What Does Cow Say? giveaway

In celebration of my spring release, What Does Cow Say? (Scholastic/Cartwheel Books), I'm giving away this cute barn carrying case, small plush cow, and an autographed copy of the book. This rhyming lift-the-large-flap board book is mega-sturdy and bigger than many board books at 7" x 8.5".

To enter: Drop a comment with a creative (g-rated) guess regarding what a cow might say other than the obvious. Two winners will be randomly chosen March 30th and posted here and at readertotz. Be sure to leave your contact email, or come back then to see if you've won.

Story scoop: These farm animals have big mouths! When the sun came up, Duck went Quack which woke his neighbor, Cow, who went MOO, which woke Rooster who went Cock-a-doodle-doo. . . As each animal awakens, totz can guess what it says and open its big-flap beak, snout, or mouth to read its signature sound. The final spread shows a child waking up--with open arms and a final HOORAY! to welcome the day!

Art scoop: Instead of a manuscript, I submitted this 2-page dummy to Scholastic/Cartwheel for consideration. All the mouths had working flaps taped over them, so they'd lift to reveal the animal sound below. A lot goes into creating these seemingly uncomplicated books. For instance, the title and some of the text changed during the editing process. And as you can see, artist Jannie Ho made the book way cuter than my proposal.












Lucky me to have Jannie illustrate this book! She studied illustration at Parsons School of Design in NYC, and was a designer at Nickelodeon, Scholastic, and associate art director at TIME Magazine for Kids before becoming a full-time illustrator. Wow!

~ Joan Holub

What Does Cow Say?
Author: Joan Holub
Illustrator: Jannie Ho
Scholastic, Cartwheel Books, 2011

ASPCA basket of goodies for the auction

I just put this basket together for the ASPCA of Durham, NC Tails at Twilight auction gala event on March 19th. Proceeds benefit animals and aspca.

February adoption fees are about 40% off, so now's a wonderful time to adopt!

~ Joan

New March & April giveaways! What Does Cow Say? and Athena the Wise

Coming in March:
I'm waiting on some cute plush cows to that I ordered online to arrive. When they do, I'll give away 3 copies of What Does Cow Say? my January Scholastic lift-the-flap book + cows!

Coming in April:
To celebrate the April release of Goddess Girls #5: Athena the Wise, Suzanne Williams and I will offer giveaways of Goddess Girls-related goodies, including a plush lion and a beaded GODDESSGIRLS necklace or bracelet (haven't decided on which yet). When you see the cover, you'll understand the lion...


Until then, have a wonderful early spring!

~ Joan Holub

Goddess Girls series, Aladdin, ages 8-12:
Athena the Brain
Persephone the Phony
Aphrodite the Beauty
Artemis the Brave | Dec 7 2010
Athena the Wise | April 2011
Aphrodite the Diva | summer 2011
Groundhog Weather School Putnam, picture book | Jr. Literary Guild Selection
www.joanholub.com | http://readertotz.blogspot.com | http://joanholub.blogspot.com

Goddess Girls Artemis the Brave prize pack giveaways!

To celebrate Artemis the Brave, the newest release in the Goddess Girls series for ages 8-12, co-authors Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams are giving away books and goodies in January! Swag Bags include:

* Artemis's puppy! 8.5" dog named Amby--short for ambrosia, food of the gods! (Yomiko)
* Nail polishes (Sally)
* Bangle bracelets (mudd)
* Goddess Girls bookmark
* Autographed copy of Artemis the Brave

Giveaways are hosted by these very kind, cool blogs. Please visit them during the specified dates to enter:

SWAG BAG GIVEAWAYS:
These bloggers are giving away the Artemis the Brave goodies pictured above:
Alison Can Read - ended Feb. 14 (congratulations to winner, La Toya Lewis)
in the hammock - ended December 15 (congratulations to winner, Tanya Riley)
MundieKids - ended December 14 (congratulations to winner, Asenath Rallison)
A Girl, Books and Other Things - ended January 1 (congratulations to winner, B. Eppenger)
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer - ended (congratulations to Jennifer Reed)
The Book Muncher - ended January 21 (congrats to winner, Nancye Davis)

AUTOGRAPHED BOOK GIVEAWAYS:
Lost for Words - ends Feb 3, 2011 (guest post & giveaway) ended (Robin Ludwig)
Ashley's Bookshelf - January 27 (interview & giveaway) ended (winner to come)
The Children's Book Review - ended December 31 (congratulations to winner, Linda Kish)
Tales of Whimsy - ended January 20 (congrats to Katie DeKoster & Shannon O'Donnell)
Poisoned Rationality - ends January 26th (guest post, review, & giveaway / Britani Quigley)
A Girl, Books and Other Things - ended (winner to come)

“…a clever take on Greek deities…” ~ Booklist

“…an enchanting mythological world with middle-school woes compounded by life as a deity…” ~ School Library Journal

Series scoop:
Join the class at Mount Olympus Academy with Goddess Girls, a new series that puts a modern spin on classic Greek myths!

Aladdin paperbacks, ages 8 ~ 12.

Athena the Brain Finding out she’s a goddess and being sent to Mount Olympus brings Athena new friends, a weird dad, and the meanest girl in mythology—Medusa!

Persephone the Phony Hiding her feelings works fine for Persephone until she meets a guy she can be herself with—Hades, the bad-boy of the Underworld.

Aphrodite the Beauty Sure Aphrodite is beautiful, but it’s not always easy being the goddessgirl of love.

NEW! Artemis the Brave She may be the goddess of the hunt, but that doesn’t mean Artemis always feels brave. (Dec. 2010)
Athena the Wise Zeus says Heracles has to do twelve tasks or he'll get kicked out of MOA! Although she's not sure it's wise, Athena agrees to help out. (April 5, 2011)
Aphrodite the Diva Isis claims she's the goddess of love? Ha! But to keep the title all to herself, Aphrodite has to find the perfect match for Pygmalion, the most annoying boy ever. (August 2011)
Two more Goddess Girls books to come!

Be sure to 'follow' because we have amazing giveaways coming for Goddess Girls #5 Athena the Wise; and #6 Aphrodite the Diva. We look forward to seeing you. xox

Many thanks to these blog goddesses for spreading the word about Goddess Girls:
Cynsations (Cynthia Leitich Smith), inthehammock, TeenBookScene, Dragonfly77 (D. Fowler), Little Willow, readergirlz, readertotz, MundieKids, Green Bean Teen Queen, A Girl, Books and Other Things, Poisoned Rationality, Lost for Words, Ashley's Bookshelf, I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

~ Joan and Suzanne

Groundhog Weather School on Groundhog Day!

My Putnam editor Shauna Facebooked a link to this book talk about Groundhog Weather School! Also, Junior Literary Guild just Facebooked a stats page with reading levels and other info.
Perfect for this day when weather is on many minds, especially in the central and NE states. I saw a weather reporter reporting on "thundersnow" in the Chicago area. Weird weather indeed.
Stay warm everyone! And Happy Groundhog Day!