Tuesday Book Review: Gluten-Free Me: Beckmin Goes to School by Christy E. Bykowski

“Beckmin Goes to School” is Bykowski’s first children’s book and was inspired by her middle son Beckmin, who was diagnosed with celiac disease at 18 months, after extensive sickness and a series of hospital visits. Since then, Christy has worked with Beckmin through the everyday challenges of being a kid with this disease, dealing with his frustrations and his own learning curve as to what celiac disease is, how to explain it and what it means in his day-to-day life. Beckmin’s stories, written to help children define, understand and explain celiac disease, are meant to be both empowering and educational for kids and their parents.

Title of Book: Gluten-Free Me, Beckmin Goes to School
Author: Christy E. Bykowski
Publisher: Halo Publishing, Int.
ISBN Number: ISBN 13: 978-1-61244-228-0
Genre: Children
Publication Date: January 2014

Synopsis of book: “Beckmin goes to School” is meant to raise awareness for celiac disease and the everyday challenges children with celiac disease face in their otherwise normal activities. As diagnosis of celiac disease increases, education, awareness, and understanding will be the keys to making celiac kids feel normal and included. Written for children to help them express and understand celiac disease, the book is a wonderful tool for children and adults alike.

My Thoughts: My girls enjoyed this book. It was a bit above the understanding of my preschooler, but she loved telling me her own story by just looking at the pictures throughout the book. However, my older daughter (a 3rd grader) liked learning about another child who was different as she is in speech at school. She was able to relate to Beckmin and how he had to explain certain things to the kids around him.

Children will not only understand the fears of going off to school or to a new school, but also how making friends can be hard. I love this because Beckmin doesn't get upset, but instead turns this into an opportunity to share about himself and celiac disease. The author did a wonderful job of bring awareness to those who have never heard of this allergy and also gives great tips to those who have to explain it to others.

Places available for sale: Halo, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Author Website: www.glutenfreekids.info
Twitter URL: @christybyk

Author Bio: Christy E. Bykowski is an award-winning public relations and marketing practitioner, as well as a wife and mother. She lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, Benjamin, raising their three boys and spreading awareness about celiac disease and the need for a gluten-free environment for individuals diagnosed with celiac disease.

You can find out more about Christy E. Bykowski, her book and World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/lquajjn

Interview Friday with Author Maggie Lyons

Maggie Lyons was born in Wales and brought up in England before gravitating west to Virginia’s coast. She zigzagged her way through a motley variety of careers from orchestral management to law-firm media relations to academic editing. Writing and editing nonfiction for adults brought plenty of satisfaction but nothing like the magic she discovered in writing fiction and nonfiction for children. Several of her articles, poetry, and a chapter book have been published in the children’s magazines Stories for Children Magazine and knowonder! VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today, Maggie. To get things started can you share what you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Maggie: Very fortunately for me, I’m retired and my son left the nest some time ago. That doesn’t mean I have no other commitments, of course. In fact, I’m very busy as a freelance editor, but I do have the privilege of being able to control m...

Interview Friday: Author Sands Hetherington

Sands Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. He lives in Greensboro. VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today. To get things started, Sands, what do you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Sands: Hi Mama and thanks for having me over. Actually, my family life was part of my writing life. I was a single (male) parent of a six-year-old son. We always did bedtime stories. One night John invented a red crocodile named Crosley for an after-lights-out companion. This evolved directly into...

Writing Prompt Monday: The Challenge

The idea is too basically express yourself on paper, learn how to use your five senses, or build upon an idea. Think back to when you were in school, it used to only take your teacher saying, “Write a paragraph or one page composition on any subject you want.” This was all it used to take to get those creative juices flowing, but what about now? If you are like me and most writers I know, you have most likely experience the dreaded word “Writer’s Block” from time to time. Getting past this wide-eyed, blank page stare can be hard, and the flashing cursor does not help matters. What is a writer to do? Well it does not matter if you are a New York Best-selling author or an aspiring author, we all need a little creative boost from time to time and that is where my Writing Prompt Monday comes in. In my search for a writing prompt for this week, I came across a great site called Creative Writing Prompts . They have over 300 writing prompts to get your creative juices flowin...

VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

Search This Blog