The Pillow Parade Teaches Children About Passion and Resilience - A Book Review

The Pillow Parade: Children's Bedtime Book

Author: Edward Dron

Illustrator: Hong Anh

Publisher: Noisy Orchard Press

Publication Date: December 9, 2017

Length: 38 Pages


About the Author
Ed Dron enjoys writing fun little stories that capture a child’s short attention span. He loves the challenge of condensing a story into as few words as possible, without losing its charm or narrative.

Ed believes that, first and foremost, a children’s book needs to be fun. It should not only nurture their curiosity but also spark a lifelong love of books and reading.

No Sleep - No Problem!
Olive the rabbit loves to leap and bounce all over the place. One day, she meets a sheep and challenges him to a race. He does not have time to race because he is late to his jumping club.

Members of the Pillow Parade Jumping Club jump over a fence to help children fall asleep at night. Everyone knows that counting sheep will make you sleepy, right?

Olive wants to join the jumping club because of her passion for jumping and her desire to help the children. Unfortunately, only sheep are allowed to join the jumping club. Olive is a rabbit and would not be accepted in this exclusive club for sheep.

Olive does not let this rejection get her down and she does not give up. She BOUNCES into action and hatches a great plan for helping children who are not able to see the sheep jumping over the fence because they live in a tall apartment building.

But, Olive did not pout or cry.
She simply smiled and waved goodbye.
And as a clever bunny would,
She had a plan that was quite good.

Olive becomes an honorary member of the Pillow Parade Jumping Club because of her great jumping skill and her kind heart.

Never Give Up Until You Are Proud
This book illustrates a wonderful growth mindset and the power of passion, perseverance and resilience. 

The rhyming text is fun and the beautiful color illustrations provide value to the story. I read a digital version of this book on a 7" Kindle ereader and the formatting is very good.  

This book is a bedtime story for children and so much more. Rejection is very difficult to deal with for children (and adults). We all want to be accepted and embrace a feeling of belonging. When Olive was not allowed to join the Pillow Parade Jumping Club, she immediately started thinking about "Plan B". She did not waste time feeling sorry for herself or getting revenge on those who rejected her. She "had a plan that was quite good."

I highly recommend this book for children of all ages.  

My Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS

FYI ~ The author sent me a free digital copy of this book and asked me for an honest review. 

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Never Give Up

Have you ever faced rejection? Do you feel like giving up? Arthur A. Perkins has written Stop Writing, Fool to vent his frustrations about his writing career. This is a short story about Mr. Perkin's (known as AA) painful addiction to writing.
AA has had the writing virus for over 30 years. He got his first rejection letter at the age 22. Twenty years went by without further literary temptation.
Then, a co-worker encouraged Mr. Perkins to enter a short story competition that was sponsored by a local television station. He sent off a 5000 word story but he never got a reply from the competition, nor was his manuscript returned. This experience led to many literary ups and downs during the next ten years. AA acquired a literary agent and even tried his hand at writing plays, but it seemed like he was destined to failure.
This story is almost funny...if it were not so sad. At first it appears that this man is completely defeated...prepared to finally give up this addition to writing that has caused him so much pain.
But wait. AA has not given up...he is not defeated after all. On the last page of this memoir, he states "if you wish to read a low-cost novel by the same writer, the following two full-length novels can be found among the thousands of ebooks in the Kindle store."
AA no longer has to deal with those dreaded rejection letters from publishers, he has SELF-PUBLISHED his novels and he is on a roll! He will never give up!

This is a short read that many people will identify with. The book is currently being offered as a FREE Kindle ebook.  Read it today....and check-out AA's other books on Amazon.

Please share your thought in the Comments section below.

The Power Of Who By Bob Beaudine - A Review

The Power of Who; You Already Know Everyone You Need To Know by Bob Beaudine teaches us a new way to think about business and personal networking.

Mr. Beaudine says, "Networking as we know it is crap. It doesn't work!" He explains that it is a waste of time to depend on acquaintances or strangers to help us achieve our goals or find our dream job. The better strategy is to focus on our inner circle of friends and family members. These are the people that believe in us and want to see us succeed.

The "100/40 Strategy" says the average person could make a list of 100 people they have known during their life. You are then told to make a list of 40 things you want to do and accomplish in life. You can then connect the dots and use the people from the "Who" list to help achieve goals on the "What" list.

Mr. Beaudine is a wonderful storyteller and shares some fascinating personal experiences in this book. One of the most poignant lessons that he shares is "Clue 4 - Rejection" in Chapter 6. He tells of a high school basketball coach that called him off the bench and into a game when the team was 18 points behind and two minutes left before the final buzzer. Bob miraculously scored 10 points in less than one minute. The coach called a time out and yelled, "Beaudine - you hog! Get off the court. First team, you're in!" The team lost, 50 - 42.

Mr. Beaudine acknowledges that there are "hog callers" and "dream killers" everywhere. They have no appreciation for your gifts and talents. "Go where you're celebated, not just tolerated." Your "Who" are your real friends who love you and want to see you succeed.

I have decided to apply the concepts in this book to my own life. I want to re-connect with friends that I have neglected in the past few years. I will nurture and treasure my "Who" in a new way. Thank you, Mr. Beaudine!