Sometimes, a book comes along and you know straight away it is out of the ordinary. You get transported into a magical, whimsical world and bedtime stories come alive. Mikka’s Imagination does just that. I found out about it through Beau Papa (my father-in-law extraordinaire), who knows the creative pair behind the book really well. He gave my little ones a signed copy of the book each. We all love the story, which emphasises the importance of teamwork and helping each other until we get things right.
Crevette has been reading the story to his younger sisters.
Beanie in particular has been fascinated by Kath’s beautiful illustrations of Mikka, Bunnykins and the pink unicorn.
Here is a bit more information about the book by none other than its author, Malou Evans.
My name is Malou, and although originally from Wales, I have settled in Devon into a teaching career after completing a Theatre & Dance Degree at Dartington College of Arts. I am the author of the series of children’s books, Mikka’s Imagination. My fantastic Teaching Assistant, Kath, originates from this beautiful part of the country. With her incredible artistic talent she has ventured into producing and selling artwork that captures the wonderful landscape and characters of the South West. She is the illustrator, the one who brings Mikka and her friends to life through adorable paintings. In fact, one of our book’s unique selling points is that the pictures are all hand drawn and hand painted with watercolours. Each picture is a print of the original artwork.
I had always wanted to write children’s books, and back in January of this year Kath came to me with a proposal. Some of her followers on her Facebook page ‘Forever Framed’ had commented that her pictures would work really well in children’s books. It was from that moment, the moment I excitedly said “yes,” that our adventure started.
Every conversation we had about the book confirmed that we were on the same path with our ideas for the characters, the ethos of the stories and what we wanted to create and share with generations of readers, young and old. This helped propel us into producing and publishing our first book by July and our second is out this month! Kath and I like to get moving on projects and we have our next two books in our minds which we are ready to write and illustrate. We have a website being created, we have had a successful book launch at a local book shop and another planned later this month. Our local papers and BBC news are presenting pieces about our story and we are fast growing a wider network of Mikka followers!
So what are our books about?
Every child has an innate desire to explore through imaginative play. The length of time children continue to do this for is cut short these days due to the increased use of technology. Our series of books encourage children to indulge their imagination and creativity. For us, it is about going back to basics.
The stories all start in the same rhyming way, with the farm waking up and Mikka running out with her letter.
This comforting, familiar beginning enables children to join in as the book is being read to them before discovering what is in the letter and what will happen throughout the rest of the story. Each adventure that Mikka and her friends go on is full of good old-fashioned fun with lessons learnt along the way.
We have fallen in love with the characters in this series. They have grown from adorable pictures into personalities that we have a real affinity for. The name Mikka was created from the initials of the girls in our lives (Madison, Isla and Imogen, Kennady, Kerys and Aria) and each of their fabulous personalities have inspired how our characters behave.
So that is us. This is our story. We hope you join us and become part of our exciting adventure!
Thank you so much for bringing the book to life, Malou. We are fans!
Malou and Kath are giving one of my lovely readers the chance to win a copy of Mikka’s Imagination.
Win a copy of Mikka’s Imagination
How to enter the giveaway:
Check the instructions in the form below. You can pick and choose a range of ways in which to enter. The only one you must click on to get into the draw is the one asking you to leave a blog post comment. You must also write a comment describing what your favourite way to dress up was as a child.
Entries are open until 23.59 p.m. GMT time on 20 October 2015. Good luck!
Win a copy of children’s book Mikka’s Imagination
Disclosure:
– The prize will be supplied directly by Malou Evans.
– The giveaway is open to worldwide and there is no age restriction.
– My father-in-law bought the books for my children and I offered to help Malou and Kath promote their book. No payment was received. All opinions and photographs are my own.
I have listed this giveaway on ThePrizeFinder, SuperLucky and Loquax.
as a nurse!
I enjoyed dressing up as the Devil at Halloween
like a soldier
My sister and I liked to dress up in our princess outfits and shoes
had a cow girl outfit passed down from older cousin, loved that
Great prize, please pick me!!!!!
in my mums clothes
So did I!
I used to dress up as a squirrel! For some reason I really wanted to be one, so I had a tail made out of a scarf… 🙂
Brilliant! My daughter wants to be a chicken when she grows up…
I had a bit of a thing for sweeping cloaks!
My nan & great aunty had run a fancy dress hire business for a while so we had a cellar full of costumes (a child’s dream playroom!) I used to love dressing up in all sorts of outfits, a puppy, witch, princess, vampire, joker, there were so many amazing costumes x
Oh you lucky lady!
An octopus or jellyfish was always a must with all those floating extra legs! 🙂
I loved dressing up as a chocolate pudding oh god those photos are embarrassing lol x
I’d love to see that! Go on, tweet me the picture (pretty please!).
Like a soldier
lol have done x
As a witch
A white shawl over my head as a princess!
i liked wearing my grandmas high heel shoes xx
And I loved dressing up as Pipa Longstocking or Mary Poppins!
As a princess with a net curtain on my head
My best memory of dressing up was when my mum made me aa squaw for a school play, it was such a simple but effective outfit x
fairy
o loved wigs as a kid
My favourite way to dress up was my mom’s night dress and high hells.
As a princess. 🙂
Never dressed up
My Nan had a massive dressing up box of old fancy dress outfits – My favourite was the french maid’s outfit!
Loved dressing up as a princess with paper crown and all
As a bride
As a nurse
I remember dressing uo in my mom’s heals and using a wig too
mine was a princess
princess
A wonderful princess who even had a castle 🙂
I loved dressing up as something scary.
Princess.
A fairy
we never really did dressing up but i do remember my poor mum having to put together a wonder woman outfit for me for a party once! never again!
as a wonder woman 🙂
I loved dressing up. mum gave us her wedding dress to play with a lovely 70s number with puffy sleeves. I used to love dressing up as a pirate bucaneer!
Trousers all the time and in mums high heals
As a pirate, though I had to create the outfit!
as a nurse
I can’t remember ever dressing up (although I’m sure I had a lot of clothes to do it with). My kids love dressing up as firemen, princesses and super heros.
Besos, Sarah
Journeys of The Zoo
I always wanted to dress up as a huntress when I was a child.
What was your favourite way to dress up when you were a child? . . . . . . l can clearly remember clomping around the house in my mother’s shoes, pretending to be one of my teachers
I loved to dress up as a doctor
like a princess
my mum’s wedding dress
As a disco star
I was always a Red Indian with feathers in my hair
I loved to pretend that I was a princess.
in my mums clothes and heels haha
As a witch.
I had quite an imagination, my favourite outfit was an alien
as a princess.
I hated dressing up I was a proper tomboy
In my mum’s clothes
Vampire
Ginger spice – I have no shame about it either!
Brilliant answer!
As a ladybird and a geisha for competitions at school.
i love to dree like a princess 🙂
as a roller skate dancer
Always a knight in shining armour 🙂
i use to love dressing up in my nans clothes.
I would dress up in my moms party dresses and heels which was fine but then add the make and I usually used a lot my mom never seemed too impressed hehe
I used to wear an old bridesmaid dress and pretend I was a princess
I’d put on one of my Mum’s old dresses and a pair of high heels and pretend to be a lady
i was a tomboy loved to dress up like a team characters in my little wendy house a team van lol
I loved dressing up as a nurse
I’d wear my mum’s shoes and lipstick
i used to dress up as a princess 🙂
I used to dress up as my mum, in all her clothes and make up 🙂
I liked dressing as a princess 🙂
I remember making a koala contest for Halloween one year.
I loved dressing up as a princess
I used to dress up in my Mums old clothes – no particular character but lots of bling!!
Superman
I had a Dalmatian costume my mum made and I loved that!
In bed sheet to pretend I’m a ghost 🙂
Like a boy! (@PeanutHog)
I loved to have an angel outfit and my parents made me some massive wings made out of cardboard.
i use to dress up as a nurse 🙂
i liked putting tights on my head and pretending to be rapunzel
I used to like dressing up as Wednesday Addams!
A Nurse 🙂
a princess
Fab prize
used to wear my mums best clothes and shoes and play fashion shows with my sisters
A long dress and mums high heels…
My favourite costume was a Witch!
cowboy
As a policewoman
Zombies. Mum put a flour and water mixture on our faces….. Was horrendous to get off!
Ha ha, brilliant! Your mum is creative!
I used to love dressing up in absolutely anything! I had a huge dressing up box and it seemed to contain an Aladdin’s cave of various costumes, wigs and accessories! One of my favourites was a 1920’s Flapper type costume, complete with feathery headress!
cowboys
Cowgirl and indians with my brothers
in my mums high heels, beads and lippy 🙂
I used to love dressing up in my mums knee high boots
A cowboy
I was often a pirate
id dress up as dorothy from wizard of oz! id have the shiny red shoes and a plush dog in a little basket