Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift began singing at two years old. Yeah, really. Who knew that toddler would become an international, beloved role model and award-winning entertainer selling millions of albums?
Taylor had a dream. She wanted to be a singer and kept the dream alive by working hard and believing in herself. She developed her musical talent and loved sharing her music with her friends and family and eventually with all her fans.
Hello and welcome to the Children's Book Week Giveaway Hop! What a fantastic group of blogs and books to "hop" to and so many prizes! The blogs hosting the hop are at the bottom of the page. Have a "hoppy" day! I am thrilled to introduce you to my non-fiction e-book, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Please leave a comment and email addy below to be eligible to win a digital copy of the inter-active e-book Find out more about this inspiring book for girls below.
Girls Succeed interviews fifteen
remarkable women who have achieved recognition for accomplishment in their
occupations. This diverse group of careers encompasses women in the arts,
business, science, medicine, ministry, entertainment, and sports. Stories
include women who have stamped out disease, made people laugh, earned Olympic
and Paralympic gold medals, crossed the country in the cab of an eighteen
wheeler, and many more chapters to inspire and empower girls to reach for their
dreams.
After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and
online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction
writing with mysteries,
Sunshine Boulevard and Coda to Murder, released by Muse It Up Publishing. In Girls
Succeed she returns to her first love, writing
about real people. Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board
games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. Spending winters
in Florida with her husband allows Janet the opportunity to enjoy the life of a
snowbird. Summer finds her camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders
with her four grandsons and granddaughter.
Give Mom, Grandma, Aunt, or the special woman in your life a big hug this weekend
and say thanks for all she does for you.
I know there are days when you are at odds with each other, but you can work it out together. If you're having a hard time with each other, find someone who can help you to talk it through and help you to reach out for a new relationship with your mom.
The dance competition TV show, Dancing with the Stars, featured the Camden Sophisticated Sisters (CSS) dance team on the Tuesday night edition. The show saluted the director of the program, Tawanda Jones, for her dedication and inspiration to the kids in the after-school program. Watching her story of 26 years with CSS, viewers learned how important she is to her girls. She encourages them to be the best they can be and empowers them to reach for their dreams. She is a wonderful role model and mentor for the kids who live in a dangerous neighborhood in Camden, NJ. Read her story as a CNN Hero here. Yep, these girls could sure "bust a move" and they proved it by dancing an energetic, synchronized dance for the audience and viewers of DWTS. Take a look.
You TubeVideo from Dancing with the Stars
Do you have someone who is very important in your life? Someone who you respect and admire and you believe you want to be just like her? Medical Doctor Cate Bradley admired her grandmother and wanted to be just like her. Excerpt from Girl Succeed:
Role Models Rock
“From as
far back as I can remember, I knew I wanted to be a doctor, and I had no doubt
that I could do that since my grandmother was one,” said Dr. Catherine (Cate)
Bradley. She smiled as she remembered her grandmother.
Cate’s
grandmother received her medical degree in 1937. At that time, it was unusual for a woman to
be a doctor. She was dedicated to helping her patients in the small town in
Vermont. Cate’s grandmother was important to the members of her community and
always went out of her way to help. She
received an award from the American Cancer Society for her work in medicine and
was respected as a physician, a wife, and a mother of three daughters.
Cate
achieved her dream of becoming a doctor. But, unlike her grandmother’s family
medical practice, Cate works at a university.
She has three parts to her job.
She treats patients who are sick.
She teaches classes to medical students who are studying to become
doctors. And she does research to try to learn more about medical problems and
figure out how to develop better treatments for diseases. Her research is not
done in a laboratory, but rather in a clinic where she treats patients. Cate
records the information on how the patients react to these treatments.
In order
to be a doctor, a student must study for four years in college, four years in
medical school, and at least three years of advanced training in an area of
medicine, such as family medicine or pediatrics, taking care of kids. Anyone with the desire to be a doctor must be
dedicated to working hard to reach this goal.
Cate always worked toward her goal because she wanted to help people, and
she enjoyed science, especially biology, the study of the human body.
“I like
to figure out problems and puzzles which is much of what I do when a patient
comes to me with a problem,” she said.
Cate’s
week is busy with her duties as a doctor, wife, and mother. She sees patients in her office, performs
surgery, and writes reports on the results of her research. Cate and her husband, Scott, have two sons.
Their active family also includes their yellow Labrador retriever.
Cate was
valedictorian in her high school class, meaning she had the best grades in her
class. But there was a time in her life, between seventh and ninth grades when
her family moved four times. It was
difficult for her to make friends because she was always the new kid in
school. She wanted to blend in with her
classmates and make friends, so at times, she tried to hide how smart she
was. She did not want to be
different.
After
her family moved to Minnesota in ninth grade, Cate gained confidence through
playing clarinet in the band, joining the swim team, and playing the
piano. Her family stayed in one
place. By the time she entered eleventh
grade Cate had made friends and was comfortable with being herself.
Cate
believes that if you’re willing to work hard, you can become whatever you
wish. Cate’s grandmother inspired her to
become a respected doctor, loving wife, and fun-loving mother.
Who do
you respect and admire? Would you like
to grow up to become like someone you know?
You can do it! Keep working
toward your goals.
HIGHLIGHTS OF HER CAREER
Valedictorian,
first in her high school class, Minnesota
Bachelor
of Arts Degree in Biology, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Doctor
of Medicine, WashingtonUniversitySchool
of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
Residency
in Obstetrics and Gynecology, University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fellowship
in Urogynecology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
Member of Faculty (Teachers), University of Iowa, Iowa City,
Iowa
Received
a Career Development Grant to fund patient oriented research, National
Institute of Health, Washington,
D.C.,
Working in Health
Care and Wellness by Barbara W. Lee
If you would like to read more about role models in a career that may interest you, check out the e-book, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women.
Image credit: Arthur Murray Studio Dancer Adrianne Haslet
Adrianne Haslet will not let the bombers who disrupted the Boston Marathon last week ruin her dream of dancing. The blast blew off her foot, but with skilled doctors and caring medical staff, and a will that will carry her on, Adrianne will dance with grace again using a prosthetic foot.
Margaret Thatcher, first female Prime Minister of Britain
Margaret Thatcher was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the only woman, so far, to have held this office. The funeral services for this outstanding politician who changed the world will be held on Wednesday.
She first served in parliament and rose to become the first lady to be the head of a major political party in the United Kingdom. She was elected to the office of Prime Minister in 1979 and served three terms from 1979-1990. She holds the record as the longest serving British PM in the 20th century.
PM Thatcher was 87 when she passed away leaving a legacy of good works and successes in her life.
Today we welcome author Marva Dasef to the Girls Succeed blog. Talk about succeeding, Ms. Dasef poses the question--How does a fantasy girl succeed, namely, Kat the Witch? She's the main character in Ms. Dasef's fantasy series, The Witches of Galdorheim.
If you are into magic. imaginative characters, and locations, then you'll love these stories. I mean really, Ms. Dasef has cooked up a stew of amazing characters and situations which will make you laugh and cry. You will cheer for Kat the teen witch and boo the mean old hag. It's a fun read!
Katrina the teen witch with her half-vampire brother, Rune, brave crossing the arctic sea, being attacked by a polar bear, fighting giants, dodging magic attacks by an evil shaman, and that's just in book 1 of this trilogy. Complete in a single volume, follow Kat's adventures from the arctic circle to the Otherworld in Scotland.
How Does a Fantasy Girl Succeed? by Marva Dasef
It doesn’t seem fair to compare regular humans with fantasy characters. After all, most fantasy characters have some magic to back them up. But if a fantasy girl, in this case a witch, doesn’t have control of her magic, she has to draw on her girl power to succeed instead.
Katrina (Kat) has a witch mother and a regular human father (witches are also human, but just happen to have talents we regular humans don’t). She’s got the witch power churning inside her, but every time she tries to use it...well, it ain’t pretty. Her poor bunny has to put up with being turned into green goo and furniture breaks instead of levitating.
She’s a little jealous of her half-brother’s ability to use his inherited magic and knows she’ll never come up to the high standards of her mother, aunt, or any of the other witches on Galdorheim, the witches’ home island in the Barents Sea.
Her father, frozen in an ice cave when Kat was a tot, came from the Sami tribe of hunters and fishers who live in the farthest northern reaches of Siberia. Kat figures if she’s a magical failure, she should find her father’s family and live with them. So she decides to run away from home. Not an easy feat when you live on a ice-bound island in the Arctic.
She has what it takes to succeed. Not magic, but grit and determination. Nobody succeeds if they’re giver-uppers. She does enlist the assistance of an elderly and crotchety witch, Mordita. Without magic, Kat has to obtain some cold weather gear. Any of the other witches on the island would conjure it up themselves. So think of Mordita has Kat’s answer to having an Eddie Bauer’s store in town.
She also asks her brother for a couple of spells-to-go which she can invoke safely (e.g., without blowing up or turning anything into green goo). When Rune hears about her decision to leave, he insists he has to go along to help. Another thing a girl who wants to succeed can do is to call on others to help. Not to DO her work, but to mentor or provide tools she can use on her journey to success.
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To find out how Kat does in her quest, check out the Witches of Galdorheim series. They’re available in ebook and print formats from Amazon. Here’s a bit about all three books in the series.
Available in eBook format and in print from Amazon
BAD SPELLING
A klutzy witch, a shaman's curse, a quest to save her family. Can Kat find her magic in time?
Follow the adventures of Katrina and her half-vampire brother, Rune, as they chase down an evil shaman. Dodging the shaman's curses on a dangerous trip across the ice-bound arctic seas, they meet both friends and foes. Kat and Rune must find the shaman and stop him before their beloved island home is destroyed.
MIDNIGHT OIL
Shipwrecked on a legendary island, how can a witch rescue her boyfriend if she can’t even phone home?
Traveling with her newly-found grandfather, a raging storm catches them unawares. Kat is tossed into the icy seas, while her brother and grandfather travel on to find help. Kat is rescued by an unlikely creature, and Rune is captured by mutants. Only the magical Midnight Oil can save her brother, but an evil forest elemental is trying to stop her.
SCOTCH BROOM
A magical trip to Stonehenge lands a witch in the Otherworld where an ancient goddess is up to no good.
Kat is on her way to an exciting trip to a faroff land, but is led astray by a jealous rival. Caught in the Otherworld with a has-been goddess trying to kill her, Kat has to defeat the goddess and rescue her brother from the hag's clutches.
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To get links to the series and other books by Ms. Dasef, check out these sites:
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