v 3 issue 15: Lets hear it for the boys

Calling all boys and girls too. We have selected some of our favorite items that your boys will be proud to own. Plus: Author Max Elliot Anderson shares his action-adventure books and the story behind why he became an author.

Cover by Kelly Smith










1 Have a future Olympian in your family? This super soft tri blend cotton tee from paperlili shouts out Olympic spirit with just a tad of attitude. Never underestimate a child with a vision. Available in sizes 2-8. Enter code: FRIEND for 20% off all purchases!

2 From cute to creepy, Booby Trap & the pen of Marco Rached bring the afterlife to life in the Glow-in-the-Dark line. Booby Trap carries tees for the "bats and cupcakes" of the world and they offer styles and sizes to please both. Take a look. Enter code: weloveyou for 25% off purchase with free shipping.

3 Thankfully, Bersica Futurewear provides clothes for children with Nanosphere technology. A nanosphere finish naturally repels water & liquids, oil, and dirt through nanotechnology & the self-cleaning processes observed in certain plants and insects. The result: cold water washing with results, longer wear-time, and the reduction of stains! Shirt/Short Set on sale for $25.

4 T-Rex is safely transported from the Jurassic Period into modern times on the Dinosaur Treasure Tee from Aardvark. A petite-sized version of the most feared carnivore is safely trapped inside a clear plastic bubble and placed upon an olive green tee with a great prehistoric background.

5 Trapped inside each of the 8 dripping monster bubbles of chocovenyl is the imaginative artwork of Julien Canavezes. Chocovenyl provides PVC free wall decor which is easily repositioned without damaging walls. More importantly, you will find truly unique illustrations attained through collaboration with leading international artists. Enter code: TTW for 10% off at checkout.

6 Choose your favorite sport and customize this shirt to reflect your child’s sense of personality and adventure. Sports Kids has a large range of actives to choose from and are sure to bring a smile to all sports enthusiast. Keep an eye out, wheelchair basketball kids tees to arrive any day. Available in sizes 2-10. Enter code: TTW in coupon box for 10% off all purchases thru 3/31/10.

7 A realistic false wood finish is decked out with the sea-worthy illustrations of Johnny Yanok and filled with 192 pages of lined paper. Secret words, drawings, or plans can be locked up inside for safe-keeping. The Captain's Log (shhh...diary) is available @ galison.com.


This weeks mom tips:

Time Saving Tip: One of the easiest ways to start managing your time is to get a planner. This can be a paper planner or an electronic one. The key is to find one that fits your lifestyle and your personality. If you buy one that you don’t like, you won’t want to use it very much, and that defeats the whole purpose.

When you find a planner that you enjoy, create a regular schedule. If you are a creative type, you may balk at this suggestion, but you will find that living with a schedule can allow you to have more free time.

You can break your schedule down in any way that makes sense to you. You may want to group tasks by day or even by week. Just as long as you find time to get it all done. As you are scheduling your time, don’t forget to schedule some time for yourself.

When you schedule your tasks, it is important to prioritize them. This way, you’ll know what activities are the most important and you’ll know what things you need to work on first.



Health tip: Earache Home Remedies
Earaches are common among adults and children. They are most likely caused by too much wax forming in the ear, or an infection. In either case there are earache home remedies you can use to alleviate the pain and irritation caused by this common condition.

- Apply a lightly warmed heating pad to the ear, and take aspirin.
- Keep infected ears dry and clean; wipe away any discharge with cotton.
- Never use Q-tips to remove ear wax.
- Warm up some baby oil and place a few drops in the ear.
- For wax build up, place a few drops of mineral oil into the ear. Then use an ear bulb implement to withdraw the wax.
- Hydrogen Peroxide has also been effective in ridding wax in the ear quite efficiently.

While earaches can be very painful for children, it is always best to visit your pediatrician to determine the cause of the earache and the method of treatment. For adults, the same holds true although you can try the treatments above. If there is no relief, the condition may be serious enough to warrant a visit to your doctor.

Depending upon whether the cause of your earache is an infection or wax buildup, you can be assured your doctor has the tools available to relieve your pain, and will most likely prescribe antibiotics or ear drops if necessary. Keep in mind, the time to become concerned is when the middle and inner ear is affected, causing you loss of hearing or signs of acute infection. In either case, earache home remedies may be applied in the short term.


Books For Boys...And Girls

Author Max Elliot Anderson
shares his action-adventure and mystery books written especially for boys and the story behind why he became an author.


I grew up hating to read. In a family of seven children, I wasn't especially pushed to read, so I never formed good reading habits. This was ironic because my father has published over 70 books. A number of these were written for children.

A few years ago I decided to look into some of the reasons for my lack of interest in reading. My findings lead me to begin writing action-adventure and mystery books, for readers 8 - 13, that I would have liked as a child. My books are highly visual, with lots of humor, dialog, and plenty of heart-pounding action. My purpose was to craft books that would excite the interest of reluctant readers, especially boys.

After a detailed study into why I didn't like to read, and looking at books that were written for children, I set out to write the kind of stories I would have read when I was a child.

During my study, I discovered books with large blocks of copy, making it easy for a reluctant reader to lose his place on the page. Books tended to be produced on a brown shade of paper with small type. A reluctant boy reader is not going to be interested in endless sections of detail and description. He wants something happening on every page, fast action, and humor.

My books are larger than most, the paper is bright white, and the type is larger. Sentences and paragraphs are short, the books contain a lot of dialog and humor, along with heart-pounding action and adventure. Most chapters end in a cliffhanger, nearly forcing the reader to start the next chapter.

The first seven books are Newspaper Caper, Terror at Wolf Lake, North Woods Poachers, Mountain Cabin Mystery, Big Rig Rustlers, Secret of Abbott's Cave, and Legend of the White Wolf. Each book takes place in a different part of the country with different characters, settings, and plots.

Readers and reviewers have likened my books to The Hardy Boys, modern day Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn, Nancy Drew, Star Wars, Tom Swift, Scooby-Doo, Lemony Snicket, and adventure author Jack London. These will soon be republished by a new publisher. And a new series, The Sam Austin Mystery & Adventure Series is in the works. The first three manuscripts have been completed.

Remember, readers are the leaders others follow.