I was given the opportunity to review two of the cutest books by local author, James Robert Miller, after he had sent me information on a local book signing he was having.

I initially fell in love with the illustrations of the two monsters Basie and Paisley, but after reading the books James sent me, I fell in love with the stories as well.

James has lived in Michigan most of his life and has two daughters of his own.  The idea for A Spider Lives in My Belly Button came from James’ own daughter pretending a spider lived in his belly button which gave birth to the characters Basie (Count Basie) and Paisley(James’ sisters nickname).  The characters Basie and Paisley are brother and sister in the book and so are author James and his illustrator sister Leslie Kelly.

My daughters hung on to every sentence of A Spider Lives in My Belly Button and I enjoyed reading it to them… such a cute book (it was my favorite)!

I love all of the things that make Paisley smile in, A Monstrous Smile.  I smiled while reading it!

Both books were fun to read for me and fun to listen to for my girls.  I think my oldest can add them to early reading material as well.

More books are in the works to be added to the Basie and Paisley series as well as new characters…and I can’t wait!

Prize

One lucky winners will receive a copy of A Spider Lives in My Belly Button and A Monstrous Smile.  Winner will be notified via email and will need to respond within 24 hours or a new winner will be chosen.

Entry Requirements

To enter for a chance to win, you are required to do the following two things. Make sure to leave a comment after each entry requirement:

1. Subscribe to Detroit Mommies via email or RSS feed.  Current subscribers count.
Enter your email address:

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2. Tell me what animal or insect you would choose to live in your belly button….if it were possible.

For extra entries:

Become a Facebook fan of Basie and Paisley (here)

The Fine Print

No purchase necessary to enter. Winners will be selected randomly through https://random.org. Detroit Mommies writers and contributors are ineligible to participate.  Entries that do not follow all of the entry requirements will not be considered.  Open to participants in the US and Canada 18 years and older. One entry per person.  Contest ends December 15, 2009 at 11:59:59 p.m. EST.

Courtney is the ultimate multitasking mom!  She runs  three blogs Giftfully Simple, The Digital Mommy and Detroit Mommies , is a Social Media Marketing Consultant and has 3 girls under 6 years old.  Courtney is the founder of Detroit Mommies.  You can follow her on Twitter @theappleofmyeye.  She has worked with companies like Johnsons & Johnsons, Dove, e.l.f., Stride Rite, Sorel, 20th Century Fox, The Palace, Melissa & Doug, Panera, Tiny Prints and Ford (to name a few).  Courtney is a Purex^® Insider and a Max Mom for Office Max.

Disclosure: The Basie and Paisley books were provided for review.  The opinions expressed in this post are mine and mine alone and are not influenced in any way by anyone.