Author: kasey-j-claytor

  • November is for Non-Fiction! Non-Fiction division deadlines extended

    November is for Non-Fiction! Non-Fiction division deadlines extended

    November is For Non-Fiction!

    We tend to be a little more high tech at Chanticleer

    New Deadline for 5 of our Nonfiction Divisions: the Instruction and Insight Awards, Nellie Bly Awards, Harvey Chute Awards, Mind and Spirit Awards and Military and Front Line Awards : November 30, 2024

    At the request of both our Authors and our Readers we have moved the closing date of some of our Awards to November 30, 2024!

    If you have an Instructional, Journalistic, Business, Enlightening, or Military and Community Service worker Non-Fiction Work, you still have time to submit!

    As we settle into this new schedule, we’re hearing great feedback from authors regarding the best times for them to submit their work. This depends on conferences and workshops (many of which are genre specific) where they can regularly receive feedback and writing retreats that allow them to finish their manuscripts.

    Thank you to everyone who reaches out and makes our Awards a success every year!

    To celebrate the deadline change, lets take a look at some recently reviewed Non-Fiction Works!

    A Path To Excellence
    By Tony Jeton Selimi
    Hearten 1st Place Winner

    On the belief that life isn’t just the random cards one is dealt, A Path to Excellence by Tony Jeton Selimi offers a blueprint—the octagon of excellence—to succeed personally, professionally, and spiritually.

    Transcending the pitfalls and spontaneous stumbling blocks along the path of life can open the door to self-actualization and progression. As someone who experienced bullying, sexual abuse, early disability, and homelessness, Selimi sets on to become a beacon of light to the hopeless and marginalized.

    Within each soul lies a bud of genius waiting to blossom. This book focuses on purpose, vision, and persistence to clear the way to that fullest potential. Affirming challenges as immutable truths of life, Selimi employs Buddhist teaching and personal anecdotes to encourage a head-on confrontation with one’s struggles and promotes a feeling of gratitude. As a blend of philosophical wisdom and practical experience, the initial chapters help readers acknowledge their current life situation, perceiving challenges as epochs of potential.

    Read More Here

    The Doctor’s Voice
    By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli
    Harvey Chute 1st Place Winner

    Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, in The Doctor’s Voice.

    Doctors deal with overwhelming stress, leading to burnout, illness, many of them leaving the profession, and even a higher-than-average rate of suicide. The Covid19 pandemic both heightened and helped illuminate some of the causes of this stress, prompting author Garbelli to write this book as a set of advice for his colleagues and as advocacy for broader changes in hospitals and other healthcare systems.

    Garbelli highlights a common disconnect in communication—administrators and higher-ups telling doctors what to do while those doctors don’t have much opportunity to bring up the problems they encounter day-to-day.

    Read More Here

    Finding the Light Cover

    Finding The Light
    By Kasey J. Claytor

    Some stories are impossible to look away from, and from its very first sentence, Finding the Light, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor proves itself one of them. “…when my 49-year-old son, Justin, was first diagnosed with a form of early-onset dementia, I was stunned.” Without hesitation, the book draws readers into a saga of family, illness, and resilience.

    Although a memoir, Finding the Light is in many ways an instructional text, too. Readers don’t need similar medical situations to draw from Claytor’s lessons of improvement. The conversational, approachable writing style serves this purpose well.

    Although it’s in chronological order, this is an unconventional, modern text.

    Traditional scene-based paragraphs are offset by poetry, informative sidebars, and even the full text of letters sent throughout Justin’s illness. Claytor deftly shifts between these sections, building a cohesive narrative from which readers can easily learn.

    Read More Here

    Combat Missions
    By Burl Harmon
    Military and Front Line 1st Place Winner

    Sometimes, a close and personal story can reveal the true weight of major historical events. Combat Missions, a memoir from WWII veteran Burl D. Harmon, achieves this by detailing how Europe’s vicious aerial battles shape a young boy’s entry to manhood.

     On December 7, 1941, Harmon is summoned to his high school’s auditorium to hear President Roosevelt proclaim it as, “a day which will live in infamy…” Soon after, his draft notice arrives. Harmon’s junior college studies and work at the local Rexall drug store are put on hold as he joins the vast flood of young American men and women conscripted into military service. Leaving his small Iowa town and a family mostly sheltered from the grim realities of the outside world, he travels to New York City with people from every imaginable background.

     With no prior mechanical experience, he works diligently to become a flight engineer, training to master a lexicon of manual tasks and learn the intricacies of air-to-air combat amidst bombing runs. His training takes him even farther from home, to Detroit, Lorado, Texas, Puerto Rico, and even Cuba.

    Read More Here

    Chasing the Daylight Cover

    Chasing The Daylight
    By Joanna Rakowski
    Military and Front Line Grand Prize Winner

    Chasing The Daylight by Joanna Rakowski is a revealing memoir that captures the rigor, intensity, and ferocity of military training in a salient style.

    Ever wondered what it takes to become a soldier in one of the most powerful armies in the world?

    Joanna Rakowski was born in Poland and grew up practicing dance from a young age, eventually becoming a professional classical ballet dancer and teacher. Upon her migration to the US in 1995 and the painful fallout with her friend and mentor, Chris, Joanna knew she needed to make a drastic change in her life. Her great awakening came when she decided to transform from a fragile and sensitive ballerina into a steadfast U.S. Army soldier, a goal that many close to her doubted she could accomplish.

    With arresting insights, the text builds from Rakowski’s striking introduction as it describes her first day of enlistment, which was filled with uncertainties.

    Read More Here


    A big thank you to all these authors for sharing their lives and wisdom with us! Your books matter!

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    Got a great Non-Fiction Book to Share?

    Enter the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards today!

    This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!

    Your book deserves to be discovered

  • The 2024 Mind and Spirit Spotlight on Non-Fiction that makes life better

    The 2024 Mind and Spirit Spotlight on Non-Fiction that makes life better

    Change Your Trajectory

    Mind and Spirit Non-Fiction Awards CIBA Badge

    Your Experience is worth Sharing

    Enter the Mind & Spirit Awards today!

    The Categories of the Mind & Spirit Awards are:

    • Enlightenment
    • Motivational/Self-Help
    • Spirituality
    • Mindfulness
    • Well-Being
    • Meditation
    • Energy
    • Other

    These books help others live their best life, whether through the author’s personal experience, or through a life of research and dedication to a particular topic – often drawing on both! Books that enter Mind & Spirit Awards embody this and change lives.

    We are delighted to celebrate the 2023 Winners of the Mind & Spirit Awards!

    • Kelly Bulkeley – The Spirituality of Dreaming: Unlocking the Wisdom of Our Sleeping Selves
    • Pierre Pradervand – The Gentle Art of Spiritual Discernment – A guide to discovering your personal path
    • Maureen Kane – A Guide Back to You
    • Kasey J. Claytor – The Money Map, A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success
    • Melo Calarco – Beating Burnout, Finding Balance

    The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 MIND & SPIRIT Awards is:

    Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success

    by Dr. Kelly Rabenstein

    Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success

    Blue and Gold badge recognizing Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success by Dr Kelly Rabenstein for winning the 2023 Mind and Spirit Grand Prize

    Articles celebrating both the First Place and Grand Prize Winners will continue to come, but, in the meantime, we would like to focus in on some of the great work that has come our way recently and improved our lives!

    RUNNING AWAY From The CIRCUS
    By Nove Meyers

    Running Away from the Circus Cover

    Debut author Nove Meyers breathes life into the big tent of human aspirations and desperations, from his birth into a raucous circus atmosphere to his diligent study for Catholic priesthood.

    Running Away from the Circus is a vibrant chronicle that opens with a vignette of his grandmother, clad in sequins and flying on a trapeze. She spun like a top to enthusiastic applause under the circus tent, until the fateful day when she included her young child in the act, dropping her thirty feet to the sawdust-covered floor below. But this did not prevent Nove Meyers from being born and having a story to tell.

    The boyhood described was as wild as the circus acts. He was encouraged to smoke cigarettes like his father and watched in astonishment as his mother burned up paper money, possibly to protect his uncle, a counterfeiter. Yet despite his unusual upbringing as one of the family’s third generation of circus owners, Meyers was taken regularly to Catholic church services. There, he discovered God, an entity as mysterious as the traveling circus and carnie crowds he was raised among.

    Continue reading…

    FINDING The LIGHT
    By Kasey J. Claytor

    Finding the Light Cover

    Some stories are impossible to look away from, and from its very first sentence, Finding the Light, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor proves itself one of them. “…when my 49-year-old son, Justin, was first diagnosed with a form of early-onset dementia, I was stunned.” Without hesitation, the book draws readers into a saga of family, illness, and resilience.

    Although a memoir, Finding the Light is in many ways an instructional text, too. Readers don’t need similar medical situations to draw from Claytor’s lessons of improvement. The conversational, approachable writing style serves this purpose well.

    Although it’s in chronological order, this is an unconventional, modern text.

    Continue reading…

    THE BEST I CAN DO
    By Cheryl Landes

    The Best I Can Do Cover

    Cheryl Landes’s The Best I Can Do: A True Story of Navigating the Complexities of Mental Illness and Homelessness, follows the devastation of a happy marriage as mental illness slowly takes over the mind of her husband. Landes must then make the journey back to peace.

    Cheryl and her husband, Tom, had known each other since their college days. A classic love story, Landes does a beautiful job with the set up, and then delivers the tragedy of Tom’s spiral into paranoia as their plans for the future begin to fall apart.

    The Best I Can Do tells the story of what happens when Tom insists someone is trailing him, believing a car passes by his and Cheryl’s home every day even though no one else sees it. He claims someone installed listening devices in their house and refuses to speak unless his white-noise devices are on. As his paranoia increases he locks the refrigerator with a chain and a padlock to protect himself from the certainty someone—perhaps Cheryl—wants to poison him.

    Continue reading…

    WOMAN STRONG
    By Anna Casamento Arrigo

    Woman Strong Cover

    Anna Casamento Arrigo’s Woman Strong showcases themes of love, heartbreak, death, disease, and political strife.

    In the newly-released audio version, Casamento, with the help of her narrator Valentina Latyna, captures the essence of life and living. Latyna brings these poems to warm, sensuous life. Her accent, at once elegant and romantic, lifts the poems off the page and gives them voice.

    The pearls strung into Woman Strong’s beautiful strand of poetry will stun and amaze readers. Many of them speak to the strength of women, as can be expected from the title, but many others talk about the fragile nature of life, of love, and of time.

    Continue reading…


    We are so grateful to have these wonderful books from these authors.

    The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs

    We hope to see your work in the 2024 Mind & Spirit Book Awards!

    This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!

    Your book deserves to be discovered!

     

  • FINDING The LIGHT, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor – Inspirational Memoirs, Living with Disease, Family & Relationships

    FINDING The LIGHT, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor – Inspirational Memoirs, Living with Disease, Family & Relationships

    Some stories are impossible to look away from, and from its very first sentence, Finding the Light, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor proves itself one of them. “…when my 49-year-old son, Justin, was first diagnosed with a form of early-onset dementia, I was stunned.” Without hesitation, the book draws readers into a saga of family, illness, and resilience.

    Although a memoir, Finding the Light is in many ways an instructional text, too. Readers don’t need similar medical situations to draw from Claytor’s lessons of improvement. The conversational, approachable writing style serves this purpose well.

    Although it’s in chronological order, this is an unconventional, modern text.

    Traditional scene-based paragraphs are offset by poetry, informative sidebars, and even the full text of letters sent throughout Justin’s illness. Claytor deftly shifts between these sections, building a cohesive narrative from which readers can easily learn.

    The past is vibrant and immediate: Claytor chronicles events in rich yet simple prose as Justin falls deeper into frontotemporal dementia, or FTD.

    Yet Claytor also pauses often to address readers directly with a reflective tone from the present day. This gives welcome context to the book’s main narrative. She uses everything she’s learned to help readers understand Justin’s illness. FTD is a progressive, terminal disease—and a mysterious one, with no known cause. Finding the Light explains FTD patiently, without delving too far into medical details or terminology.

    Claytor’s an adept records-keeper, combining her carefully recreated personal experience with thorough research.

    The details she offers, from specific dates to particular images (piles of unopened mail, drives along the river road), give the story a tangible quality, as though readers are having this experience alongside her. Yet sometimes, the details come in the stark form of a list or a set of bullet points instead. These breaks from traditional prose offer a sense of the fractured, clinical experience that a terminal illness can become.

    At times, Claytor’s emotions burn bright, particularly in her frustrations with the poor training and management at several care facilities. Yet she quickly pulls back from these moments of anger or frustration, letting her present-day self take over with calm reflection instead. She explains her calmness well, however, instructing readers, through example, on the deep value of patience and compassion.

    Claytor truly excels at “finding the light,” just as the book’s title suggests.

    “Every time I read these words like ‘horrible’ about FTD, it hurts like a paper cut,” she writes. This book offers consistent positivity without the emotional artifice that self-help or instructional books sometimes resort to. Claytor accepts Justin’s changing situation, watching him revert in many ways to his child self, and even finds beauty in this process. She finds true acceptance. And throughout this book, readers may learn how to accept similarly challenging situations in their own lives.

    Finding the Light often feels like a long and enthralling conversation over coffee with a friend.

    Between its accessible writing style and the unpredictable medical situation, the book becomes impossible to put down. At each turn readers will find a surprising development, such as when Justin contends with COVID, or when he must repeatedly move to new facilities. And each development is carefully contextualized with compassion for Justin, for his caretakers, and for everybody touched by the impacts of FTD. A literary rhythm emerges: touching scene, thoughtful reflection, clear information.

    As Justin’s tale with FTD comes to a close, Claytor addresses the reader one last time, with a message for the painful, difficult turns in life.

    The final sections of the book are written in the second person, as Claytor wraps up the narrative with a set of clear, actionable takeaways. The last chapter, “7 Survival Tips for Rough Times,” is a welcome reminder that while everyone’s challenges are different, we must all face them. The test is how we navigate these experiences. Thanks to Finding the Light, readers will have a roadmap for travelling through whatever dark paths life has in store with grace, acceptance, and love.

     

    Reviewed by Chanticleer Book Reviews 4 Stars! round silver foil sticker

  • The 2023 Mind & Spirit Book Award WINNERS for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction

    The 2023 Mind & Spirit Book Award WINNERS for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction

    Mind and Spirit Non-Fiction Awards CIBA Badge

    The Mind and Spirit Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Enlightenment and Well-Being Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Mind and Spirit Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

    Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring enlightenment, motivational/self-help, spirituality, mindfulness, well-being, meditation, and energy.  See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here. 

    1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Lisa Spicer on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the Four Points by Sheraton in beautiful Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference

    This is the OFFICIAL 2023 LIST of the MIND & SPIRIT BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the MIND & SPIRIT Grand Prize Winner.

     

    Congratulations to the FIRST PLACE CATEGORY WINNERS of the Mind & Spirit Book Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment, a division of the 2023 CIBAs.

    • Kelly Bulkeley – The Spirituality of Dreaming: Unlocking the Wisdom of Our Sleeping Selves

    • Pierre Pradervand – The Gentle Art of Spiritual Discernment – A guide to discovering your personal path

    • Maureen Kane – A Guide Back to You

    • Kasey J. Claytor – The Money Map, A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success

    • Melo Calarco – Beating Burnout, Finding Balance

    • Dr. Kelly Rabenstein – Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success

        The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 MIND & SPIRIT Awards is:

        Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success

        By Dr. Kelly Rabenstein

         

        You can see all of our amazing 2023 Mind & Spirit Finalists! Congratulations to all and thank you for submitting!

        Well done climbing the CIBA Levels of Achievement!

        PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS! 

        Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

        This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

        Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

        Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews

        Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

        A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.

        We will post at least two 2023 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 24, 2024. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2023 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank  you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.

        Grand Prize Division Winners will receive a customized digital badge. When we receive it from our graphic artist, we will also post here and in the Grand Prize Division Winners Official Posting.

        Thank you for participating in the 2023 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.

        Team Chanticleer! 

      • THE MONEY MAP: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success by Kasey J. Claytor – Business Motivation & Improvement, Spirituality Self-Help, Money Management

        THE MONEY MAP: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success by Kasey J. Claytor – Business Motivation & Improvement, Spirituality Self-Help, Money Management

        “There is something magical about money—the way it appears and disappears, grows and shrinks, and, in a similar way of taming a hesitant wild horse, with calm assuredness and confidence, not only will you learn to control it, but you will find you can joyfully master it.” -Author Kasey J. Claytor 

        Claytor insists that every successful endeavor starts with an individual’s thinking and beliefs. She details this concept – and how to live with it in mind – in her new book, The Money Map: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success. 

        From the onset of her business-oriented career, Claytor has drawn from her beliefs as she upholds financial success as a spiritual goal. In this volume, she takes the mystery out of money to show it as an extension of the mind, body, and spirit. Claytor ensures the beginning of an endearing journey toward clearer financial decision-making, investments, and goals by asking readers to identify the worries of their own ego and to eliminate unproductive ideas and actions.  

        Claytor offers insight on how one can change their thinking and behavior to allow the floodgates of abundance to open up, with solid advice for achieving undivided focus, intelligent poise, and a competent thought technique. 

        She asserts that everyone can step outside of themselves and hold the point of view of the observer. If one is mindful and aware of their present moment, they can move toward much-needed peace and confidence, allowing the growth of new ideas and productivity. 

        The route to monetary independence may appear too steep to ascend, but The Money Map will guide readers to the summit, one checkpoint at a time. 

        This book’s eye-opening revelations about the mindsets of affluent people and its secrets to what they carry inwardly, earn it must-read status in the business resources category.

        The Money Map: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success will provide readers with invaluable advice, standing beside such works as Spiral Dynamics by Dr. Don Edward Beck Ph. D., Map of the Scale of Consciousness by Dr. David Hawkins M.D. Ph. D., and Integral Psychology by Ken Wilbur. The Money Map will aid anyone in discovering the most beneficial path to financial success, regardless of their current situation. 

        5 Star Best Book Chanticleer Reviews round silver sticker

      • LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards for Early Readers and Picture Books – 2019 CIBA Winners

        LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards for Early Readers and Picture Books – 2019 CIBA Winners

        Early Readers and Picture booksCongratulations to the First Place  Category Winners and the Grand Prize Winner of the LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards for Early Readers and Picture Books, a division of the 2019 CIBAs.

        The CIBAs Search for the Best Early Readers and Picture Books

        Chanticleer International Book Awards Reviews is looking for the best books featuring stories of all shapes and sizes written to an audience for Early Readers. Story books, Beginning Chapter Books, Picture Books, Activity Books & Educational Books. We love them all.

        The 2019 LITTLE PEEPS  Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the Little Peeps   Grand Prize winner were announced at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference that was broadcast via ZOOM webinar the week of Sept 8 -13, 2020 from the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.

        Denise Ditto, author of Bettina’s Best First Day – The Tooth Collector Fairies and 2018 Little Peeps Grand Prize Winner announced the 2019 LITTLE PEEPS Book Award Winners.

        This is the OFFICIAL 2019 LIST of the LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the Little Peeps Grand Prize Winner.

        Congratulations to ALL!

        • Sylva Fae and Katie Weaver Elfabet    
        • Lauren Mosback My Sister’s Super Skills  
        • Norma Lewis – Totem Pole   
        • Kizzie Jones – A Tall Tale About Dachshunds in Costumes: How MORE Dogs Came to Be   
        • Justine Avery – What Wonders Do You See… When You Dream?
        • Trevor Young & Eleanor Long – Galdo’s Gift: The Boovie   
        • Kasey J. Claytor – Pinky and The Magical Secret He Kept Inside   
        • Carolyn Watkins – The Knock
        • Robert Wright Jr – Mummy in the Museum

        The LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards

        2019 Grand Prize Winner is 

        Trevor Young & Eleanor Long – 

        Galdo’s Gift: The Boovie   

        The LITTLE PEEPS Grand Prize Badge is customized for the 2019 Award Winner.

         

        This is the badge for the 2018 Grand Prize Winner of the 2018  LITTLE PEEPS  —Home From Decay Valley – The Tooth Collector Series by Denise Ditto

        We are accepting submissions into the 2020 LITTLE PEEPS  Book Awards until September 30, 2020. After this date, all entries will go into the 2021 Little Peeps Book Awards. 

        The 2020 LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC 21 on April 17, 2021.

        Don’t delay! Enter today! 

        A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in October. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

        If you have any questions, please email info@ChantiReviews.com == we will try our best to reply in 3 or 4 business days.

         

      • PINKY and the MAGICAL SECRET HE KEPT INSIDE by Kasey J. Claytor – Early Readers, Children’s Books, Fantasy & Magic

        PINKY and the MAGICAL SECRET HE KEPT INSIDE by Kasey J. Claytor – Early Readers, Children’s Books, Fantasy & Magic

        *Reviewer’s note:  I read the book to a little girl who, upon seeing the photo, exclaimed, “The real Pinky!”  Indeed, this extraordinary story is derived from the true story of when the author was a small child. When she fell ill, her grandmother brought her a furry pink, stuffed puppy, and a story was born.

        Pinky, a stuffed toy puppy, made of pink corduroy, is given to a little girl, Francesca, after a brief visit to the hospital. She loves her stuffed friend, and the feeling is mutual. Pinky does all he can to show Francesca this after her other stuffed animals tell him of a secret award ceremony at which a prize will be given to the toy that is most loved by a child.

        One night, while Francesca is asleep, Pinky and the other toys journey to the ceremony where he is elated to win the most coveted award. A medal is sewn inside his chest in the spot where humans carry their hearts. Francesca and Pinky grow old together, and one day she decides to clean and repair the stuffed dog, inside and out. In doing so, she discovers the secret medal that has been inside her stuffed friend for decades. The discovery prompts her to recall a dream she had as a little girl in which Pinky won a medal for loving her so much. The final scene is that of an elderly Francesca snuggling with her favorite childhood toy. How sweet, then, to turn the page and view a photo of the author with a stuffed pink dog.

        Claytor’s prose is comprised of brief declarative sentences, appropriate for young children. The tale underscores the security and affection stuffed animals offer little ones, but also invites them to consider the reverse. Told from Pinky’s point of view, the stuffed dog learns that all toys “. . . are loved, but what is most important is your loving of humans.” He strives to show that affection by snuggling with Francesca, watching her as she dances around her room, and always being where she can see him.

        The illustrations are beautiful, imbued with warmth and affection. Stuffed animals smile at the reader, the backgrounds of the pages splashed in dreamy, pastel shades of pink, aqua, and yellow. Pinky looks especially huggable and, if the author chose, would be an excellent model for a stuffed animal marketed with the book. Of course, it would have to have a secret compartment that would hold a tiny medal, one that could be held by a little hand after each reading of this delightful book.