Book Pick of the Week: A Little Spark - Holidays

A great new book and more for the entire family.

“A Little Spark ” is driving its overarching 'be and do good' message home with an immersive multi-sensory / multimedia approach that combines a compelling narrative and cast of identifiable characters with full color illustrations; a custom-scored  musical soundtrack of original songs like this accessible through QR Codes while reading the book; an audiobook featuring delightful performances; fun on-and-offline activities; and invaluable life lessons that are highlighted throughout each chapter. It’s a heartening activity to enjoy with young children, grandchildren and students amid the new scholastic 'Be That Spark' elementary education lesson plan starting to roll out in classrooms.

Of special note:

Enhancing the read-along story and the various audio components, A Little Spark also comes complete with a free companion online Resource Library available at BeThatSpark.com, which boasts over 50 book-related family activities like coloring pages, character puppets, word searches, mazes, dance videos, character drawing video tutorials and more. A “Parent’s Guide” is also available to help plan and optimize the overall experience.

“Parents, grandparents, caregivers and educators are indelibly seeking great content to engage with kids, and A Little Spark is written with purpose and intention toward that end,” said Parsons. “The storyline, and the various lessons embedded throughout, underscore that even the smallest creature can make the biggest difference. This takeaway message is especially important for young, impressionable children to hear because they so badly want to be seen and heard...in today’s culture more than ever.”

Makes a great gift!

Kindle Pick of the Week: Clifford's Halloween

For anyone, if you enjoy that big dog, Clifford.

Great for Halloween! Who doesn't like Clifford?

https://www.amazon.com/Cliffords-Halloween-Norman-Bridwell-ebook/dp/B01C4MT6C4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635695663&sr=8-6

Amazon Pick of the Week: Earth My Dearest

A collection of over 200 inspirational and meaningful quotes around conservation and sustainability.

Highlighting the wonders of our planet and ways on how best we can save it, Earth, My Dearest includes quotes ranging from poet Henry David Thoreau to activist Greta Thunberg. This quote collection will help show all of us how to cherish the environment and key ways to protect our fragile planet moving ahead to an uncertain future.

Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Lovers-Treasury-Quotations-Inspiration/dp/1578268923

Kindle Pick of the Week: The Successful Manager

It’s the moment you’ve been working toward for years — you’ve finally been promoted to manager! But your initial wave of excitement quickly ebbs once the reality of your situation sinks in: Your success now hinges entirely on the performance of others, and you’ve been offered no managerial training to help you navigate this new frontier.

“Few organizations provide new managers with the resources to help ensure their success during this period of massive change. New managers are left to ‘figure it out’ in the wild,” writes James Potter in The Successful Manager: Practical Approaches for Building and Leading High-Performance Teams. In it, he and co-author Mike Kavanagh dissect every aspect of becoming a top-tier manager and distill it into practical tools and techniques that professionals can implement immediately.

Perfect for new and experienced managers alike, The Successful Manager provides concrete information covering a spectrum of managerial responsibilities, including how to set goals and give reviews; how to prioritize your time and delegate effectively; how to coach constructively and give feedback; how to motivate and inspire your team; how to build trust with a remote team; how to handle tough situations; and so much more.

Other key offerings include:

· A clear framework to guide you in building the fundamental competencies of an outstanding manager
· Practical examples, stories and tips from some of the world’s greatest managers of teams and large organizations
· Diagnostics to foster self-reflection and to gauge your progress on your journey to becoming a top-tier manager
· Descriptions of the challenges you can expect to experience as a manager and advice on how to adopt the mindset that will help you triumph and emerge as a truly great manager

If your team succeeds, you succeed. And that is precisely your role as a manager — to build and grow an outstanding team and to elicit the best team performance possible to achieve the desired results.

James Potter is the Chief Commercial Officer at Dunes Point Capital. In his prior role, Potter was the Senior Managing Director and Global Practice Leader at Blue Ridge Partners, a global management consulting firm that focuses exclusively on accelerating profitable revenue growth. He has helped over 100 organizations and their leadership teams. The measure of his success is not pretty PowerPoint presentations or 2x2 frameworks, but the results he drives for his clients and their organizations. Potter also founded two software companies that were acquired and has worked in public organizations such as General Electric and NBCUniversal.

Mike Kavanagh is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, consultant and educator in the areas of leadership, performance and personal development. He is the CEO and Founder of Self-Mastery for Leaders, a business that arms individuals with the tools to maximize well-being, reclaim their time and freedom and become world-class leaders. Kavanagh also works with progressive organizations to define winning strategies, build extraordinary cultures and win the talent war. He is on a personal mission to help end corporate malaise, ignite people’s passion and fulfillment in their work, and build the next generation of truly incredible leaders.

For more information, please visit https://www.thesuccessfulmanager.com/.\

Kindle Pick of the Week: Mart of Darkness

The CEO of AllMart, the world's largest chain of discount stores, has become unhinged and the feds send a team of ultra-deep special forces to stop him. This gritty, genre-bashing, darkly-comic dystopian/sci-fi/thriller mashup takes you on a hallucinogenic carnival ride through the company's flagship store that covers an ever-expanding swath of southern Ohio. Told through the horrified eyes of K, an office temp who has accidentally been recruited for his "special skills," Mart of Darkness pits the team against feral live-in shoppers, morality-free executives and quantum technology that threatens to collapse the global economy. K is in way over his head and can't find a way out.

Join him as he crosses the Videocean, passes through the Great Gates of Giardiniera and gains a lasting appreciation for early Native American hunting practices. Chug an energy drink, don't expect cell phone service inside, and climb on for the ride!

A great read by Phil Granchi.