Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Keeping Christmas Magic by Anna and Gunnar Counselman - Book Tour & Review + Giveaway


 

Join Us for This Tour from November 26th to December 6th
 
Book Details:

Book Title:  Keeping Christmas Magic by Anna and Gunnar Counselman
Category:  Middle-Grade Fiction (Ages 8-12), 38 pages
Genre: Children's Book
Publisher: Mascot
Release Date: August 2021
Content Rating:  PG - It is a book about how to keep Christmas alive when your kids find out the truth about Santa.
 
Book Description:

Shhhh, don’t tell! Keeping Christmas Magic reveals the true story of Santa Claus, asking you to become a Christmas Magic-Keeper.
 
Buy the Book:
 Mascot 
 Barnes and Noble ~ Amazon
add to goodreads 

My Review
Keeping Christmas Magic is a delightful children's book that explains the true story behind Santa Claus and his Christmas Magic-Keepers. Younger children who still believe may not want to read this, just in case it spoils things for them, but older children who may be questioning things could benefit from such a book. 
It's a magical, feel-good read, with a heartwarming overall feel to it. And even if older children no longer believe in Santa, they can still believe in the magic of Christmas and gift giving, especially if they have younger siblings who do believe.
As a parent myself to a teenager and a 6 year old, we keep the magic alive by giving gifts to L (teen) from Stormy Claus (our cat, who is Santa's extra-special helper around the holidays), and P (6 year old) still gets gifts from Santa. It works for us. That's how we keep our Christmas magic alive.
I really enjoyed this book, and I think parents who may be trying to come to terms with older children no longer believing, or perhaps questioning things, will benefit from having this book on hand. 
5 stars!

Guest Post
Judge the Book by Its Cover

One of our favorite sayings is “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover.” It’s great because it reminds us to be thorough and not superficial when evaluating merit. But given the amount of effort that publishers put into book covers, the message must not be landing.

Our book is no different. We worked almost as hard on the cover as we did on the writing and illustration.  But whereas most authors want a cover that commands attention from a distance so that weary travelers in airports notice it, we wanted something that would be utterly uninteresting to its intended audience...children.

The proper place for keeping Christmas magic is in a box with your Christmas decorations, hidden away with the Elf on the Shelf, or on a bookshelf high above the wandering eyes of a precocious 6-year-old who can read well enough to discover the secret before her time.

 You see, our biggest fear in writing this book is that a child might find the book and read it on their own without their parents. Our goal is to make an otherwise hard conversation into a beautiful moment instead by giving parents a story that keeps Christmas as magical as possible for as long as possible.

 So, in our case, please judge this book by its cover. We hope that its dark brown cover with hard to decipher script will help you keep the secret on the chance that its accidentally left out where a child might stumble upon it. 

 
 
Meet the Authors:

Anna and Gunnar are the husband-and-wife team behind Keeping Christmas Magic. Anna immigrated from Russia at age 12 and began her American journey in Swampscott, MA, attending Boston University before moving out to California to pursue her entrepreneurial career which has culminated in her co-founding Upstart, an AI lending platform. 
 
A third-generation Marine, Gunnar grew up pretty much everywhere there's a Marine base before going to Cornell for undergrad, deploying as a Human Intelligence Officer to Iraq, the Horn of Africa and Bosnia before attending Harvard for business school. Gunnar's entrepreneurial career has focused in education software and services where he's founded and invested in a handful of companies including his most recent company, Array. 
 
When their then-six-year-old son Tristan started asking hard questions about Santa, they didn't have good answer. Wanting to keep Christmas as magical as possible for as long as possible they looked for a children's book to help and when they couldn't find one, they wrote it. Originally, the poem was just for Tristan and his baby sister Sasha, but some close friends convinced them to submit it for publishing and the more they worked on the story, the more they felt like it needed to be told. They hope that the book does for parents around the world, what's it's done for them, help make an otherwise difficult conversation a beautiful experience instead.
 
connect with the authors:  website ~ goodreads
 
Tour Schedule:

Nov 26 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book review / guest post / giveaway
Nov 26 - The Momma Spot – book review / giveaway
Nov 29 – A Mama's Corner of the World – book review / giveaway
Nov 29 - Splashes of Joy – book review / author interview / giveaway
Nov 29 - I'd Rather Be At The Beach – book review / author interview / giveaway
Nov 30 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book review / guest post / giveaway
Nov 30 - Laura's Interests – book review / guest post / giveaway
Dec 1 – Chit Chat with Charity – book review / guest post / giveaway
Dec 1 - Cheryl's Book Nook – book review / giveaway
Dec 2 – Bound 4 Escape – book review / giveaway
Dec 3 – StoreyBook Reviews – book review / giveaway
Dec 6 - @twilight_reader – book review

Enter the Giveaway:
 

KEEPING CHRISTMAS MAGIC Book Tour Giveaway

 


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Please try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.