M. C. Gladd Books

 The Many Reasons Your Kids Should be Reading There are many reasons your kids should be reading, aside from the simple enjoyment of it. “What enjoyment?” you might say. “My kids would rather play video games. Getting them to read is like pulling teeth. I’m a parent, not a dentist!” (Unless you are a parent and a dentist) Getting your young gamer to read may be as simple as introducing them to books based on the games they love to play. (The books based on the games Halo or Minecraft come to mind) Why encourage your kids to read? We live in a very stressful time. That’s even more true for kids. Reading is great for reducing stress and tension. For me personally, reading was the ultimate form of escapism. Books are also less stressful on parents. They’re much quieter than TV and video games, and the batteries never die. (ebook readers aside) There are proven academic benefits to reading. Studies have shown that even a twenty minute a day reading habit can result in improved c...

  There are a few Classic Adventure Books that were my introduction into fantasy. At around ten, my parents gave me The Hobbit. I couldn’t read it fast enough. I then went on to read the whole Lord of the Rings Trilogy. ​ I lost myself in a world of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Wizards, and more. I loved every page and would go on to re-read them a few times. My Book Nowonderland was heavily influenced by my love of fantasy adventure books. ​ Books were a form of escapism that TV or movies just couldn’t compete with, except for maybe Star Wars. (Star Wars to little old me was amazing and got me into my other favorite genre, science-fiction.) I didn’t have to rely on someone else’s interpretation of what the characters looked or sounded like. My imagination took care of all of that. I devoured many great classic adventure books as a kid. Read a Book! Have an adventure! M. C. Gladd

  The Choose Your Own Adventure Books is a series of wildly popular interactive books that were released from 1979 to 1998 by Bantam books. They sold over 250 million copies. I remember reading quite a few of these myself when I was a kid. They are written in the second person and in them the reader takes on the role of the protagonist who might be a detective, race car driver, explorer, time traveler, and so on. Once the story gets going, the reader is faced with choices as to how to proceed. This leads to multiple paths and endings, some good, some bad. The great thing about this is that these books can be reread many times with a different experience every time. The number of endings in the series varied from 7 to 44. Kids loved the fact that they were active participants in the adventure. The format was so popular that almost twenty other similar series were launched soon after. The genre became known as ‘Gamebooks’. This ‘interactive fiction’ type of non-linear story telling ...

 Minecraft Adventure Books These books are based off of the Minecraft video game, which is a wildly popular game that was first released in 2011 and now has 140 million active users. It now has a couple of variants and a mobile version. It's a deceptively simple looking game that many kids love to play. Like many other video game properties, Minecraft has bled over into other forms of media, including books. "Minecraft the Island" is the first in a series of twelve very popular books based off of the game. Look for the whole series here, Minecraft Adventure Books . ​ If you have a kid that's into Minecraft, but you'd rather he or she spent more time reading than staring at a computer screen, Minecraft adventure books might do the trick.

  My review of " Furthermore " by Tahereh Mafi. Magic runs throughout this amazing story. The author's style of writing is magical in itself. A girl who's never fit in must go on a dangerous journey to rescue her father with an enemy turned traveling companion. Although the ending felt a little abrupt, the trip there was worth it. Loved it. Read a book. Have an adventure! M. C. Gladd

  My review of " The Wizards of Once ", by Cressida Cowell. When Xar, the mischievous son of the greatest wizard ever (with no magic of his own I might ad), collides with Wish, the not so warrior-like daughter of the queen of the warriors, adventure ensues. They should be sworn enemies, but things aren't always as they seem. Well written with language that really brings the story to life, and with a dearth of fun magical characters of all shapes and sizes. I really enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to the next three books in the series. The 8 to 12 year olds this book is aimed at will love it. So will some of you adults. I did. . . #middlegradebooks   #middlegradefiction

  This is my review of the first book in the His Dark Materials series, " The Golden Compass ", which introduces us to Lyra and the fantastical world she lives in, a place where everyone's souls take animal form. Children are being kidnapped and Lyra must figure out why. I found this to be wildly imaginative and inspiring. Loved it.

 This is my review of " The Proto Project " Jason finds out the hard way just how cool his mom is and how dangerous her work is when her billion dollar project literally sprouts legs and hides in his pocket. Mom gets kidnapped and he and his friend must go on a high speed, high tech adventure to save her...and maybe the world. Great fun read. Quick paced and likely to hold the most jaded kid's attention. Loved it.

 If anyone is looking for ways to encourage your teen to read, I wrote an article about it with some ideas that may help. You can find it here; mcgladdbooks.com/encouragingteenstoread

  This is my review of " The girl who drank the moon ". This was a beautifully written story. The characters were very fleshed out. The mythology of the world is deep and introduced in a way that flows along naturally with the story. Great ending, great story, great characters. Loved it.

 Meet the Elephant in the Room. She's a lot of fun to have around. The problem is, to react to her antics is to cause her to poof out of existence. So for her own protection, her friends in Nowonderland ignore her.

 Just a little character introduction. King Pin is featured in chapter 3 of Nowonderland . I'd say King Pin is a wonderful human being, but he's not even that great of a bowling pin. 

One of my twitter peeps challenges people daily to write poems based on Pictures she posts. This was one of my responses. Hope you like it.

 I would guess that a lot of the people that complain about Hallmark Channel movies because they're cheesy, unrealistic, badly acted, and predictable are the same people that love action movies that are unrealistic, badly acted, and predictable. Never mind the physics-defying action and never-empty guns.

 No-one is reading this blog as of yet, but for posterity's sake, I recently went broad with Draft2Digital. We'll see how this plays out.  

 I wasn't happy with my first cover, so I reworked it to make it a bit more polished. It's much improved I think.

 This post is about how I came up with my favorite character in Nowonderland. His name is King Pin. He is an actual bowling pin that was brought to life in my hidden fantasy world, Nowonderland.  King Pin's origin began thus; my son, at six or seven, had a birthday party at a bowling alley. Because he was the B-day boy, they gave him an old pin, that was spray painted silver and had a goofy face drawn on it. He kept this pin in his room for years.  Any-hoo, when I was writing, I wanted someone sort of like the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, but with no real power. I wanted him to be a narcissistic, power-tripping, know-it-all. Naturally, I based his personality on Donald Trump. He thinks he is the all-powerful king of Nowonderland, but even his flunkies know otherwise. They just play along to shut him up. I had a lot of fun writing his dialog and he is my fav, even though he only appears in chapter three.

 Up to 6 reviews, all 5 star! Thanks to them for the support!

 

This was our car for a trunk or treat this year. Now I want to write a story about a car that backs up to unsuspecting people in parking lots and eats them. His name is Hubba Bubba the Monster Trunk.