Make Magic Giveaway

Win a copy of Make Magic! Do Good! from Candlewick Press. Enter here today!

Leave a comment at the end of this post (or the next!) to be included in a random drawing Friday, Nov. 16.

Make Magic! Do Good! hits bookstores this week and is the latest book by self-publishing sensation Dallas Clayton.

Clayton's first book, An Awesome Book!, was about dreaming big -- this one celebrates being happy and helping others be happy too.

One commenter on my blog is guaranteed to be a winner. Enter by midnight Nov. 15 and be sure to include an email address so that I can contact you.

To win, you must live within the United States or have a mailing address here. Thanks so much for entering. Good luck!

A review of Make Magic! Do Good! follows this post.

4. The Gift of Happy

Razzle-Dazzle Ruby

By Masha D'yans

Scholastic, 2011

$17.99, ages 4-7, 20 pages.

A little girl wakes up with a gleam in her eye and a step as springy as her ringlets of hair, in this adorable novelty book.

Greeting card illustrator Dyans makes a joyful splash into books with this story of a girl embarking on a day of play in the snow.

All it takes is one look at the cover and readers know they're in for a lovely time. There, the girl, Ruby, greets them in red-and-white striped stockings with open arms, as if to say, "Come with me!"

As the story begins, Ruby has just woken up and raced to her bedroom window to see that it's snowing.

Reflecting the rainbow colors of her room, her mood is "razzle-dazzle" and in no time at all (by the next page), she's out in the sparkly snow with her scruffy dog Rocket, jumping through the snow to catch up.

As flower-like crystals of snow collect on tree branches, Ruby imagines she's in a fairy tale -- she's a "gleaming-beaming snow queen" and Rocket is her knight.

Hopper and Wilson

Written & illustrated by Maria van Lieshout

Philomel, 2011

 $16.99, ages 3-7, 40 pages

Two stuffed pals set sail in a paper hat to see what's at the end of the world and discover that the best place of all isn't as far as they thought.

As Wilson and Hopper wave goodbye to their potted cactus on the edge of a vast ocean, the wind gently tugs at Hopper's red balloon and anything seems possible.

Wilson, a yellow mouse, imagines they'll find a staircase to the moon while Hopper, a blue elephant, pictures a place with lots of lemonade.

That night Wilson and Hopper fall asleep on the brim of the newspaper-folded boat under a sky of stars without a cloud in sight.

But as morning comes, rain pelts down and the sea grows choppy. Suddenly their boat begins to rise under a giant wave and in a frightening moment, envelops them.