A Review Is In!

After a Lord's Day hiatus, I approached today with two goals: 1) contact a local church about carrying the book in the church bookstore and 2) mail a signed copy of the book to Kimberly Batti (the illustrator). I accomplished the first after work and the second in the car on the way to the post office. I need to figure out how getting the church the books would work since they don't really want to go through our official channels for some reason. I may run a book out to them tomorrow. One possibility might be hooking them up through a local distributor. . . . I'll have to see. Or I may just sit on things for a while and let them simmer--I am sometimes too impatient to get the ball rolling. Perhaps I'm not supposed to have the book in that venue.

While Christmas shopping today with my son, I ran into two fellow students from the writing class in which I wrote Mumsi Meets a Lion. One of them hadn't seen the book yet and was very excited that he'd been in on the ground floor. Another promptly bought the last three copies in the store and had me sign them--one for her and two for others. At work I signed four copies for gifts. God was so good to have the book come out at this time of year!

Also new today was a review on Amazon.com reprinted below. It's from Christian Review of Books. This reviewer picked up on the message I was going for (unlike the last one). 

Mumsi lives in a village in Kenya, surrounded by family and friends. All his life, he and the other children have been told fantastic stories about the most feared of all the jungle creatures--the simba, the lion. The lesson of the stories was always the same: if you see a lion, don't move. Just look it in the eye and stay very, very still. Mumsi never imagined he'd need the lesson, until one dark night when he's alone on the mountain . . . 

Mumsi Meets a Lion is a wonderful little book! It takes you on a trip to a far-off land and a culture far different from our own, capturing little ones' imaginations from the start. Throughout the story, the author introduces Swahili words for a few of the animals, which adds still more flavor. My preschooler sat enthralled through the whole thing, hiding her face from the noises Mumsi heard and clapping with pride when he stood brave. 

This children's book carries a central theme we all appreciate: the importance of listening to and remembering what your parents teach you. Mumsi Meets a Lion demonstrates the lesson in a colorful adventure, complete with gorgeous illustrations that perfectly capture the setting. I definitely recommend this book for anyone with children from preschool through early primary school. And parents, you're going to love it too!