Making Me...and a Giveaway!!!

The internet expands our world...and also makes it a little smaller.

Profound, huh?

That's how I roll.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a brave soul who is a published author. She keeps a cursory eye on her good name via a Google application and noticed that her name had been used on an article published over at Heart of the Matter Online. Curious, she clicked on over and discovered there was another author out there writing under the same name...and that would be me.

She graciously contacted me and asked me to review her latest book and also is allowing me to get a copy into one of my lucky reader's hands.


I like seeing my her name on hardbound book cover. 

Julie B. Carr has been writing books for expecting moms since the birth of her first son.  She also operates an online pregnancy store, MotherlyWay.com.  Her latest concept is a book for the expecting siblings, a unique journaling and teaching book that allows the big brother/sister-to-be to follow along with the exciting journey of pregnancy.  The book is written at a level for 5-10 year old.


My children have been fascinated with Making Me, delving into the developmental milestones of an unborn baby.  There are activities that allow the sibs-to-be to see what size the baby is at a given point in the pregnancy.  One day calls for a celebratory lollipop as the fetus gets close to developing their tongue at 7 weeks, 6 days.  The half-way point of the pregnancy calls for a coloring activity that colors in half a birthday cake.

Also included in the book is a little pencil pouch that includes colored pencils for use on the day-by-day pages and a tape measure for keeping track of Mom's and Baby's growth.  I love the fact that Julie chose to make this a spiral bound book;  the pages lay flat so that children can easy write and color on each day's page.

A border surrounds each two page layout that has a small picture of a car making its progress around a track, giving an easy visual for a child to see how much of the pregnancy has passed and how much time is left.  3 of 8 liked the fact that there are extra pages at the back should the pregnancy go longer than the textbook 40 weeks.


As a homeschooler, I absolutely love the idea that this book could be used as the basis of an interactive unit study.  We have always included the children in following my pregnancies, but to be able to use Making Me as a template of study would have been wonderful.  Math, science, writing, spelling, reading--it's all there. It also provides a wonderful impetus for special time between Mom and sibs-to-be, a way to have one-on-one time while preparing for upcoming family expansion. I'm thinking I need to stock a few copies in my gift closet to give to friends and family with kiddos who are adding to their families.

Julie has provided a copy of the book for me to give away and so now I'm going to make up a few giveaway rules. First, go check out Julie's online store, then come back and leave me a comment. Want to Twitter about it? Great! Leave another comment letting me know about your Tweet and get a second entry for your trouble. Want to post about it? Great! Post away and come back here to tell me. The contest will end Sunday, March 1st (how can we be this close to March, already?!?) at 11:59 pm, CST. I'll be announcing the winner a week from today. Good luck!