TEACHERS - WIN a FREE BOOK!

TEACHERS

WIN 1 of these FREE BOOKS
for your class to read.

To WIN, your class must agree to read the book you choose,
and then write a CLASS REVIEW and put it on Amazon.

I offer  a choice of 4 mid-grade books:
2 adventures for boys and tomboys,
+ 2 books for both girls and boys. 

The first teacher to contact me gets to choose the book she wants.
 mfinke@frontier.com

PLUS:
a FREE Skype Author Visit

to classes that read my books and write a  CLASS REVIEW  for Amazon. I will chat about how I write and where my book ideas come from.  I am also happy to answer any questions the classes have. FREE "Sneak Peek" Inside ALL my books  -  Books on AMAZON
 

List of FREE BOOKS
to choose from

*Taconi and Claude Double Trouble – Set in the Aussie outback circa 1945.  A coming of age tale about a young aboriginal boy and the problems he faces: a man ceremony, his crazy dad, Dreamtime Spirits, and the chatty and wise Claude - a cockatoo.
.

*Survival by Walkabout – A follow up to Taconi and Claude  - current Aussie outback.  Sibling rivalry and lies light the fuse that drives this dangerous adventure. The Aussie outback is unforgiving and so is the Medicine Man. Will Josh and Bindi survive, or will the wild dingoes pick
 their bones?
.

*Down Under Calling - When a reluctant grandson in Oregon is pressured into writing to his grandma in Australia, wonderful things happen. Both have a need for love and reassurance. Back and forth the letters go: Josh shares his daily problems, and Grandma Rose shares memories from her childhood,  plus tales  that astonish her grandson and his friend Kelly. Together these three shrink the Pacific Ocean into a puddle they can easily ford.

*The Revenge of Thelma Hill – When Frannie and her twin brother Jeff move to Oregon, ghosts are not on Frannie’s mind.  She worried more about making new friends and the sibling rivalry between her and Jeff.  But Frannie discovers that a persistent ghost is hard to refuse. She and her very reluctant twin are soon plotting to trap the ghost’s dangerous killer, and trying to keep it all from their overworked Dad.

"Fairdinkum Aussie Recipe Book"

Seeing I'm a transplanted Aussie now living in Oregon, and 3 of these books feature Australia, it's animals and customs, I am also offering my FREE, fun, "Fairdinkum Aussie Recipe Book."  Teachers or students who would like to read about, or try the Down Under Tucker I grew up eating, will receive a FREE copy.

HEY. . . Before you leave.

Check out my TEACHER/CLASSROOM board on  PINTEREST

for FUN - INFORMATION - CLASSROOM HELP etc

************************

13 Books for Kids - Skype Author Visits

http://www.margotfinke.com

**************************

HyperSmash

"DOWN UNDER CALLING" - Back to my AUSSIE ROOTS -

I could never have done it without the skills
and talents of Awesome Agy Wilson

Done what you ask?

Published my latest young teen book.

 Kindle - soft cover coming

Agy not only did the cover, she also set it up for Kindle and CreateSpace.

This is the second young teen book Agy has done
the cover for and helped me publish. The first was
  my ghost mystery, "The Revenge of Thelma Hill."

Self-publishing is a new gig for me ( I have 11 traditionally published ), but I wanted to give
it a go, as they say.  Agy has struck some problems with the covers for the CreateSpace versions of both books but this will be mastered soon (knowing Agy), and available in soft cover, ASAP.

SYNOPSIS:  When a reluctant grandson in Oregon is pressured into writing to his grandma in Australia, wonderful things happen. Both have a need for love and reassurance as they deal with the problems in their daily lives. Back and forth the letters go: Andy shares the problems his dad's downsizing caused, and Grandma Rose shares past memories that astonish her grandson and his friend, Kelly.  Googling the weird and wonderful Aussie critters that visit Rose's garden becomes a hobby for Andy and Kelly.  Together they use their letters to shrink the Pacific Ocean into a puddle they can easily ford. 

  

I have to admit that writing this book took me back to my Aussie roots. Once I started, memories flooded in, warm, funny, and sometimes a little sad. In some ways Down Under Calling  is tribute to my mum. She was the heart of our home, and the stories Grandma Rose tells Andy in her letters are ones Mum told me when I was a child, or that Mum and I experienced together. Mom was an extremely shy lady. She wold never be able to tell you these stories herself.  So that left me to fill the gap, and offer her wonderful stories to a wider audience than she could ever have imagined.  I still miss her.

                                                                                                          Mum and Dad

I hope young teens will enjoy Grandma Rose's stories, and identify with Andy and Kelly about divorce and blended families, and the heartache of having a parent downsized, and then losing your home because of it. Down Under Calling brings together two generations, across an ocean and across time.  It shows that families who pull together with love and honesty can make it - no matter what.

**************************

OTHER BOOKS by Margot on Amazon

The Revenge of Thelma Hill

Picture Books

Kangaroo Clues 

Mama Grizzly Bear

Ruthie and the Hippo's Fat Behind
Horatio Humble Beats the Big D

Rattlesnake Jam

http://www.margotfinke.com

**************************

KANGAROO CLUES Hops Into Children's Hearts!

The BIG HOPPER Has Arrived!
with all his Aussie bush mates!

Kangaroo Clues

Part of my Wild and Wonderful Series
of books about animals from the US and Australia

     KANGAROO CLUES 

is the first book I ever had published.

 

All 7 books were originally eBooks, at a time when eBooks had little following among readers or kids.  Guardian Angel Publishing agreed to republish all of them in SOFT COVER as well as ebooks.  Kangaroo Clues and Mama Grizzly Bear are the first two to make the transition to soft cover books - YEA!   Available through Guardian Angel and Amazon etc.

Old Man Roo is tall and muscular - 6-7 feet of tall!

Stone the crows! If he had to shop for shoes, he would never find a pair big enough for his enormous feet.  Old Man Roo is smart, too.  When the feared wild dingo pack decides he's on their lunch menu,  he doesn't need shoes -  just giant hops,  plus a  fancy trick that will give a nasty surprise to the whole dog  pack.

SYNOPSIS 

The story tells how Crafty Old Man Roo escapes the dingoes that are chasing him. The aborigines say this rhyming "Dreamtime" tale is a true story.  It features unique Aussie critters - kangaroos, emu, echidna, kookaburra and marsupial mice, etc. A fun tale that is also educational. 

Heading for the red hills they call home

Racing to escape the wild dingoes.

 Glorious illustrations by Turkish artist/illustrator
Mustafa Delioglu.

Thereby hangs a tale. . .

When I asked online list friends if they knew of an illustrator, I received many replies.  One Turkish author said her illustrator would do wonderful illustrations for Kangaroo Clues. He had done many of her books (she is famous in the region for her picture books), and she sent me samples.  I was wowed. They were awesome!  All by hand, and with many delightfully surprising details. I said YES -  loud and clear.

But wait. . . there was a hitch.  Mustafa had no computer and spoke no English!  But my dear friend said, "Don't worry, Margot, I will translate for both of you (her written English was almost perfect) and send his art work from my computer.  And so she did!  A couple of years later I had these fabulous illustrations for Kangaroo Clues. I will always be indebted to Aytul for her huge act of kindness toward me, a new author, and an online writing friend.  Mustafa's art hangs in European Galleries, so I consider myself lucky to have his work gracing my picture book.

Bush critters don't want to be a dingo's dinner!

Sample Verse

Aboriginal spirits made all things,
Like kangaroos and birds with wings.

But I've a tale that's just for you.

It tells the secret of Old Man Roo.

Telling the tale of Old Man Roo

Verse Sample.

Who sewed the pouch on the Kangaroo

And placed her Joey in there too?

Was it a Dreamtime spirit-man

Who made up creatures from a plan?


Read REVIEW

=======================

 REAL "Clues" about Kangaroos!

Everyone loves Kangaroos - right?

Kangaroos all have babies called Joey.  When old enough,  the Joeys pop in and out of  their Mom's pouches whenever they feel like it - like Mexican jumping beans!  YES, they ride around in Mom's padded pouch in comfort every day!

Did you know that when born, a Joey is
about the size of a grown-ups thumb?

They are hairless, blind and deaf.  But this doesn't stop them from crawling from where they popped out of Mom's birth canal, to W-A-Y up inside of her pouch.  Once safely inside, they latches onto one of her teats, and suck milk non stop, until they have grown big enough to begin hopping in and out of the pouch.

For more fun details about KANGAROOS
and the other Aussie critters in this book,

visit my DOWN UNDER FUN page.

ALL - Soft Cover Picture Books

REVIEWS


=========================

Books for Kids - Manuscript Critiques
http://www.margotfinke.com

===========================