Congratulations to tour winners April and Julie L. and to host winners Dashes of Love (after 45) and Our Town Book Reviews.
Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD will be awarding a $75 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC or 1 copy each of the 3 Cloud Canyon books (available in November) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC or one U.S. winner with 1 copy each of the 3 Cloud Canyon books (available in November) to a randomly drawn host.
THE STORIES
Tales from Cloud Canyon is a series of character driven, topical short stories celebrating the everyday child, doing everyday things, with their everyday abilities designed for children aged 3+. Developed by a research psychologist and mom of 3, these stories were developed to be entertaining, educational, and celebrate the power of the everyday within our the beautiful, diverse world.
This Kickstarter collection features three topical short stories from the Cloud Canyon Universe: Here, There, and Everywhere, The Secret to Success, and Invisible Friends. Each of these titles are fully illustrated from artist Randall Hampton and are about 25 pages long.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE WRITING The fictional characters in childhood stories are some of our earliest teachers. We learn a range of things through the observation of these symbolic models, such as what is right and wrong, a desirable and undesirable behavior, gender roles, norms, stereotypes, and more. The role of models is particularly influential in childhood as it can have a long lasting impact on development.
Each story in this collection was developed to not only be entertaining but educational as well, with the stories' characters modeling a range of age-appropriate skills spanning four areas of human development: intellectual, social, emotional, and moral. The skills that are modeled within any particular story are displayed on the back cover of each book and explained in more detail on the last page of the book.
DIVERSITY, REPRESENTATION and INCLUSION Tales from Cloud Canyon changes the narrative by reflecting and celebrating the beautiful and diverse reality of our world. The characters within the Cloud Canyon Universe were developed to represent a range of shapes, sizes, abilities and disabilities, and traditional and non-traditional families.
In the Cloud Canyon universe: -More than half the characters are female -More than half the characters come from an ethnic-minority background -1 in 10 characters have a visible disability -Characters come from traditional and non-traditional families -Different body shapes are represented -she/her, he/him, and they/them pronouns are represented
It was also equally important that these details were not the central theme of the stories themselves as our shape, level of ability, and what our family unit looks like are just some of the many parts of who we are and not necessarily the defining feature of our stories.
PRODUCTION AND RELEASE All of the stories have been written and are currently being brought to life through the illustrative magic of Randall Hampton. The physical production of the books is expected to start in June 2022. Time from production to shipping is about 6 - 8 weeks (+/- 2-4 additional weeks due to COVID delays). Once Rachel receives the books, they will be shipped to backers. There is an expected arrival date of the books no later than November 2022.
May 30: Dashes of Love (after 45)
May 31: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
June 1: Rogue's Angels
June 2: Books in the Hall
June 3: All the Ups and Downs
June 6: Gina Rae Mitchell
June 7: The Faerie Review
June 8: Fabulous and Brunette
June 9: Westveil Publishing
June 10: Sandra's Book Club
June 13: Read Your Writes Book Reviews
June 14: The Pen and Muse Book Reviews
June 15: Andi's Kids Books
June 16: Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
June 17: Sybrina's Book Blog
June 20: Jazzy Book Reviews
June 21: Our Town Book Reviews
June 22: Just Bookish Things
June 23: Straight From the Library
June 24: Long and Short Reviews
