A Great Way to Help Japan

Children's authors, illustrators, and publishers are banding together to help Japan. They've donated goods and services that are being auctioned at Children's Authors and Illustrators for Japan. Everything from books to prints to editorial services are available.


Leap  Books editor Kat O'Shea is offering three critiques. Not only can you take advantage of her expertise, but if you've been dying to submit to Leap Books, here's your chance. Normally we only take agented submissions, but the three lucky authors that Kat critiques will have an opportunity to submit their completed manuscripts to Leap Books after they've revised them. We hope you'll leap at this chance to get your foot in the door. Watch for Kat's offering to come up. Here are the details:

Auction #67
From Thursday 3/31 @ 11:00AM EDT to Tuesday 4/5 @ 11:00AM EDT
Kat O'Shea: critique-50 pages
Value:  $250

And while you're there, be sure to look at all the other great items. Nab a badge to show your support. Better yet, pop over to the website now and start bidding.

We've Been WOWed!

Island Sting by author Bonnie J. Doerr is featured at La Femme Readers as a Waiting on Wednesday pick. We're thrilled that this action-packed eco-mystery is on Eleni's list. Hope it's on yours too!

And here's a big shout out to Eleni both for selecting the book and for being an avid participant in our Leap Books badge contest. Eleni's collected each new badge as it comes out, so we're expecting she'll be a big winner. If you don't know about our contest, read the blogs below and check out the awesome badges on the right.

Frances O'Roark Dowell, Edgar-award-winning author of Dovey Coe says this about Island Sting: "Once you start reading, you’ll find yourself flipping pages as fast as you can, eager to find out what happens next." 

 If you love intrigue and care about endangered animals, you'll want to snag your copy when it comes out on January 6, 2010. For more info on Island Sting, click here.

Leap Badge No.5

Leap Badge No.5 is all about Girl Powa! The sky's the limit if you believe in yourself.


13 Things You Can Do to Create Girl Powa in Your Life

• Be a role model.
• Challenge yourself each day to achieve something new.
• Never surrender. If you don’t succeed, get back out there and keep trying until you do!
• Believe you are beautiful, ’cuz you are!
• To thine own self be true. Good ol ’ Willy Shakespeare had it right.
• Leave the world better than you found it.
• Be someone’s shoulder and ear when they need it.
• Pay it forward. It will come back around to you.
• Learn something new and then teach it to someone else.
• Be sure to take time to enjoy the little things.
• Take care of Mother Earth, we only get one home.
• Believe in yourself.
• Read, ’cuz knowledge is power!

(And remember, Girl Powa isn't just for girls, it's for EVERYONE.)

Grab your copy of Badge No. 5 today and get entered in our SWAG contest to end all SWAG contests. ;)

Don't know about the contest? It's easy. Snag a Leap badge, and post it on your Blog, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Email us at contests@leapbks.com with the address of the page where you loaded it. Why? One word: SWAG. For full contest details, go here.

Leap Badge No.4

We're just a few short months away from the official Leap Launch date of January 1, 2010 and our swag contest give away. Due to popular demand, we've opened our contest up to North America and the UK. We didn't expect this kind of response, but we're delighted with your Leap enthusiasm!

Don't know about the contest? It's easy. Snag a Leap badge, and post it on your Blog, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Email us at contests@leapbks.com with the address of the page where you loaded it. Why? One word: SWAG. For full contest details go here.

Have a look at Badge No.4. After all, the eye is the window to the soul:

Leap Launch Contest: The Loot

Here's a sneak peek at the loot we have for our Leap Badge/Launch Contest contestants. Don't know about the contest? It's easy. Snag a Leap badge, and post it on your Blog, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Email us at contests@leapbks.com with the address of the page where you loaded it. Why? One word: SWAG. For full contest details go here.

We're GIVING AWAY:

• Eighteen Advanced Reader Copies of one of three Leap Books titles will be awarded to book reviewers.
• Twenty Leap T-shirts and twenty Leap bags will be awarded to Leap Launch Party 2010 contestants.
• One Kasey Maxwell charm bracelet and Eryn McCain necklace will be awarded, as well as two hundred Leap buttons.

Wowza, that's a lot of loot. ;) Check out the Kasey Maxwell charm bracelet: