Guest Blogger: Elise Primavera & Giveaway

Earlier today, I reviewed a delightful book called THUMB LOVE by Elise Primavera. Booking Son and I both thought the book was adorable and we had a fun time discussing it -- it's an all too relevant subject matter in our house!

I am so excited that Ms. Primavera took time from her busy schedule to write a guest post for Booking Mama. I think you'll find this essay very interesting because she tells about the inspiration for her latest book THUMB LOVE.

When I try to come up with ideas for my books I think of subjects that are important to kids—universal ideas.

I think back to when I was little and try to remember things that meant the most to me. Things like; candy, Christmas, birthdays, friends, stuffed animals, etc.

A couple of years ago I started to think about all things to do with thumb sucking. Like how much fun it was, how hard it was to quit, the teasing, and the gap it had caused in between my two front teeth. I can remember my brother telling everyone to, “Look! Elise can stick her entire tongue through her teeth!” You mean everybody can’t do this, I thought? Cool. I would do my trick and wait. I always got attention and a laugh, but it took me awhile to catch on that they were laughing at me, not with me. It was sad. I tried to quit, I really did. I remember a conversation I had with my cousin Judy, who, with a will of steal, quit her thumb way before me. “When you go to sleep,” she advised, “wedge your arm under your body so you don’t suck your thumb. That’s how I quit!”

It sounded just as horrible as it turned out to be. I mean who can sleep like that?

All of these memories zipped through my brain as I got to work on THUMB LOVE. Particularly the one of my mother approaching me at bedtime with the little brown bottle, innocently name, “Thumb” but ominously filled with liquid fire. “Just hold still,” she said, and painted a colorless coating of the stuff on the offending digit. With no idea of what was to come I nestled under the covers, popped the thumb in my mouth and, AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! like I’d just put a red hot poker in my mouth.

So there it is. Was I traumatized? Perhaps. But in the interest of making lemons into lemonade I have taken the struggles with my thumb to ease the way for others. To quote myself on the last pages of THUMB LOVE I am “Carrying the Message!”

And remember, moms of the world, if all else fails, your kids will probably end up quitting their thumbs like I did. One day they’ll look at their thumbs, the thrill will be gone, it just won’t be the same, and they’ll stop.

A huge thanks to Ms. Primavera for writing this fantastic guest post!

Giveaway alert: Thanks to the publisher, I have a copy of THUMB LOVE to share with one lucky reader. To enter, just fill out the form below -- that's it! This contest will be open until October 24th at 11:59 p.m. ET, and I will notify the winner the following day. US addresses only. Good luck!