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New Bambi Translation Reveals the Dark Origins of the Disney Story

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From Publishers Weekly: The first English version since 1928 uncovers the deep, painful significance of the beloved tale.

The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by [Felix Salten, Alenka Sottler, Jack Zipes]

While at a Modern Language Association annual conference a few years ago, Jack Zipes was approached by representatives from one of his former publishers with a proposition. Would he like to do a new translation of Bambi from the original German? An English version had not been published since 1928. Zipes hesitated to take the idea seriously. As one of the nation’s pre-eminent fairytale scholars (he was the first to translate the entire Brothers Grimm collection from the original German), he knew as much about the story as most people—that the story was a classic Disney film, bursting with cheerful woodland creatures and swells of orchestral music. But as editor of Princeton University Press’s Oddly Modern Fairy Tales series, he was intrigued.

As he researched, Zipes made “a stunning discovery”: a nearly forgotten author and a story much richer than he could have imagined. First published in Austria in 1922, Bambi, a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten was anything but the “shallow, sentimental story” portrayed in the Disney movie. Instead, Zipes said, the novel is “a brilliant and profound story of how minority groups throughout the world have been brutally treated” and an “allegory about the weak and powerless.”

“I was shocked,” Zipes said. Calling it “dystopic and sobering,” he said the story “was never intended for children.”

His translation of The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest will be released February 22 by Princeton University Press, featuring an introduction by Zipes and black-and-white illustrations by Alenka Sottler that capture both the stillness and interplay of animals in the forest.

Read full post on Publishers Weekly

It’s Giveaway time! Get a free bonus entry into our weekly raffle and check out Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

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Siddhartha

by Hermann Hesse
4.5 stars – 5,704 reviews
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
Authored by Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha is one of the most influential spiritual works of the twentieth century. It is the story of a young man who decides to leave his wife and kids and embark on a journey of suffering and rejection to finally find peace within and attain salvation.The story revolves around a young man who leaves his home and family on a quest for the Truth. Embarking on a journey that takes him from the austerities of renunciation to the profligacy of wealth. That leads him through the range of human experiences from hunger and want, to passion, pleasure, pain, greed, yearning, boredom, love, despair and hope. A journey that leads finally to the river, where he gains peace and eventually wisdom.
Go to Giveaway Central to enter and to say thank you here is a bonus entry word: spiritual

Author Tabatha Kiss scores with this steamy stand-alone College Football Romantic Comedy: Touchdown Baby

Touchdown Baby: A College Football Romantic Comedy

by Tabatha Kiss
4.7 stars – 64 reviews
Everyday Price: $4.99
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
FREE with Kindle UnlimitedLearn More
Here’s the set-up:
When my football coach father transferred me to Chicago North University, he asked for two things:
1. Pretend to be one big happy family to shine up his tarnished public image.
2. Don’t date his footballers.

Easy enough. Football was his world. Theatre was mine.
But when the star quarterback starts showing up everywhere I go, it gets harder and harder to resist his charms.

Enter, Junior Morgan.
Exit, my clothes.

If my father finds out we broke his rules, he’ll make life difficult for both of us.

Walking away isn’t as easy as it looks.
Not with Junior’s kiss on my lips.
His hand caressing mine.
His baby inside of me.

Congratulations, quarterback. You scored.
Now what?

Touchdown Baby is a steamy stand-alone sports romance guaranteed to tug your heartstrings. It was originally published as Bump & Run and Whiplash. This new edition includes brand-new and extended scenes not available in the original version.

Want more Chicago North University? Check out my Bad Boys of Delta Xi series, starting with the wild romantic comedy On His Face!

Discover the #1 bestselling middle-grade comic that inspired a major motion picture: Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

Family Book of The Day

Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life (Middle School series Book 1)

by James Patterson
4.7 stars – 2,691 reviews
Everyday price: $7.99
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
Discover the #1 bestselling middle-grade comic that inspired a major motion picture: Children’s Choice Award winner James Patterson has never been more hilarious and heartwarming.
Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he’s got an ace plan for the best year ever: to break every rule in his school’s oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class: 5,000 points! Running in the hallway: 10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm: 50,000 points! But when Rafe’s game starts to catch up with him, he’ll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he’s finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he’s been avoiding.
James Patterson’s debut middle-grade novel addresses some of middle schoolers’ biggest issues: bullies, first crushes, and finding out what makes each of us special, all with a hilarious main character and fantastic in-text illustrations that are sure to have young readers begging for more!

Today’s Book of The Day is sponsored by this week’s Kids’ eBook of The Week:

Let Them Be Kids: Adventure, Boredom, Innocence, and Other Gifts Children Need

by Jessica Smartt
4.8 stars – 252 reviews
Everyday price: $12.99
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
Here’s the set-up:

As parents we want to safeguard our children from the pressures and influences of the world, but also prepare them for age-appropriate realities. How do we find that balance? Jessica Smartt shares ways to be more aware, proactive, and protective, but also adventurous with our kids.

A former English teacher and homeschooling mother of three, Jessica Smartt felt the weight of helping prepare her kids for life, seeking to raise her children with a sense of adventure, self-confidence, manners, faith, and the ability to use technology wisely.

Let Them Be Kids is Jessica’s offering of grace and confidence to moms, providing practical ideas to meet the challenge of raising children. Part story, part guidebook, every chapter includes doable parenting strategies and encouragement for the journey, equipping moms with ways to provide a safe, healthy, Christ-centered upbringing for our children. Her well-researched, tested methods, woven together with her personal stories and witty humor, deliver wisdom on tough topics, such as:

  • Managing technology and fostering creative playtime
  • Balancing family time versus sports and extracurriculars
  • How and why to let your kids be awkward
  • Protecting innocence and purity
  • Showing grace when kids disobey

If you want to conquer fear and find the truth that transforms entire families, Let Them Be Kids will show you that it’s not only possible but essential to enjoy every special moment of building family values together. And it serves as a gentle reminder that, someday, you’ll be very glad you did.

It’s freebie Friday! Discover free books for Kindle eReaders!

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All I Want for Christmas Eve (Snowflake Creek)

by Olivia Noble
4.3 stars – 137 reviews
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:

Santa’s Sleigh has crashed in Eve’s backyard.

To be clear, it’s a plane named Santa’s Sleigh.
She saves Adam from the wreckage, and although he’s injured, he’s not too injured to make endless jokes about how they belong together. Adam and Eve jokes. Ugh.

It would be so lame if he weren’t so sexy. And if Eve didn’t live in The Middle of Nowhere, Alaska, where the only men around are polar bears.
Could Adam be Eve’s Christmas present from Santa?
Men don’t usually fall from the sky, but when they do… might as well enjoy.
It’s snowing men. Hallelujah?

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The Marquis’ Daughters: In the Shadow of the Guillotine

by Valerie Anne Hudson
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
Here’s the set-up:

Sometimes, the life you think you’ve always wanted turns out to be not at all what you expected …

Set in the late 1700s, the story takes place amidst the French Revolution. Odette is a lowly servant in the Marquis’ household, while Marie-Madeleine is the Marquis’ daughter. They are half-sisters and look alike, but one spends her days emptying bedpans and scrubbing floors, while the other needs only lift a finger for the world to be at her beck and call. With the Revolution underfoot, Marie-Madeleine disguises herself in Odette’s maid’s uniform in order to covertly meet her boyfriend. Odette takes that opportunity to try on Marie’s beautiful gowns, and as the streets of Paris are overtaken by a sudden surge of violence, the two are left living each other’s lives.

Will Marie survive in a world that doesn’t answer to her beck and call? Will she be able to return to her family, or will she perish in the streets among gangs of rioters, thieves and beggars?

Will Odette find happiness in her life as an aristocrat? Will it be everything she has dreamed of, or will she crumble under the constant threat of being arrested and executed as a royalist?

The Marquis’ Daughters is a classic coming-of-age story that thrusts the reader directly into the turbulence of the French Revolution. In the historically accurate descriptions of Paris in the 1700s, the reader will be faced with unexpected and uncanny similarities to life as it is today.

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The story of an irrepressible woman who flew her way into the history books… Teresa James WAFS Pilot: Gear Up/Gear Down: A P-47 to Newark by Sarah Byrn Rickman

Kindle Nation Daily eBook of The Day

Teresa James WAFS Pilot: : Gear Up/Gear Down: A P-47 to Newark

by Sarah Byrn Rickman
5.0 stars – 4 reviews
Everyday Price: $6.99
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
FREE with Kindle UnlimitedLearn More
Here’s the set-up:

Teresa James lived in an era when women had little control over their lives. At 19, Teresa learned to fly when aviation was still a wondrous and dangerous venture.

She had the grit, guts, and tenacity to develop exceptional flying skills. In fact, she became a professional “barnstorming” stunt pilot – when all other stunt pilots were men!

When the United States entered World War II, men and women, inspired by patriotism, volunteered. Now an experienced, capable pilot, Teresa offered to fly military airplanes. Men thought women were too skittish to handle military aircraft. The women proved them wrong.

Teresa and other members of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) stepped into newly created roles and had to figure out how to do their jobs – daring, dangerous jobs flying newly designed aircraft in incredibly challenging conditions.

In this fast-paced, engaging book, author Sarah Byrn Rickman captures the story of an irrepressible woman who flew her way into the history books. This book is a gift to aviation buffs, to World War II historians and, most of all, to young girls and boys who will be inspired to step up, take risks, and tenaciously pursue their own dreams.

No mask can hide the truth… Nora Delzelle’s gripping tale of ancient love and modern society into a compelling fantasy: THE SECRETS OF THE KINGS

Today’s Kindle Daily Deals!

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The Secrets of the Kings

by Nora Delzelle
4.4 stars – 122 reviews
Everyday Price: $8.99
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:

Alex Kincaid is 24 years old and leads a relatively quiet life in a small college town. As an employee of Galen Industries, she spends her free time with her co-workers like Emma Bastian, who wants to constantly meddle in Alex’s love life. That’s what friends do, right?

But Alex is too preoccupied with the odd letter she’s received – one that grants her a large inheritance from a total stranger, including a magical mask that’s going to change Alex’s life forever.

After an attempt on her life, Alex is horrified to see the mask take the shape of her face. It’s endowed with the powers of the ancient sky deity Horus, the protector of order. But now Alex is in danger because Set, the god of storms and chaos, has vowed to take revenge against Horus for killing his lover. And since the mask fuses the personalities of its previous owners, Alex’s own identity is in danger of being lost forever.

As Alex and her friends attempt to solve the mystery, the stakes keep rising. With Set hot on Alex’s trail, not to mention her growing feelings for her co-worker Gabriel Reyes, she must thread the needle of destiny and fulfillment.

The Secrets of the Kings is a thrilling story about who we really are. Author Nora Delzelle weaves a gripping tale of ancient love and modern society into a compelling fantasy. And as the mystery is eventually revealed, one thing soon becomes clear: no mask can hide the truth.