Book Giveway: BRACELETS FOR BINA’S BROTHERS by Rajani LaRocca

Rajani LaRocca has a new picture book, BRACELETS FOR BINA’S BROTHERS, illustrated Chaaya Prabhat and published by Charlesbridge Children’s Books. They have agreed to share a copy with one lucky winner living in the United States.

Just leave a comment, reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know how you shared the good news. If you follow my blog and have it delivered daily, let me know in the comments so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter or reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. So, thanks for helping Rajani and Chaaya.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

For the Hindu holiday of Raksha Bandhan, Bina is determined to make beaded bracelets for her brothers all by herself. She finds out which colors her brothers like and dislike and sets to work. Working with her every-other-one beading pattern causes Bina to discover something new about patterns–and her brothers.

Storytelling Math celebrates children using math in their daily adventures as they play, build, and discover the world around them. Joyful stories and hands-on activities make it easy for kids and their grown-ups to explore everyday math together. Developed in collaboration with math experts at STEM education nonprofit TERC, under a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation.

BOOK JOURNEY:

Kathy, thank you so much for having me on your blog! I’m delighted to be here today talking about my book journey for my picture book, BRACELETS FOR BINA’S BROTHERS, part of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series!

Charlesbridge held a symposium for authors in conjunction with TERC, a math nonprofit, about math for young kids. During that symposium, we read a lot of picture books together and discussed both story and early math concepts. During that day, I was inspired by the idea of patterns as a math concept, something that I hadn’t really considered before. Then I thought about beads and bracelet making, and once I thought about bracelets, my mind jumped to the Indian holiday Raksha Bandhan, when sisters give bracelets to their brothers. I drafted and revised my story and submitted it to Charlesbridge and was delighted when they acquired it for Storytelling Math.

Once Chaaya Prabhat signed on to illustrate and I saw her first sketches, she brought the story to life more brilliantly than I could ever have imagined. Little Bina her huge dog, Tara, are so adorable, and the brothers’ distinct personalities shine through beautifully. The math concept of pattern making is echoed repeatedly in the art, making the book fun on many levels.

I hope that young readers have fun following along with Bina and her brothers, who sometimes annoy each other, but who love each other very much and are good to each other, too. I also hope they have fun recognizing and making patterns everywhere they go!

RAJANI LA ROCCA’S BIO:

Rajani was born in Bangalore, India and immigrated to the U.S. as a baby. She spent most of my childhood in Louisville, Kentucky.

She attended Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, and trained in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has been working as a primary care physician since 2001. Rajani lives in eastern Massachusetts with my wonderful husband, our two brilliant kids, and an impossibly cute dog.

Rajani has always been an omnivorous reader – cereal boxes, comic books, fortune cookie fortunes, magazine articles, and, of course, novels. The books she read as a child helped shape who she is today in ways that she’s still discovering. Books inspired her to pursue medicine as a career; books made her yearn to live in different worlds; books helped her consider what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. She still love realistic fiction with puzzles or riddles (like The Westing Game), realistic fiction with a touch of magic (like A Wrinkle in Time), and full-blown sci-fi and fantasy (like The Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series). She also loves anything to do with Shakespeare. Rajani believes that promoting diversity in children’s literature leads to empathy, and empathy makes the world a better place.

She also believes, one of the best things about writing for kids is meeting other people who write for kids. She is a member of SCBWI, Grub Street in Boston, The Writers’ Loft in Sherborn, MA, and the 12 x 12 picture book community. She is a proud Pitch Wars 2017 alum and 2018 and 2019 mentor! Rajani is a member of as incredible group of debut middle grade and young adult authors, the Novel Nineteens, a powerhouse group of debut picture book writers and illustrators, the Soaring 20s, as well as a group of awesome authors who write about STEAM topics, STEAMTeam2020!

Rajani is represented by the marvelous Brent Taylor of TriadaUS Literary Agency.

She writes middle grade novels and picture books. Some of her books reflect her experiences as an immigrant, book nerd, and foodie; some explain medical topics to kids. And some are just ideas that pop into her head and won’t go away.

And that’s only the beginning of the story…

CHAAYA PRABHAT’S BIO:

Chaaya Prabhat is a graphic designer, illustrator and lettering artist. After completing her M.A in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design, she is now working independently in Chennai, India. She has worked with several clients such as Snapchat, Facebook, Google and The Obama Foundation. She has previously received awards for her portfolio and projects from Behance and Adobe.

It has been her pleasure working with numerous clients such as Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Penguin UK, The Obama Foundation, the Times of India, Harper Collins and Hachette.

Chaaya was just featured on Illustrator Saturday. Click here to see her work and read her interview. You also visit her website: www.chaayaprabhat.com and Instagram.com/chaaya23 to see more of her work.

Rajani thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. I love how you are introducing children to Raksha Bandhan, an Indian holiday celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters. Every year in August, sisters tie bracelets, or rakhi, on their brothers’ wrists to protect them, and brothers give their sisters small gifts in return. It is fun to see how Bina goes out of her way to make the special bracelets for her brothers and how they celebrate. Chaaya did a wonderful job with the illustrations, capturing the feel of the Indian culture. I am sure children will enjoy celebrating with Bina and her brothers. Good luck with the book!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy