Congratulations go out to Honey Mommy, winner of the Emily the Chickadee Series by Carol Zelaya. We were only able to select one winner from our group of entrants because none of the others provided email addresses for us to contact them. We may run a giveaway for the second set of Emily the Chickadee books in the future.
Thanks to all who participated in our first giveaway. You’ll notice we have a new giveaway up and running right now.
One of two sets of the Emily the Chickadee series, which includes: Emily Waits for Her Family, Caring for Emily’s Family and Emily’s New Home. You can 
read our review of these three books here!
Follow the true story of the special bond between a tiny bird and a little girl, from first meeting to leaving, from new life to old friends. This story is told in a timeless, three-part series, with an easy-reading rhyme, and is certain to delight and touch your heart.
HOW TO ENTER:
1) Comment here with your working email address so that we can contact you if you win.
2) Get one additional entry for blogging about this contest. Leave a comment here telling us where you blogged about it.
3) Get two additional entries for tweeting about this contest. Don’t forget to let us know here that you tweeted!
This giveaway will run from today until 11:59 p.m. (Eastern) on October 31st. A winner will be announced in early November.
This contest is open to residents of the United States only.
Emily the Chickadee is featured in a three-book series by Carol Zelaya: Emily Waits for Her Family, Caring for Emily’s Family, and Emily’s New Home. This beautiful series illustrated by Kristin Metcalf is a group of rhyming books that teachhow children to observe nature. While I don’t typically review books as a group, I am going to do it here and see how it works.
In Emily Waits for Her Family, it is spring and a young girl spots a pregnant chickadee sitting in a tree. She names the mommy-to-be Emily and watches as she builds a nest in the flower box outside her window and waits while her three eggs hatch into baby birds. Soon four birds sit in the tree singing happily to their human friend below.
Emily and her family of three return in the summer to keep the little girl company and she cares for them in Emily Cares for Her Family. The girl buys the chickadees a feeder and fills it with seed. Then she buys them a birdhouse so they can stay warm and dry, and finally a birdbath so they can splash and play. The girl enjoys watching the birds in her yard through her window, where the reader sees the flowerbox that Emily had once built her nest in.
In the final book of this series, Emily’s New Home, the young girl is sad because she has moved away and she misses her birdie friends. Autumn has turned to winter and she wishes winter would just go away. Then one spring day the girl notices some twigs and straw on the floor of the front porch. Looking closer she finds a nest and her friend Emily waitng for another new family. The reader is then encouraged to care for her feathered friends with food and water and with lots of love to keep their birdie friends coming back.
This is a sweet and charming series that shows children how to observe their feathered friends and care for them properly. Each book includes a Chickadee Log at the end where readers can write down their observations and in what season they are viewing the birds. Metcalf’s cover illustrations for the books change swith the seasons and give readers an indication of the passage of time, which compliments the lyrical prose that mentions each season.
My youngest daughter is quite taken with the Emily the Chickadee books, and even my older daughter does not mind listening in because she enjoys poetry. More than fluffy books about a bird and her family, this series shows young readers how to appreciate, love and observe their feathered companions. The Emily the Chickadee series will make an excellent gift.
Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Today’s guest blogger is children’s author Carol Zelaya. She will be on a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion during the entire month of October to discuss her three-book Emily the Chickadee series. Carol talk to us today about her writing career–how it chose her, some of the challenges she’s overcome and her accomplishments.
You can find Carol online at http://emilythechickadee.com/home.html.
Writing my three children’s books was a natural progression that came from my love of writing poetry. I was especially bewildered that more children’s books weren’t being written in rhyme anymore, as they had been in the nursery rhyme days of my own childhood. Younger children especially love the rhyme, as well as anticipating the next rhyming word, which I am told by 
teachers also helps them learn to read. The rhythm and beat are like a song to them without the music. I experienced this firsthand when I was doing a signing and reading at a book store, and a few children stayed on to hear the story read a second and third time. To my amazement, they could finish the line I was reading before I did because they already anticipated the rhyming word at the end of each line.
I always say that I did not choose a writing career but rather it chose me. The nesting of a tiny little mother chickadee near my window was so inspiring for me to watch that I wanted to share the same feelings of wonder and awe that I experienced with children everywhere. I knew that if, as an adult, I learned so much from watching this little bird, children would too. Nature is an extraordinary teacher!
There have been many challenges along the way, but all in all, this has been a tremendous learning experience for me. I knew nothing about the book publishing business, but with the help and advice of knowledgable people in the field, I gradually saw the transformation of words on my computer materialize on to the pages of a beautifully illustrated three book children’s series. The biggest challenge now, of course, is promoting 
my books and getting them on to bookstore shelves. My greatest accomplishment aside from awards that my books have won, has been a mother who recently contacted me from my website to tell me how her young daughter, who struggles with reading, wants to read my books over and over again. That is the best reward I can ever receive as an author, knowing that I have helped a child to read and connect with the story. It makes all the challenges along the way totally worth the effort.
Look for our review of the Emily the Chickadee series coming on October 9th!
The Children's and Teens' Book Connection 