News, News, and More News! (and free stuff too!)

New Reviewers!

 Since we cover pretty much every genre under the sun here at The Best Books Ever, we decided to bring in two new guest reviewers - Crystalee and Amy.  Crystalee will be handing mainly children's books and young adult books, while Amy will be taking care of adult fiction and mysteries.  If you are a publisher and you have children's picture books, adult fiction, or anything else for our reviewers- please email us at oneminutebooks at gmail dot com.  We are looking forward to adding in these two new reviewers- we hope you like them too!

Free Signed Earthbound Poster (first 500)

 Aprilynne Pike and Penguin are giving back to readers who have pre-ordered Earthbound (or who will pre-order it).  If you have ordered Earthbound already or are about to do it now that you read freebies, go to this form and fill it out to get your free Earthbound poster.  If you are hesitating- do it!  My review of Earthbound will be on the site on July 2nd, but *spoiler alert*  I really enjoyed it!

Win a Trip to London!

 The Weinstein Company (you know Harvey Weinstein- that guy EVERYONE thanks at the Oscars) here and fill out your information! 
is giving away one trip to London to the set of Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters.  There is no task to complete- just go to the website, fill out the information and you are set!  Winners will be announced soon- so make sure you get over to the site to sign-up!  (Ps- I haven't read any of the Vampire Academy books yet, but the storyline seems like one I would love.  Have you read it?  Are you excited for the movie?)

Support a pretty awesome kickstarter! (And get free stuff!)

So one of my friends is writing a book and she needs YOUR help to get it off the ground!  Take a look at this kickstarter and please consider supporting her- she is an awesome person and really cares about her students.  If you DO donate to the kickstarter, email us at oneminutebooks at gmail dot com and let us know- we will send you a special surprise in the mail!

L&W Detective Agency is a series of math books for children. The series

focuses on two birds, Layla and Wilson, who fly around the world helping students with Math problems. This series is aligned with the new Common Core Standards in Math.

We began our teaching journey together at a small urban school in Winston-Salem, NC teaching third grade. It was a unique experience because Rachael Adams taught a class of all girls and Rachel Lackey taught a class of all boys. We developed a professional friendship that blossomed into a personal one as well. Because it was such a small school, we relied on each others' talents to help create a successful year for our students. Since then Rachel Lackey got married and moved to another town to teach fourth grade, while Rachael Adams continued to teach at the small urban school. 

Over our years of experience teaching, we have noticed a great need for interest-grabbing picture books that explain difficult math concepts to students. With the release of the Common Core Standards to North Carolina, we see an even larger need to provide teachers, parents, and students with grade-appropriate picture books centered on math.
 
We are also bird lovers. Rachel Lackey owns a cockatiel named Wilson and a parakeet named Bonnie, while Rachael Adams owns an Indian Ringneck named Layla and a parakeet named Aussie.

Since becoming personal friends, we still continue to meet and enjoy each others' company. One afternoon we were discussing school issues, and Rachel Lackey mentioned a gap she noticed in regards to mathematic-themed picture books. We began to brainstorm ideas and came up with the L&W Detective Agency using our birds, Layla and Wilson.

From there, the idea "took flight", and we have been creating children's stories for kindergarten. The dream is that we will eventually have math stories for grades K-5 that align to the Common Core Standards.

We have recently started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the illustrations and publication costs for the first book. To see our project, go to our Kickstarter page: http://kck.st/ZYs7k0

Drama Llama

 We know there is a ton of drama going on write now with plagiarists in the Indie area.  You may have also noticed that as of this week, we are currently not taking any review requests from Indie authors.  We wanted our readers and authors who stop by to know that those two things are unrelated.  We are currently full with requests and are literally unable to take on any more books (I think drowning in books would be an appropriate phrase).  We will still welcome requests from publishers (small or large), but until further notice we won't be taking requests from self-published authors.  Thanks!