My Castle Heart Publications

I am absolutely floored by this review of The Denim Jungle I just received from the 24th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Books Awards.

And it couldn’t come at a better time. Last week was the one-year anniversary of finally having my book (MY book!) in my hands, and tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of losing Sue, who inspired me to make it. To say it’s a bittersweet time of year would be a profound understatement.

I miss you, Sue. Thank you for being you. Thank you for motivating me (and so many others) to imagine and commit and create. Thank you for giving me this connection to you. But most of all, thank you for helping me be the kind of mom who can show her kids that dreams can be made reality with hard work and heart.

24th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
Entry Title: The Denim Jungle
Category: Children’s Picture books

Books are evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning “needs improvement” and 5 meaning “outstanding.”

• Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 5
• Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 5
• Production Quality and Cover Design: 5
• Plot and Story Appeal: 5
• Character Appeal and Development: 5
• Voice and Writing Style: 5

Judge’s Commentary

Visually stunning and engaging, designed for multiple reads that will reveal new details each time. Author has put a lot of excellent thought and work into designing this book with multimedia elements, creating visually pleasing pages to delight the young reader and older reader alike. Author scores with a terrific premise – how the world looks so different from a toddler’s point of view. Author gives that perspective a relatable experience – seeing a common fabric at that height: denim. Well done. So completely relatable. Book is designed beautifully, and the well-chosen word art (extra powerful in its minimalism, not overdone!) created visual fun for the reader. Terrific verse, pacing and length, and the lesson at the end (…to see the world, not pass it by) is such an important one for little readers to learn mindfulness, presence, appreciation, beauty, and also the important lesson seeing things from another’s point of view. Very well done. Hope to see more from this author and illustrator. Talent is impressive here. It’s not always the case that text, illustration and that hard-to-define magic that occurs in their synergy live in a book – but in this case, they definitely do. The Denim Jungle is a fully-realized, engaging book with exciting potential on the market. Well done. Love the language play as well; works on the tongue and visually.