Book Review - Santa's Rescue Dog (Super Speed Sam Book 5) by Monty J McClaine

Book Review

Santa's Rescue Dog (Super Speed Sam)
by Monty J. McClaine

Book Description

***Winner of 5th Annual Beverly Hills Book Awards in the “Holiday” category.*** 

The McClaines faithful basset hound, Sam, knows how to use his super speed powers, even in a pinch, keeping it top secret from everyone except for baby Molly, of course. What he does NOT know is how these powers started… that’s a big secret to him! 

Sam knows it’s a ‘family thing’, having been passed down through generations of ‘Sam’s’ from long ago, he doesn’t know why, where, how or what got these amazing abilities started. Well, hold onto your seats because in this extra special Super Sam episode, you’re about to find out! 

Whether following Santa and his reindeer on their highly eventful Christmas Eve journey, discovering a special ‘sleigh recovery’ team of elves or meeting Sam’s great, great, great (add a whole bunch of ‘greats’), you won’t be able to put this holiday special down! 

Read the exciting, humorous and sometimes tearful special Christmas episode, Santa’s Rescue Dog to find out! Sam might not know where his secret abilities come from, but now you get the chance to uncover the truth of the mystery in this fun, sweet, adventurous ‘Sam’ story!

Available to buy from...

Amazon.com   Amazon.co.uk   Paperback   Audible

Hubbie's Book Review

The fifth book in the series where we meet Sam the basset hound who has inherited special abilities. In this particular episode Sam has to come to Santas rescue. The story is full of fascinating facts about christmas and where the legends come from that have been passed down through the generations. 

The book is written in easy to read text for both a young reader and parent to enjoy together with nice short chapters. Excellent illustrations at the beginning of each chapter bring this fun story to life. 

The style of writing and cute pictures took me back to my childhood and the books I used to read with my parents and I am sure once these stories are discovered they will be cherished and shared by families and passed down to generation after generation.

Our rating

About the Author

Proud winner of the 5th Annual Beverly Hills Book Awards in the “Holiday” category for Super Speed Sam - Santa's Rescue Dog. 

I feel that some of the natural interactions between family and friends are gradually eroding, if not already completely worn away for some. And I was reminded of a C.S.Lewis quotation - 

 “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” 

It also feels like the simple joy of laughing or crying among family and friends is being replaced by beeps, bops and demands to ‘add new features’ or ‘why doesn’t this work?’ or ‘who’s hogging the Wi-Fi?’. 

So I set out to create a fun and exciting series of children’s short stories, with lots of adventure and splashes of humor, all paced to hold children’s attention whether reading or listening… at least that’s my hope! 

Stories that will delight both boys and girls, the young and old, and, of course, moms and dads! Tales that allow a return to simpler values, kid-like imagination for both children and adults and, I sincerely hope, bring families closer together.

Find the author on the following sites...

Website   Facebook   Twitter   Indies United   Goodreads   Amazon Author Page

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Sharon Martin Blogger & Promoter at Beck Valley Books beckvalleybooks@gmail.com | http://beckvalleybooks.blogspot.com

Free for a limited time!! Oliver and Jumpy by Werner Stejskal (stories 16-18) plus Book Excerpt from Story 1

FREE on Amazon.com

FREE on Amazon.co.uk

These illustrated cat stories are all about “Oliver and Jumpy”, who are best of friends and experience many adventures together. Oliver is an elegant black tomcat, who is full of himself. As a matter of fact he says: “I love myself!”, quite often. Naughty, isn’t he? But his best friend Jumpy, a kangaroo lady, is aware that he has a soft heart and will always want to help others. The great thing is Jumpy’s pouch, which Oliver loves to ride in! He calls her his kangaroo taxi! These little bedtime stories with their lovely illustrations are great for small kids. A parent can read the text and tell the child in his own words. These animal stories have sufficient text to keep early readers happy and provide some educational value. Depending on your device, there is pop-up text (at Amazon) or audio available. Several talented illustrators are essential to bring these children's stories to you in quick succession. Love you all! Meow! 

Story 16: Who am I? - Oliver loses his memory. 

Story 17: Up the Tree - Oliver explores a tall tree and meets many animals there. 

Story 18: Moon Crystal – Oliver and Jumpy are flying to the moon.

Here's another little treat too!  Excerpt from Story 1

Excerpt of the first Story

Do you like cats? Yes? I am glad, because I am a black cat with a white top hat. I have a few white spots on my fur too. Mum is white, you see! My name is Oliver. I am a very elegant tomcat with the shiniest coat in the world. I brush my fur every morning and always keep my nails trimmed! Of course, my hat is really refined too, which is another word for elegant.

Whenever you put on your new clothes, you can announce to everybody, “I am refined!” And everybody will think you are an elegant person. Well, enough of all that talk about me, although I can never talk too much about myself. I really think I am a cool cat. I love myself! Do you think this is naughty? You are probably right, but I can’t help it.

My best friend’s name is Jumpy. You guessed it. She likes to jump a lot, because she is a kangaroo! She is a great girl and she lets me ride in her pouch! I get in and Jumpy jumps away and away! That’s a lot of fun. I bet you would like to ride in her pouch too, wouldn’t you? You are probably a bit too big. I am quite small, so it is OK. I love it, but after a while I need to rest. All that up and down makes me dizzy. It’s a bit like being on a roller coaster.

Amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LMKWMCG

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LMKWMCG

B&N: http://m.barnesandnoble.com/s/werner%20stejskal/1451724

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/werner-stejskal/id811547142?mt=11

About the author

Born in Vienna, Austria, Werner is now living in the paradise of Perth, Australia with his wife, two married children and three grandchildren. He worked in the printing industry for many years and later for the United Nations in Vienna. Now retired, after a full and eventful life, he began to write children’s stories. He found illustrators through Odesk, narrated them himself for YouTube and finally took the next step by publishing ebooks.

Website: www.bedtimestory4you.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/werner.stejskal

Twitter:@OliverAndJumpy
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8385113.Werner_Stejskal
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Werner-Stejskal/e/B00NFANG58 

Sharon x

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http://www.beckvalleybooks.co.uk 
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8 Popular Children's Tales That Are Actually Horrifying

via browse.deviantart.com

From nursery rhymes to fairy tales and folklore, prepare to have your childhood ruined. You won't even want to have kids if they're going to have to hear these stories eventually, because their origins are so… bloodied.

1. "Jack and Jill"
Jack and Jill is just a story about two kids who get severely injured after performing hard manual labor searching for water. Jack falls down and breaks "his crown," aka his head, while his sister also tumbles while trying to help him. After somehow limping home, the only medical care he's offered is a patching of his head with "vinegar and brown paper," which hardly seems like an effective form of treatment.

2. "Rock-a-bye Baby"
For some reason, a helpless baby is placed in a crib on a questionable branch at the top of a tree. Also, it's clear that as the wind blows, so does the crib rock. Inevitably, the bough will break, taking the crib and baby with it. What exactly are we supposed to learn from this rhyme, other than that babies are extremely fragile and shouldn't be placed in trees? Did we not already know that?

3. "Hansel and Gretel"
Hansel and Gretel has just always been terrifying. It's the story of a neglectful and essentially abusive family whose daughter and son the mother (in the original) plots to ditch out in the forest. However, the kids overhear her plot and Hansel takes a slice of bread before they're led on their trek in the woods. Birds eat the crumbs and they can't find their way home. Fortunately, they find a house made of candy and begin to eat it, till they are taken prisoner by the house's owner, a witch with a taste for children. So Hansel gets locked in a cage and Gretel gets turned into a slave, until they eventually manage to one-up the witch and shove her into the very oven they would've been cooked in.

Well, sure, I guess this story has a "happy ending," in that the kids find a bunch of treasure and escape, but the story until then is simply the stuff of nightmares.

via browse.deviantart.com

4. "There Was An Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"
So we have this old woman who's somehow ended up with "oh so many" children, who literally inhabit the entirety of an inexplicable giant shoe. Not only is the environment worthy of child services' intervening, but the rhyme goes on to describe that there's not enough food for them, and even the broth they're served is sans bread. Oh, and then she "[whips] them all soundly" and put them to bed.

5. "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater"
Peter's this dude with a wife he clearly isn't getting along with, and also some kind of bizarre pumpkin fetish/addiction. Eventually he has enough of trying to keep his wife satisfied, so--obviously--he traps her in a "pumpkin shell" where she is subsequently "kept very well." Which presumably means she died from suffocation, so then he doesn't really have any idea how she's doing.

6. "Oh My Darling Clementine"
A boy falls head over heels for some miner's daughter, and one day while they're playing and enjoying each other's company, she trips and plummets into a stream. Also she doesn't know how to swim. As she's swept away by the current, the boy desperately wants to save her, but can't because he doesn't know how to swim either. So, she floats away and her body is then used to fertilize some flowers (which the rhyme makes sure to take note of).

Moral: If you fall in love, the object of your affection will probably die before she even gets to knows how you feel.

7. Saint Nicolas (and the "Krampus")
Santa Claus traditionally had a number of terrifying "companions" who came along with him to deliver toys. Take, for instance, Krampus, popular in Austria, who wore "black rags and masks, dragging chains behind them," using said chains to whip children who got in their way.

The Krampus appear after a child receives Christmas gifts; if he does not likewise receive a golden branch (for good deeds), then the Krampus would take the child's gifts for his own and leave in their place a silver branch. That just sucks.

8. "Little Red Riding Hood"
In the earliest versions of this classic tale, the antagonist is not always a wolf, but often an ogre or a werewolf as well. The wolf (or whatever) usually leaves the grandmother's blood-drenched meat and bones for the girl to eat, who unknowingly cannibalizes her own grandmother. Also, at one point the disguised wolf requests that the prepubescent girl remove her clothes, which he tosses into the fire. Then they get into bed together and he eats her.

by Josh Fjelstad
BuzzFeed