Planet Explorers Ebooks: #Review and #Giveaway (Closed)

When I was a child and young teenager, my family did our fair share of vacationing throughout Canada and the United States. We hit up numerous hotspots, with family-friendly beach destinations and coaster-heavy amusement parks tops on the list. I remember getting super-pumped before each trip, pouring over wrinkled pamphlets and AAA tourbooks, and dreaming up potential itineraries in my head. (Yup, even back then I was a little Type A. ;) But there were always some big holes in my planning materials - they only covered the highlights and included a lot of stuff I didn't care so much about as a kid (driving directions, adult-centric attractions, costs, etc.) How awesome would it have been to have entire guidebooks devoted to our vacation destinations, focused on only the cool stuff of interest to people my age?

Well, luckily, kids these days do have such an advantage! Enter Planet Explorers, a new series of ebook travel guides geared toward "tweens", ages 8-12! The series was founded by Laura Schaefer, author of The Teashop Girls and The Secret Ingredient. Here is a blurb from the Planet Explorers website on how Laura was inspired to begin writing these guides and her goals for the series:

"The Planet Explorers adventure began when a library director in Wisconsin told young adult author Laura Schaefer about several requests from parents for kids' travel guides. Laura founded Planet Explorers to fulfill this need and to indulge her own love of travel and of digging up fun facts. Her goal is to make each ebook a rich source of information about its destination. 

Laura wants each book to act as a springboard to further learning about geography, history, and science. To do this, links are provided throughout each guide to give readers more information about everything under the sun."

Laura has written the following six Planet Exporers ebooks so far: Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia and Disney Cruise Line. She also offers a Planet Explorers Disney Mega Guide containing all three Disney books - perfect for the mega Disney fan! The books can all be read on many different devices, from Kindle to iPad to PC.

For review purposes, I selected Planet Explorers Walt Disney World, as this was one of the theme parks I visited as an older child (11 years old if I remember correctly.) I downloaded it in PDF format to read on my laptop. (Admittedly, I'm technologically behind, lacking one of the shiny new devices best suited to this sort of thing!)

The book is 65 pages long, well-illustrated and chock-full of information. It includes an introductory page, a brief history of WDW, chapters on each "sub-park" (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach and Downtown Disney), Disney-isms (terminology kids might hear while at the park), a "Test Your Knowledge" quiz, general information (on hotels, restaurants and entertainment) and other goodies. The sub-park chapters are broken down further into themed areas (for example, Epcot has segments on Future World, Innoventions and World Showcase) and each of these is divided into the following sections:

• What's cool about it? - Highlights top attractions in the area, including tips (for example, whether or not it's important to grab a "FastPass" for the attraction) and symbols which denote key characteristics of the attraction: S for Scary, D for Dark, T for Thrilling, W for Wet and A for just plain Awesome! :)
• Fun Facts - Includes neat little tidbits about the area, such as pop culture references, measurements/statistics and historical facts. For example, did you know that the Spaceship Earth structure in Future world has 11,324 triangles on its surface? (I wonder - did Laura count them all while waiting in a particularly long line-up? ;)
• Food - Ahhh, food. This section lists key eateries in the area, describing the types of grub available and indicating quick-service vs. sit-down for each one.

Each sub-park chapters also includes two great sections to close things off:

• Characters - A run-down of where (and when) to find all those fun Disney characters within each park
• Tips - A suggested itinerary for optimizing a day at the park  (i.e., maximizing the number of attractions you're able to visit). This is gold - you definitely won't find this in a run-of-the-mill guidebook!

And if that's not enough, the book also includes DID YOU KNOW? trivia bits scattered throughout. These are basically general "Fun Facts" about Walt Disney World and its main parks as a whole. For example, apparently there are at least 600 "Hidden Mickeys" to find in WDW! That's so cool - I had no idea! I would have had a field day trying to locate all these as a kid. ;)

True to her goal of encouraging further learning, Laura has incorporated dozens of links into the guide. Kids can quickly jump over to read about the real Hollywood Boulevard, Mark Twain (the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn) the French chateau which inspired Cinderella's Castle, all the flicks featured in the Great Movie Ride and many other people, places and things! Certainly beats staring at the guy in the "I'm in no shape to exercise" tee four rows over. *nods*

All in all, I found Planet Explorers Walt Disney World to be a comprehensive, fun and interesting read, and I can see it being a very helpful guide for kids as well as adults who are planning (or currently enjoying) a WDW vacation. The book certainly triggered some fond memories, though also made me realize just how much the park has expanded & improved in the 20+ years since I've been there (whoa, I just revealed my age, huh? :) I found the language and flow to be pretty much ideal for the target age range, and I also appreciated the genuine enthusiasm and fondness conveyed in the writing. It is quite clear that Laura has a special place in her heart for Walt Disney World and that this guide was truly a labour of love. (Understandable, given her family has been visiting WDW for decades!)

During my read through, I did find a number of potential improvement areas in terms of organization, layout and other (generally superficial) factors. I sent my feedback directly to Laura and she was super appreciative and responsive, eager to implement some of the suggested changes and/or consider them further. She said that one of the best things about being a self published ebook author is that changes can be carried out very quickly. In general, she plans to release new editions of the Planet Explorer books each year, as applicable. This is a series she is passionate about and committed to, and I'm happy that I got the opportunity to check out its leading installment! I will definitely be recommending the series to family and friends with older children.

Buy It:

Planet Explorers ebooks are available for download on Amazon (Kindle / smart phones) and Smashwords (Nook, iPad, Sony Reader and PC). All of the individual books are $2.99 each, and the Disney Mega Guide is $6.99, a savings of $2 vs. purchasing the three books separately.


Win It:

Laura has generously offered to give away a free download of one of her books to two lucky Manager to Mom readers! Winner chooses book (Disney Mega Guide excluded.)

To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Comments do not count as entries, however feel free to add a comment to remind yourself that you entered!

Pears, Poo and "To Bed With You!!!"

I had a plethora of ideas for awesomesauce blog posts this week, however sickies, lack of proper sleep and Blogger's little stunt threw a wrench into that. But now it's the weekend and perhaps (with hubby's assistance) I can do some catch up here. We'll start with a rather sleep-deprived "miscellaneous happenings" update; excuse any improper grammar or questionable sentence structure and flow. THERE, I said it. Now I can write with impunity! ;)

First of all, an update on solids. On Wednesday we found ourselves once more into a double digits number of days since S last had a doo-doo, and her "composter" farts were getting seriously wretched! So we went for the double poo-ty frooty combo - more prune juice, and some mashed up pear! This was the third or fourth time she'd had prune juice so she has gotten used to it and doesn't mind it. So how'd she do on the pear, you ask? Well:

Lots of strange faces and definitely more slopped onto her tray or mushed into her bib than actually ingested, but it was a pretty good start! Unfortunately when we tried again the next day with the other half of the pear, she decided she was having none of it. Gaah. Well, we'll try again later.

In any case, it appears she got enough in to hit pay dirt! Or would that be poo dirt? Or pay squirt? :) Anyhoo. Let’s just say that an insta-bath was in order following Wednesday night's inshident. Oh! And despite the magnitude, her baby blue Charis Designs cover held everything in. w00t!

A few people have commented that S's recent bowel habits must sure make diaper changes easier. This got me thinking. In terms of the clean-up process, would I rather contend with one or two "regular" poops per day, or a GINORMOUS, sticky, peanut-buttery, "baby wipes ain't cutting it" affair once every 10 days or so? And y'know what - I'm not sure! What would YOU rather contend with?

Next on the solids radar: oats and peas. We're also excited about introducing quinoa which is SUPER healthy, however it seems the recommendation is 8+ months for this one, so we won't go there just yet.

In other news, I'm starting to question the whole asthma thing. S's been a LOT better over the last few days; very little coughing overnight and generally nice, regular breathing. Granted we *have* been using her inhalers (at least the long term twice/day one) but we've also been battling the sickies. Maybe she just had whatever we did and is getting over it now? Do we really want to continue making her breathe in those chemicals if this is the case? Though on the flip side, if it's the inhalers that are making her better, do we want to stop them now? Gah, so many questions and so few clear answers! That said, Chris and I have agreed to continue with the inhalers until her follow-up appointment next week, and then re-evaluate from there.

Finally, we're now on night 3 of Really Craptacular Sleep. S has been a) very difficult to settle and b) waking MULTIPLE times overnight to fuss 'n' feed. Like, we're talking every hour and a half. It's been reminiscent of her first couple weeks except even more challenging because Chris hasn't been off work to fully share the pain (though he *has* taken her for an hour or so in the mornings before work to help me out) and because she barely naps during the day, preventing me from "sleeping when baby sleeps" and catching up. BUT! I think she's teething and/or going through a big growth spurt, both of which are good things! (Not that teething's fun, but it's something every baby needs to go through!) Oh-so-fittingly, the amber teething necklace I won over at Obsessions of The Trophy Wife just came in the mail the other day (all the way from Lithuania!), so we'll give that a try this weekend and see if it helps her out!

Chris showed me something he found the other day which is also oh-so-fitting:

 

The product description:

Go the F*!k to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don't always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, California Book Award-winning author Adam Mansbach's verses perfectly capture the familiar--and unspoken--tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. In the process, they open up a conversation about parenting, granting us permission to admit our frustrations, and laugh at their absurdity.

With illustrations by Ricardo Cortes, Go the Fuck to Sleep is beautiful, subversive, and pants-wettingly funny--a book for parents new, old, and expectant. You probably should not read it to your children.

And a sample verse:

The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You're cozy and warm in your bed, my dear
Please go the f*!k to sleep.

Awesomeness.

Nursery prep, registry changes and more research...

This past Sunday, I reached a milestone - 34 weeks! By this point, baby's lungs are pretty much fully developed, so if she were to make her arrival now, in all likelihood she'd be just fine! Next milestone - 37 weeks when she'll be considered full term! That's just 2 1/2 weeks away - wow!!

Since we've managed to reach this point and things have been so stable recently, I felt like it would be OK to do some nursery prep this weekend. Sharyn (Chris' mom) helped me do a whackload of laundry on Friday - baby clothes, blankets, covers from various baby paraphernalia, etc. On Sunday, I put the items back together and started organizing the clothes into Baby's dresser. Then I spent quite a while researching more gear, and ended up making substantial changes to the registry. I can get a tad obsessive about this stuff ;) One of these days I'd like to blog on the choices we made for key baby gear - let's see if I can drum up the motivation for this one!

I also perused natural childbirth and baby-related books on Amazon for quite awhile this past Saturday. I've already learned a fair amount about natural childbirth through our prenatal classes and various books. The best book I've read on this topic (by far) is Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. It convinced me via detailed descriptions & compelling statistics that natural is the way to go (if possible), and that a woman's body is truly designed to give birth! As I read, I felt any fear I'd previously had about childbirth melt away and be replaced with a sense of calm and direction. The book also contains dozens of inspiring birth stories. Highly recommended reading for any woman considering a natural childbirth (or simply wanting to learn more about it!)

That said, although I found the tips from class helpful and thoroughly enjoyed Ina May's book, I thought I would benefit from learning more comprehensive labour management preparation techniques. I decided on the following two books:

Active Birth: The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally - focuses on physical labour management - effective positions, massage, etc. - and teaches women how to follow their own instincts and take control of their birthing experience.

HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method - focuses on inward aspects of labour management - relaxation, imagery and meditation. Also includes a birth exercise CD. For awhile I was undecided on hypnobirthing vs. the Bradley method (as support on discussion forums appeared to be pretty equally divided) but opted for hypnobirthing thanks to YouTube's plethora of videos showing women coping extremely well during transition while employing this method.

I also grabbed the following three books on baby care & development:

The Mother of All Baby Books: An All-Canadian Guide to Baby's First Year - I've already read through most of this (borrowed from library) and it's a great reference for baby care fundamentals - breast feeding, bathing, medical information, solids, etc. I'd imagine most of this will quickly become second nature once Baby is here, however it should prove helpful during the early days when we're fumbling through everything. :) That said, the medical chapter and a few others should have more longevity, plus the fact that it's geared to Canadians is a bonus!

Bright from the Start - Information on nurturing little one's intellectual potential, including scientific data and age-appropriate games and activities to play with her. (I've said at least a couple times in the past that if/when I had kids I looked forward to "doing experiments" on them - while that specific phrasing now sounds cold and clinical, I'm definitely excited to observe our child learning and discovering new skills, both as a result of engaging with people and self-exploration.)

I attempted to order Baby Hearts as well (which discusses emotional development in babies and toddlers and has great reviews), however it was listed with a much later shipping date so I'll pick it up later.

I love immersing myself in this whole new world of learning and knowledge! In an odd way, I'm actually looking forward to the experience of labour, and I get super excited and emotional thinking about the moment when we get to meet our little one for the first time. :D :D What an exciting journey!!