand is a heart-warming story of friendship author, Amanda Smyth and illustrated by Colin Bootman.
Praise for The Blessing of Charlie Sand
“Kids will love both story and pictures in this warm tale of friendship and magic.” —Olive Senior, author of Anna Carries Water and many other titles.
“The Blessing of Charlie Sand will inspire children to trust in the wisdom that comes from both beyond and within. The emotionally measured text and the immediacy of Bootman’s understated illustrations draw the reader in.” —Summer Edward, children’s book editor and founder of Anansesem
Amanda Smyth is Irish-Trinidadian. Her award winning first novel, Black Rock (Serpent’s Tail), was chosen for Oprah’s Summer Reads for 2009. Amanda’s second novel, A Kind of Eden was published in July 2013. She teaches Creative Writing at Arvon and Skyros. The Blessing of Charlie Sand is her first children’s book.
Colin Bootman is the Trinidadian illustrator of many children’s books and the recipient of the 2004 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for his illustration of Almost to Freedom, written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Enter to win a free copy of this book. The second edition of The Blessing of Charlie Sand will be on sale on March 16.
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Free Stuff!
Publishers make mistakes. My daughter takes great pride in pointing out errors in the books that she reads and there are many, regardless of whether the book is published by large, medium, or small presses. I won’t get into the fact that small presses are held to a much higher standard than large ones so even the most minute of errors are highlighted as an indication of ineptitude. This post is not about that particular soapbox.
We have made errors at CaribbeanReads, not many, but they have existed. I remember publishing my first book, Adventure at Brimstone Hill and going back and forth with the printers about having a spine on the book although it was less than 100 pages. I was so focused on the existence of the spine that I did not notice a spelling error on it until after the first run.
Luckily there has not been anything quite as dramatic since, or at least none that we care to mention. That is up until the publication of The Blessing of Charlie Sand. We loved this story by Amanda Smyth right away, hunted down and hired the incredibly talented illustrator, Colin Bootman to do the illustrations, but for various reasons the execution of the first edition was not up to our usually high standards.
My dad used to tell the story of a Mercedes Benz breaking down and Mercedes replacing the car immediately and disavowing any knowledge of the incident whatsoever. We would love to do the same. We will be releasing the second edition of Charlie Sand in a few days, replacing all book store copies of the first edition, and obliterating the memory of edition one.
So, what about the free stuff? We’ll be hosting a giveaway in March for Charlie Sand. All you have to do is enter the contest, visit our FaceBook page and you will be entered to win a copy of the book. The giveaway starts on March 1 so keep a look out for more information.
Filed under Caribbean Lit News This Week