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Laura Berg is an amazing woman with an incredible love for sign language. She went from YouTube sensation to founder of My Smart Hands™ and Dragons' Den star all in what seems like the blink of an eye and she did it all with the help of her darling daughter Fireese. Now Laura is proud to add author to her list of accomplishments with her book The Baby Signing Bible: Baby Sign Language Made Easy. This is where you have to imagine Laura squealing, "I wrote a book!" The book is a step-by-step guide with over 400 American Sign Language symbols, and complete with adorable illustrations of signing babies. The Baby Signing Bible can give parents, caregivers and educators the tools to teach sign language to babies, children and kids with special needs.
I had the awesome opportunity to attend The Baby Signing Bible book launch and take in the festive atmosphere complete with a live band, and a cake crafted in the image of Laura's book! I asked Laura to share what she learned from her writing and publishing experience, so to be apropos she gave her answers in the wonderful video below.
Publishing The Baby Signing Bible And The 5 Things I Learned
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Berg is the founder of My Smart Hands, a world-wide company that teaches sign language to hearing children. She has a Masters Degree in Education and is certified in ASL and deaf studies. Laura lives in Toronto with her husband and their two children. Visit Laura's website mysmarthands.com and subscribe to MySmartHandsCA YouTube channel for more information. Social media fans can follow @MySmartHands on Twitter and like My Smart Hands Fans on Facebook. Smartphone users can check out the My Smart Hands apps for iPhone and Android.
BOOKALICIOUS BOOK GRAB GIVEAWAY
Laura Berg has generously offered copies of The Baby Sigining Bible to three lucky Bookalicious readers. To enter the draw leave a comment in the "click here to spill it!" bubble below. Good luck!
Author photo credit: CL Buchanan
One Good Hustle is Billie Livingston's latest novel. It was long-listed for 2012 Giller Prize and currently nominated in the Canada Reads Top 10: British Columbia and Yukon catergory. The story introduces Sammie. She is an old soul for her mere 16 years. Sammie has witnessed far too much for her age but somehow maintains a refreshing amount of naïveté when it comes to her views on life, loyalty and love. Her parents Sam and Marlene live on the edge as con artists, scammers, and hustlers. Sammie fears that she is doomed to inherit their ways and yearns to live life like the "normals" with regular Joe jobs. Most teenagers spend a great deal of time trying to fit in. Sammie's lot in life adds to her struggle to find her identity in a world of crime and deception. Sammie's story is her search for acceptance and a semblance of normalcy.
"I'm just like them and I'm nothing like them."
Sammie feels responsible for her mother Marlene who is a depressed and suicidal drunk. Her father Sam is an absentee parent, preferring the con artist lifestyle to family life. Sammie bolts from her dysfunctional home to live with her friend Jill and her family. They are kind and include her in their family but Sammie feels somewhat like a stray dog. Her friend Drew tries to get through to Sammie but she puts up a wall of protection. Her defenses are up and trusting people only makes you vulnerable. Sammie's situation appears bleak but this tenacious teen has a good head on her shoulders. The touching part of this tale is Sammie's loyalty to her parents and her hope for the future. The surprising reality about this novel is that it's part autobiographical. One Good Hustle has stark elements and experiences gleaned from Billie's upbringing as a child of a con artist father and an alcoholic mother. To get an inside look into the author's history read Tales From The Conman's Daughter by Billie Livingston.
One Good Hustle is a brilliantly crafted and heartbreakingly honest portrayal of a young woman searching for her identity in a world of uncertainty. This hard to put down story of a heroine with a heart of gold will appeal to both adults and teenagers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Billie Livingston is a Canadian author of the multiple award winning short story collection Greedy Little Eyes, the novels Cease To Blush (YMC Book Of The Month) and Going Down Swinging, a collection of poetry The Chick At The Back Of The Church and The Single Voice Series book The Trouble With Marlene. You can visit Billie's website BillieLivingston.com and follow @BillieLiving on Twitter.
YUMMY MUMMY BOOK CLUB
The #YMBC will be reading One Good Hustle and discussing it in our virtual book club Twitter chat with special guest author Billie Livingston! Save the date Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 at 9:30 pm EST for what promises to be a terrific discussion. Use the hashtag #OneGoodHustle, follow host @BookaliciousCA and author @BillieLiving. Keep tabs on the #YMBC Twitter chat updates on Bookalicious.ca. To join the YMBC click here to sign up and get a heads up on free books!
BOOKALICIOUS BOOK GRAB GIVEAWAY
Random House of Canada has copies of One Good Hustle to give to 2 lucky Bookalicious readers! Leave your comment in the "click here to spill it!" bubble below to enter the draw. To read about more great books visit RandomHouseCanada.ca, RetreatByRandomHouse.ca, and CraveByRandomHouse.ca. Social media fans can follow the bookish tweets with @RandomHouseCA and @HazlittMag on Twitter and find bookworm fun with Random House of Canada and HazlittMag on Facebook.
This is proudly sponsored by our friends at Random House.
www.randomhouse.ca