Tag Archives: SIR PRINCESS PETRA

10 Captivating Fantasy Books For Young Readers

Posted on by


By  Hgiardina & Ezvid Wiki EditorialThu, 14 Mar 2019 https://wiki.ezvid.com/m/10-captivating-fantasy-books-for-young-readers-J7iRlnKs8VQYg

TitleAuthor
1.Charis: Journey to Pandora’s JarNicole Y. Walters
2.Sir Princess PetraDiane Mae Robinson
3.The Hob and the DeermanPat Walsh
4.Fog IslandTomi Ungerer
5.There May Be a CastlePiers Torday
6.Mabel Gray and the Wizard Who Swallowed the SunClayton Smith
7.DreamwoodHeather Mackey
8.The Secret Life of Daisy FitzjohnTania Unsworth
9.Bad MagicPseudonymous Bosch
10.The Mad Wolf’s DaughterDiane Magras

Fun Activities For Young Fantasy Fans

How to Encourage Kids to Read

A great way to start is to get a bookshelf for your child’s room. If they have access to their own collection of books, it’ll be easy for them to read at their own pace. And if they’re looking at the shelf everyday, reading will always be on their mind. It’s also important to give your kids a comfortable place to sit. This can be anything from a rocking chair to a couch to a dedicated reading nook. If they have a space that’s just for them, it makes reading time all the more special. As they grow, your young ones will start to read more challenging books with words they don’t know. Encourage them to look up unfamiliar terms in the dictionary so they can expand their vocabulary. Finally, if you’re having trouble getting your kid interested in books in the first place, try bridging the gap between visual media and literature with graphic novels.

What is Fantasy?

No genre can capture the imagination quite like fantasy, where readers are invited to envision impossible worlds, daring heroes, and strange creatures living in the land of myth and legend. There’s a reason why so many speculative stories spellbind young readers with their tales of misfits, outcasts, and kids with untapped stores of tremendous bravery.

For young readers on the lookout for adventure, here, in no particular order, are some stunningly imaginative books that will bring out the magic in everyday life.

In the #1 spot is “Charis: Journey to Pandora’s Jar” by Nicole Y. Walters. Charis has been waiting all her life for a chance to show her stuff. Now, it’s up to the hyper-imaginative thirteen-year-old to save the world by visiting Pandora’s Jar, the place where demons and kind spirits dwell. The catch? She’s only got five days to release the spirit of Hope from the jar before mankind is officially doomed forever. With the help of a few trusty deities and her best friend Gabe, Charis has to summon up all her courage to set things right.

At #2, we have Diane Mae Robinson’s “Sir Princess Petra.” Even Princesses get bored of being pampered sometimes. In this series, nine-year-old Petra decides that she wants to become a knight. But even though she’s got courage and cunning to spare, knighthood comes with its own set of pressures and obstacles, like having to silence a dragon and visit the spooky Forest of Doom. If she can overcome a few kooky quests, she’ll find her true place in the kingdom.

At #3 is “The Hob and the Deerman” by Pat Walsh. Crowfield Abbey is a peculiar place. It’s a portal, of sorts, between the world we know and the Otherworld, a place where demons, boggarts, and all kinds of creatures freely roam. When Walter, a “hob” spirit, returns to find everything in disarray, he knows he needs to take action to help put all the troubled spirits in the abbey to rest. But it will take a lot of help, and a lot of courage, to cross paths with the Deerman of the forest and live to tell the tale.

At #4 is Tomi Ungerer’s “Fog Island.” No one ever returns from Fog Island. It’s a place shrouded in mystery, a place that Finn and Cara have been warned against visiting. But when the two siblings disobey their father and head for the far-off island, they’re in for more than they bargained for. Is the ancient place just a pile of ruins? Or is there a deeper mystery lurking, something that only the mercurial Fog Man can unlock?

For #5 we have “There May Be a Castle” by Piers Torday. Eleven-year-old Mouse knows he shouldn’t have survived the car crash when he was thrown from the vehicle during a Christmas Eve drive to his grandparents’ house. He woke totally fine, but in a world he barely recognized. With the help of a magical sheep and a sardonic talking horse, he’ll need to find his way to the castle if he wants to regain entry to his own life. That is, if this place everyone speaks of is more than the stuff of legend.

Coming in at #6 is Clayton Smith’s “Mabel Gray and the Wizard Who Swallowed the Sun.” The people of Brightsbane have had a rough time ever since the eternal night started. After a wizard took away the daytime from the land, he decided he needed to come back to steal a book of magic spells that holds the key to the township’s total destruction. Luckily, a spirited orphan named Mabel is going to set things right.

If she can summon up the courage to deal with a series of fantastical creatures and hair-raising quests, she might find a way to break her hometown’s terrible curse forever.

At #7 is Heather Mackey’s “Dreamwood.” Runaway Lucy has a fair amount of experience with supernatural forces. Her father is an expert on the subject, and she’s on a quest to find him and bring him back so she doesn’t have to go to that dreadful boarding school anymore. The problem is, her father isn’t where she thought he’d be. Could it be that the enchanted forest of Dreamwood proved too powerful a match for him? There’s only one way to find out: by heading into the heart of the living grove, no matter the consequences.

Coming in at #8 is “The Secret Life of Daisy Fitzjohn” by Tania Unsworth. Some might call Daisy’s life unusual: her best friends are a talking rat and a ghost, and she lives in an old estate that’s slowly falling apart. When her mother leaves on a strange expedition and doesn’t return, Daisy knows she can’t hide within the walls of Brightwood Hall any longer. She’ll have to do what it takes to save her home and keep her family together, with only the help of her eclectic sidekicks to guide her.

At #9 we find Pseudonymous Bosch’s “Bad Magic.” Clay knows there’s no such thing as magic. He’s seen a million sleight-of-hand shows and he knows they’re just tricks. That said, there are a few things happening at Earth Ranch that he can’t explain. Clay was supposed to be sent to the rehabilitation camp to be “scared straight.” But there’s more at work here than a few obstacle courses and hikes. For one thing, he’s having conversations with llamas.

For another, he may or may not have just seen a ghost. If there’s magic on Earth Ranch, Clay needs to make sure it’s not the deadly kind. If he can make it off the volcanic island without causing an explosion, he’ll count himself lucky.

Finally, at #10, is “The Mad Wolf’s Daughter” by Diane Magras. When Drest’s family of male warriors is taken captive, she finds herself in a unique position. All her life, her father and brothers took care of her. Now, she’s got to free her kin with the help of a witch, a soft-spoken knight, and her own fierce courage. With a mysterious bandit out to get her and her sense of independence growing by the day, Drest will find herself taking chances, slaying personal demons, and doing things she never dreamed herself capable of.

https://wiki.ezvid.com/m/10-captivating-fantasy-books-for-young-readers-J7iRlnKs8VQYg

The Dragon Grammar Book–Coming Soon

Posted on by

The Dragon Grammar Book –  Grammar for Kids, Dragons, and the Whole Kingdom

Finally! An easy-to-understand grammar book with a sense of humor. From multi-award winning children’s fantasy author, Diane Mae Robinson, The Dragon Grammar Book, featuring the characters of The Pen Pieyu Adventures series, introduces beginners to the basic rules of the English language.  For middle grades to adults, The Dragon Grammar Book is an entertaining adventure into the mysterious Land of Grammar.  Releasing late 2016

Endorsements

When Sir Princess Petra clobbers Snarls with a book, she uses the only book that can help her fire-breathing dragon-steed: The Dragon Grammar Book. This amazing book uses kid-friendly sentences, humorous illustrations, and easy-to understand examples. The Dragon Grammar Book is a fun tool that will help your middle-grade dragons better understand the basic rules of writing—and reading.  —Sue Morris, Kid Lit Reviews

In her latest offering, Diane M. Robinson takes on a challenge greater than any of the obstacles which Sir Princess Petra has yet faced: how to make the arcane rules of English grammar interesting and accessible to a wider audience. While many kids and adults would rather face a fully-grown ogre than the laws of punctuation, The Dragon Grammar Book provides a clear and comprehensive look at our language for princesses and dragons alike. With clear examples and fun activities, this book is a must-have for readers and aspiring writers. —Peter Takach, High School English Teacher and Grammarian

The Dragon Grammar Book takes some of the basic rules of writing and makes them more approachable with a dash of creative fun courtesy of The Pen Pieyu all-stars. So whether you’re a sword wielding princess, an onion loving dragon, or an everyday Jane/Joe, you’ll walk away with a clearer understanding of the English language and be ready to tackle sentence structure and word usage with the best of them.  —Gina Reba, Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Unbeatable winning combination . . . Sir Princess Petra faces her fears of the menacing fire-breathing dragon and conquers the pitfalls of grammar! Clever, painless, and fun way to learn, implement and test yourself in the English language. —Barbara Ann Mojica, Author of the Little Miss HISTORY children’s nonfiction book series, http://LittleMissHISTORY.com

Excerpt

Subject/Object of a sentence

Subject is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. To find the subject of a sentence, ask “who” or “what” the verb is talking about.                                                   The dragon studies grammar.

“The dragon” is the subject, grammar is the object, and studies is the verb.

Sometimes, a subject can be more than one word and even be an entire clause.                               The rules about onion fighting could fill pages in the royal rule book.

To find the subject in the above sentence, ask “what” could fill pages in the royal rule book. The subject is therefore “The rules about onion fighting.”

The subject of a verb is not part of a prepositional phrase (phrases that start with words such as at, in, on, among, along, within).                                                                                            Prince Mesoggie, along with his puny army, have hung their wet clothes on the drawbridge.

In this sentence, both Prince Mesoggie and his puny army have hung out their clothes, but because “along with his puny army” is a prepositional phrase, the subject is “Prince Mesoggie.”

Usually, but not always, the subject comes before the verb in a sentence.                                         Within the castle moat are several snapping crocodiles.

In this sentence, are is the linking verb following moat but moat is not the subject because “Within the castle moat” is a prepositional phrase. The subject crocodiles follows the verb.

Object is the person or thing that is affected by the action of the verb. There are three different kinds of objects.

       Direct object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that receives the action of the verb in a clause or sentence.                                                                                                               The dragon studies grammar.

Grammar is the noun and direct object that follows the verb studies and completes the sentence of what the subject “the dragon” is doing.

     Indirect object is a noun or pronoun that indicates to whom or for whom the action of a verb in a sentence is performed. When a verb is followed by two objects, the indirect object usually comes right after the verb and always before the direct object.                      The dragon gave her a book.

Her is the indirect object. The pronoun her comes after the verb gave and before the noun and direct object book and completes the sentence of what the subject “the dragon” did.

     Object of a preposition is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that follows a preposition and completes the meaning of the sentence.                                                                 The princess clobbered him with the book.

Book is the noun and the object of the preposition with and completes the sentence of what the subject “the princess” did.                                                                                                    The dragon now reads in a cave.

Cave is the noun and the object of the preposition in and completes the sentence of what the subject “the dragon” does now.

*****The Dragon Grammar Book will be another release in the collection of dragon books for children by author Diane Mae Robinson.

copyright Diane Mae Robinson 2016

My Writing Process

Posted on by

As a children’s chapter book author, the first and most important aspect of my writing process involves finding my “child voice”. “Child Voice” is a term in children’s literature that interprets into the author being able to get inside the heads of their children characters; think and act as those children characters would think and act and, thus, be able to write about them with ease.

Through all my years of studying children’s literature and children’s behavior, a major lesson I have learned is that to write for children the writer must have a certain level of immaturity along with the ability to remember the art of play. In my case, this is very doable, and when my friends call me immature, I take that as a compliment that I am on the right creative track.

When I am in the first stages of planning a new children’s book, I do a lot of note keeping, character building, and mapping out the fantasy world that the characters will be having their adventures in. Once I know my character’s world and know each character as much as I would know a good friend, then the plot creating process begins.

The creating of their story starts out as a movie playing in my head. This movie plays a scene, re-winds, re-plays the scene somewhat differently, builds the next scene only to re-wind, re-build, and re-plays that scene. As day and months go by, the movie keeps building, re-playing, strengthening the plot; it’s just about like the characters take over the making of the movie to get their story told.

Then one day, the movie in my head is complete and that’s when I get down to the business of writing. When I’m in the writing phase, I write with a frenzied passion for days, weeks on end, often writing non-stop for 12 hours at a time until the book is written.

Once the story is written in the first draft, I leave it alone for a few weeks to give the characters some time to settle into the story.

Then it’s on to editing. Editing phase will last another several weeks where I edit in two or three hour intervals every few days.

When I feel the book is at least 90% well written and well edited, the manuscript is submitted to my publisher. I am published with a traditional publisher, so the book will be scrutinized by their editor and the editor and I will work through several more stages of editing before the book goes on to production

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

For more information about my dragon books for children, www.dragonsbook.com

Posted on by

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 20

IN THE NEWS

NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THOSE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR WORLD AND IN OUR LIVES http://bit.ly/SurHxz

Award Winning Author Diane Mae Robinson Releases New Children’s Book, ‘Sir Princess Petra’

Written in the tradition of C. S. Lewis and reminiscent of ‘Shrek’, reviewers have labeled the award winning book a ‘fantasy adventure that is sure to become a timeless classic.’

Canadian author Diane Mae Robinson has released her latest children’s book, ‘Sir Princess Petra’. ‘Sir Princess Petra’, the first book in the Pen Pieyu adventures, features surprising plot twists and turns, brilliant flashes of humor, zany characters and is rooted in timeless values that shine through the charismatic main character.

The book has received a number of high-level book awards including second place in Purple Dragonfly Book Awards for Children’s Chapter Book, and was awarded 5 stars by Readers Favorite. Robinson was awarded the Lieutenant Governor Of Alberta Arts Emerging Artists Awards for Children’s Book Author and was recently chosen as a finalist for ’50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading’.

Robinson believes that “by instilling kindness, understanding, and respect in our children, they will be able to make their difficult situations easier and accomplish what they set out to do in a better way.”

“Dragon books,” stated Ms. Robinson, “have always been a passion of mine. Including a dragon as a secondary character in my fantasy/adventure series just seemed natural.”

Dragon books are one of the most popular segments of fantasy fiction and children’s books in today’s marketplace. Here, in this fantasy fiction work, Robinson uses the dragon books concept as the background to teaching young people traditional values. In the story line, Princess Petra’s unusual birthday request to become a royal knight sends the royal court into a frenzy. But when she agrees to undertake a knight’s quest, not even the royal rulebook, with its list of outrageous knight deeds, can dissuade her. Armed with a cake knife and a suit of the best royal pots and pans, Petra chooses to hush the howling dragon, Snarls, in the Forest of Doom and win her real armour. Ms. Robinson’s highly praised work demonstrates that dragon books can be something much more than dragon books.

“Snarls is a dragon,” continued Robinson, “that every reader will love: he is witty, comical, and endearing.  He may even set a new standard for dragons in dragon books.”

Ms Robinson is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at robinsond@mscnet.ca. More information, including reviews, information for teachers and librarians and a special children’s section is available at her website. ‘Sir Princess Petra’ is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Tate Publishing.

About Diane Mae Robinson:

Diane Mae Robinson has a journalism diploma from the Schools of Montreal, and an advanced diploma from the Institute of Children’s Literature in Connecticut.  She is also an artist, and teaches acrylic and watercolor art to children. She lives with her husband, Allen, in a small hilltop castle near St. Paul, Alberta.  They have four dogs and three horses, along with a forest inhabited by gnomes, fairies, a princess, and a dragon. This magical forest is where Diane creates her characters and gets the inspiration for her stories.

Contact:

Diane Mae Robinson
http://www.dragonsbook.com
robinsond@mcsnet.ca POSTED BY DON MCCAULEY AT 7:55 AM