Daddy, Can You See the Moon? A Review and Picture Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Vijaya Bodach who won ONE WEEK OF YOU from last week's blog and to Gretchen Griffith who won A SONG FOR GWENDOLYN BROOKS. 

In Daddy Can You See the Moon? (Spork, 2019) a well-written and beautifully illustrated picture book, author, Gayle Krause, sensitively portrays one of war’s harsh realities: a soldier’s devastating injury. 

Krause's rhymes and Carlos de la Garza's illustrations, demonstrate three constants in the story: the moon, love, and courage. Before he leaves to serve, the father says: 

Though I'll be gone 

I have a way 

For us to share 

Part of each day.

At bedtime,  

Look up at the moon 

And I will too. 

I'll be home soon. 

While his father is away, the little boy counts the days and six full moons pass. Until the day his mother hears alarming news:

She sets down her coffee mug and wraps me in a giant hug.

I wipe her tears, and ask, "What's wrong?"

She answers "Son, you must be strong."

Daddy stepped on unsafe ground. His legs were hurt when he was found.

That night the boy looks out his window and fearfully wonders, 

“Daddy...can you see the moon 

Marching in a dream platoon?”

You're marking time at Soldier's Gate 

But I hope that you can wait. 

cause Baby, Ricky, Mom and me, 

We need you in our family.

His father comes home and the little boy helps his father rehabilitate. Courage—is shown, not told--through the text and illustrations. 

Reminiscent of one of my favorite picture books, I’ll Love you Forever, the book goes full circle ending with the boy having grown up and now a soldier looking at the moon. He holds his father’s picture while his father—back home—gazes at the moon too. 

See Kathleen Temean's blog for more information on Gayle's book journey. 

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate her book birthday tomorrow, April 9th, and in conjunction with the Month of the Military Child, Gayle is giving away an autographed copy of Daddy, Can You See the Moon? Leave me a comment by April 11 (with your email address if you are new to my blog) and I'll enter your name. If you have a family member in the military or plan to give this to a child whose parent is in the military, I'll enter your name twice. 

Twice Betrayed: A Cover Reveal and ARC Giveaway!

I'm honored to share a cover reveal for a tween book that will be released next month. TWICE BETRAYED, by my fellow Highlights Summer Camp participant, Gayle Krause, will be available on March 28th from Trowbridge Books.

Isn't this a gorgeous cover?

Here's the blurb for the book:

The thread of friendship is stretched to the breaking point…

With the spark of independence crackling in Colonial Philadelphia, 

Perdy Rogers chafes under the strict rule of her Quaker grandmother and the endless duties of her apprenticeship in Betsy Ross’s upholstery shop. So when her best friend shares a secret and invites Perdy to help plan an elopement, she’s thrilled to be with her friends again. But Perdy has no idea that one favor will unravel the stable fabric of her life and involve her in a tangled web of deceit, lies and treachery.

Disguised as boys, three girls head to the river to put Perdy’s plan into action, but only two return. When the third, a young milliner’s assistant, is found drowned with gold coins sewn into her hems, coded spy letters in her bodice, and a journal implicating another sewing apprentice as her co-conspirator, all eyes turn to Perdy Rogers. But she’s no spy!

Accused of treason, she struggles to prove her innocence with the help of a handsome stranger and learns the hard way that freedom, whether an individual’s or a country’s, comes at a cost.

*********

Gayle shares some of the backstory behind TWICE BETRAYED:

I’ve always loved history and discovering how things came to be. In the Caribbean, the long-lost pirates whispered to me with each crash of the waves. I’m working on a female pirate story. When I walked in Pompeii, I felt like I had been there before. In the Coliseum, a new story blossomed, about one of the entertainers. I’ve yet to write that one!

But Perdy’s story was different. I wrote it first, and when I visited the Betsy Ross House, after the story was completed, I froze in my tracks and my husband asked me what was wrong.

But nothing was wrong…it was right. I had described the shop, the kitchen, the bedroom Perdy shared with her sister and grandmother in great detail, with the only difference between TWICE BETRAYED and the real thing being the shape of the stairs. And since the whole story about Betsy Ross making the first flag is a legend, with no real proof that she actually did make it (you can ask any historian) it was a perfect setting for my story.

I come from a long line of seamstresses and am a certified Home Economics teacher so you can see how the sewing bits in the story are relevant.

*********

TWICE BETRAYED is a mix of fact and fiction stitched together to bring a new light to the fabric of our beginnings, told from the eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl, who fell into a web of deceit and struggled to win her freedom.

Gayle is giving away an autographed ARC to one fortunate winner. Please leave your name and email address (if you are new to my blog.) Random.org and I will pick a winner on February 4. If you share this on social media, let me know what you do and I'll enter your name twice. 

Gayle Krause was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania where she led the younger kids in creative dramatics, wilderness expeditions, and fossil hunting. Those early interactions led her to a career in teaching, where, as a Master teacher she continued to inspire teens as she prepared prospective Elementary Teachers and Early Childhood Educators at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Simultaneously, she directed an instructional Laboratory Pre-K for her students, where she worked with eager young preschoolers.