Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Children’s Chapterbooks

  • CELEBRATING CHILDREN’S BOOKS with GERTRUDE WARNER Awards for Middle-Grade Readers – Action/Adventure, Coming of Age, Fantasy, Magic, School, Sci-fi

    CELEBRATING CHILDREN’S BOOKS with GERTRUDE WARNER Awards for Middle-Grade Readers – Action/Adventure, Coming of Age, Fantasy, Magic, School, Sci-fi

    Here at Chanticleer, we love Children’s literature! There is just something about a truly well-told story that sparks the imagination of the young – and the young at heart.

    So, as we celebrate Children’s Book Week – May 4 – 10, 2020, allow us to bring along a few friends and share with you some really good books.

    Gertrude Warner Children's Chapter Books

     

    Did you know that 2020 marks the 96th anniversary of the first edition of the first book The Boxcar Children by Gertrude C. Warner?

    It’s true! We titled the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) division for middle-grade readers The Gertrude Warner Awards in honor of the author of the well-loved children’s The Boxcar Children Series.

    I guess you could say, we’re fans. BIG fans!

     

     

    We love Gertrude and so many others! Here’s a little list of some of Middle-Grade Children’s authors you probably already know: 

    Ron Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

    J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter series

    Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians

    R.J. Palacio – Wonder

    Lemony Snicket – The Series of Unfortunate Events

    Madeleine L’Engle – A Wrinkle in Time

    Louis Sachar  – Holes

    Kelly Barnhill for The Girl Who Drank the Moon

    Neil Gaiman – for so, so many books!

    Lois Lowry – The Giver

    Now – a very special treat! Please take the time to find out about some of our very own personal favorite Middle-Grade Children’s Authors: 

    The Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Readers – FINALISTS for 2019 – are 

    • Amber L. Wyss – Phoenix Rising     
    • M.J. Evans – PINTO!   
    • M.J. Evans – The Stone of Wisdom – Book 4 of the Centaur Chronicles
    • Beth Stickley – Tarnation’s Gate    
    • Rey Clark – Legends of the Vale   
    • Laura M. Kemp – Burnt Feathers   
    • Alex Paul – The Valley of Death, Book 5, Arken Freeth and the Adventure of the Neanderthals
    • Trayner Bane – Windhollow and the Axe Breaker (Windhollows, Book 3)
    • Carolyn Watkins – The Knock…a collection of childhood memories
    • Liana Gardner – 7th Grade Revolution
    • Nancy McDonald – Boy from Berlin
    • Wendy Leighton-Porter – The Shadow of the Tudor Rose 
    • Kit Bakke – Dancing on the Edge
    • Mobi Warren – The Bee Maker
    • C.R. Stewart – Britfield and the Lost Crown
    • B.L. Smith – Bert Mintenko and the Serious Business

    These titles are in the running for the First Place positions of the 2019 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Readers

    – and one will be named GRAND Prize Winner!

     

     

     

    The 2018 Gertrude Warner Book Awards Grand Prize went to Jules Luther – for the unpublished book, The Portals of Peril

     

    2018 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Readers First in Category Winners

    • Keelic and the Pathfinders of Midgarth by Alexander Edlund
    • Guinevere: At the Dawn of Legend by Cheryl Carpinello
    • The Portals of Peril by Jules Luther
    • From the Shadows by KB Shaw
    • Tallulah’s Flying Adventure by Gloria Two-Feathers
    • Vampire Boy by Aric Cushing
    • The Adventures of Rug Bug by Kay M. Bates

    Paul Aertker took home the CIBA GRAND PRIZE 2017 Gertrude Warner Book Awards Grand Prize for

    BRAINWASHED: CRIME TRAVELERS SPY SCHOOL SERIES 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    2017 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Readers First in Category Winners

     

     

    The 2016 Gertrude Warner Book Awards Grand Prize was won by Alan Sproles & Lizanne Southgate for their work, The Train From Outer Space.

     

    2016 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Readers First in Category Winners are:

    Are you interested in seeing how your Middle-Grade book stands up to the competition? Submit them to the Chanticleer International Book Awards and we will choose the best among the entries!

    Click here for more information about The CIBAs! 

    Gertrude Warner Children's Chapter Books

    The deadline to submit your book for the Gertrude Warner awards is May 31, 2019. Enter here!

    The deadline for 2019 submissions has been extended to June 15, 2019. Grand Prize and First Place Winners for 2019 will be announced on September 5, 2020, at the CIBA Awards Banquet.

    Any entries received on or after June 16, 2019, will be entered into the 2020 Gertrude Warner Book Awards.

    As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your Middle-Grade Reader deserves!  Enter today!

    The GERTRUDE WARNER Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards – the CIBAs.

    All Finalists and First Place category winners will be recognized, the first-place winners will be whisked up on stage to receive their custom ribbon and wait to see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. It’s an exciting evening of dinner, networking, and celebrations! 

    Don’t delay! Enter today!

  • LIFE on the FARM by Heather Gardam, a Children’s Book about Farm Life

    LIFE on the FARM by Heather Gardam, a Children’s Book about Farm Life

    Ten-year-old Patti is a curious child who lives on a farm and longs for a horse. She also longs for her family to recognize that she’s growing up and isn’t a baby girl anymore.

    Patti is wakened on the morning of her tenth birthday to a ruckus in the barn. It turns out that a mink has snuck into the chicken coop. Patti immediately heads outside to help her dad and brother save the chickens and their baby chicks. Things don’t go quite right, but one chick is saved. Patti’s dad offers her the job of nursing it back to health. On the way back to the house, her parents and brother surprise her with a shiny silver and blue bicycle for her birthday. It isn’t the horse she longs for, but Silver is a wonderful present and it’s a big bike for her to grow into. And that everything is not perfect, nor does everything work out just right is the beauty of Gardam’s story.

    Patti spends her tenth year working hard to prove to her family that she is growing up. On her trusty bike,  Patti sets out on a series of adventures filled with discoveries that will delight any young person reading this book. Patti longs for her family to see her as growing up and able to pull her own weight around the farm. She wants to make a good impression as someone her family can count on and who will help out.

    Each chapter in this book is a snapshot of young Patti’s life.  Through the ups and downs of everyday life, we learn more about Patti and her family life on the farm. Patti works hard doing her chores around the farm, learning new skills like milking the cow and tapping trees for maple syrup. She is a curious and observant child and continually surprises her family with her knowledge and perseverance.

    Whether it’s working hard to put out a fire in the hay-field or serving dinner to the threshers, Patti proves that she can be counted on. She surprises her family when she trains Chicky for the Fall Fair and with her strength under pressure when her brother Jamie is hurt.  Patti impresses them with her level-headedness when she’s caught in a blizzard and deals with a bully.

    Patti discovers growing up isn’t easy and grown ups don’t always have the right answers. Everything continuously fascinates her: learning about bees, driving a tractor,  trying to figure out how grownups think, and understanding the strange things they say and do.

    Through a series of adventures that will entertain and delight young readers, Patti learns that people can be very different from each other and live very different lifestyles from her family’s. Patti also discovers she is stronger and smarter than she thinks and that she can make a difference in the lives of those around her. Most importantly, she learns that she belongs to a loving and supportive family that even includes her big brother.

    Gardam’s Life On The Farm will captivate young readers with its authentic voice and earnestness. Patti’s journey is filled with the curiosity, the adventures, and everyday delights that Gardam herself experienced as a child growing up in rural Ontario, Canada.