CORINNE DEMAS HOLIDAY BOOK BUNDLE: TWO CHRISTMAS MICE-A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
TODAY IS

CORINNE DEMAS DAY

ON MY BLOG!

CORINNE DEMAS HOLIDAY
BOOK BUNDLE GIVEAWAY!

ONE WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY
MY COMBINING ALL ENTRIES FROM
EACH POST THAT YOU WILL SEE
ON CORINNE DEMAS DAY TODAY!
TWO CHRISTMAS MICE
BY CORINNE DEMAS
ILLUSTRATED BY STEPHANIE ROTH

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Annamouse, who lives alone, needs decorations for her Christmas tree but can’t get to the store because of the deep snow. Willamouse, who also lives alone, needs a tree for her Christmas decorations but she can’t get to the store either. Will Santamouse know to come to their homes? These two mice seem destined to spend a lonely Christmas until Willamouse hears the sounds of music coming through her wall and gets an inspiring idea that brings holiday cheer to both Christmas revelers. (from Amazon.com Product Description)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Corinne Demas is the author of two novels, two collections of short stories, a memoir, a play, a collection of poetry, and numerous books for children. She's published more than forty short stories, in a variety of magazines and literary journals. Her publications before 2000 are under the name Corinne Demas Bliss.

Corinne Demas grew up in New York City, in Stuyvesant Town, the subject of her memoir, Eleven Stories High, Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town, 1948-1968. She attended Hunter College High School, graduated from Jackson College, Tufts University, and completed a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She lived in Pittsburgh for a decade, teaching at the University of Pittsburgh and at Chatham College. In 1978 she moved to New England and began teaching at Mt. Holyoke College, where she is now a Professor of English.

A Fiction Editor of The Massachusetts Review, she is a member of The Authors Guild, PEN, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Her awards include two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. She's the winner of a Lawrence Foundation Prize, the University of Missouri Press's Breakthrough Contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Competition.

She lives with her family in Western Massachusetts and spends the summer on Cape Cod. She is represented by McIntosh & Otis Inc.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:

Stephanie Roth’s acclaimed work appears in dozens of books and magazines for children. Her book work ranges from picture books to chapter books. Whatever the project, her work is imbued with a gentleness, humor and emotion.

Steph started drawing from a young age. Her mother started teaching her how to draw, “as soon as I could hold a pencil,” she says.

Her love of books came from her childhood. Before she could read herself, her German grandfather would spend hours reading her stories. “I can remember drawing pictures to go with the text, a lot of the books he read to me were collections of fairy tales and they didn’t have pictures in them.”

Creating pictures started as a way to have fun, make stories more satisfying and keep busy and eventually turned into a career.

Steph lives on California’s Central Coast where she is an illustrator at large. In her spare time, she likes to garden, surf and tries in vain to train her pet parakeets to say clever things.

REVIEW:

Possibly from first hand knowledge living in New England, Corinne writes of two charming snow-bound field mice and how they entertain themselves in getting ready for Christmas. Both are alone and unable to get out for things they need to complete their holiday celebrations but with spunk and ingenuity, they do the best they can. Little do they know that they are only a short dig away from a new friendship.

Annamouse and Willamouse are written with warmth and reality so readers will feel like they are in their little dens with them experiencing Christmas Eve. The description of how they would normally go out and sing carols to the rabbits, who Annamouse tells us "can't sing at all", and to the squirrels who "can never remember the words" according to Willamouse, creates a world that children will feel right at home in. With her lovingly descriptive language, Corinne Demas writes a clever, humorous tale of a coincidence that brings two mice together for what one can tell will be a long and happy friendship.

I adored this book and look forward to a soon-to-be-here first grandchild that I can share it with. In a "Behind the Scenes" look at the making of this book on Corinne Demas's current website, the idea and first version if this book is explained lovingly and thus allows us to understand even more why this is a beautiful book for children of all ages. Adults can't help but smile at the reference to the favorite composer of the mice, "Mouzart" or the attention to detail of things like a tray of sushi on the dining table.

Corinne writes, "I wrote an early version of Two Christmas Mice in 1991 as a Christmas present for my goddaughter, Hadley. I typed out the text, and my six-year-old daughter and I worked on the illustrations together, using colored markers. Here’s our illustration for the page showing the two mice in their separate-but-nearby holes, just before they discover each other."

"We made a book by punching holes along the side of the paper and sewing the pages together with red ribbon. Years later, I re-wrote the story, and my agent sent it to Holiday House. Now, fourteen Christmases later, I can give Hadley a present of the published book."

So if that doesn't tell you that this is a book that came straight from Corinne Demas' heart, I am not sure what will. Along with the gorgeous illustrations by Stephanie Roth, this makes THE PERFECT holiday gift for all the little ones on your list!

Stephanie Roth, the illustrator of Two Christmas Mice, bought two mice at a pet store and named them Annamouse and Willamouse, after the characters in the story. She became quite involved with the book and her art and it is probably one reason, along with her phenomenal talent that Corinne's characters seem so alive to the reader. Here’s Stephanie holding the real live Annamouse and Willamouse.

“Since I knew nothing about mice when I was offered the job,” she writes, “ I employed the two little real mouse girls to be my models. They taught me a lot about what it’s like to be a mouse. The first thing I discovered is that mice are nocturnal, which meant I had to observe them after dark. I learned that mice eat a lot all the time . . . that old saying about “eating like a mouse”--don’t you believe it! Mice eat A LOT. And that other saying about being “as quiet as a mouse”, don’t you believe that either! They make a racket! Mice also care a lot about each other and like companionship...they’re social creatures.”

Sketching her real Annamouse and Willamouse is seen here in a working sketch by Staphanie for TWO CHRISTMAS MICE.

GIVEAWAY

ALL ENTRIES TO WIN THIS BUNDLE WILL
BE DONE THIS TIME AT THE END OF
EACH POST AS YOU WOULD NORMALLY DO!

A WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY
MY COMBINING ALL ENTRIES
FROM EACH POST THAT YOU WILL
SEE ON CORINNE DEMAS DAY
TODAY!

RULES:

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY, SORRY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--ALL ENTRIES MUST CONTAIN
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
--EACH COMMENT MUST BE MADE SEPARATELY
OR THEY WILL NOT COUNT
AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY!

HOW TO ENTER:

EACH BOOK WILL BE REVIEWED
AND YOU WILL HAVE A CHANCE
TO COMMENT ON THEM. YOU WILL
ALSO BE ABLE TO LEARN A LOT
MORE ABOUT CORINNE DEMAS AND
COMMENT ALL DAY TODAY!

AND NOW SOME ENTRIES
FOR THIS POST!

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING FROM THIS POST THAT YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT THIS BOOK, AUTHOR, OR THE ILLUSTRATOR.

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK AND LEAVE THE LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: GET CREATIVE--YES, YOU CAN!---AND ASSUME THAT CORINNE DEMAS WRITES A SEQUEL TO THIS BOOK (OH, GOOD!) AND ANNAMOUSE AND WILLAMOUSE MEET A THIRD FIELD MOUSE WHO BECOMES A FRIEND. WHAT WOULD YOU NAME THAT THIRD MOUSE?

THERE WILL BE 3 MORE POSTS
TODAY ABOUT CORINNE DEMAS...
BECAUSE AS I SAID, IT IS
CORINNE DEMAS DAY
ON BINGO'S BLOG TODAY!

DEADLINE TO ENTER IS
6 PM, EST, DECEMBER 10