“James and the Amazing Gift” is the debut children’s book by Nicola Rowley. When I met Nicola through a mutual acquaintance and she mentioned her book, I couldn’t wait to take a look at it and so she very kindly offered to send me a copy to read to Alyssa. Inspired by her son, Nicola has written James and the Amazing Gift to help instill a love of reading to children. “It makes me incredibly happy to see the enjoyment my son gets from turning the pages, learning new words and going on special adventures, and I’d love to create the same for other children,” says Nicola.
Focusing on happiness, positivity and how to make others feel good about themselves, it is a picture book unlike any other in the market. James and the Amazing Gift uses beautiful illustrations to highlight how a smile can go a long way to impact upon the lives of others.
Nicola plans for her uplifting debut to raise awareness of the loneliness of elderly people, especially at Christmas time. For every book sold, £1 of the proceeds will be donated to the UK charity Contact the Elderly, which tackles loneliness amongst older people. “I look forward to working in partnership with them to raise awareness about the increasing number of people who will find themselves alone over the festive season,” says Nicola.
James has an amazing gift. He loves to smile. He also has an incredible ability to make everyone he meets, smile too. But one day, whilst he is at a garden centre with his mummy, he sees an elderly lady who does not want to smile. She is sitting in the corner with her purple hat pulled down over her face. She is all alone. James has to work really hard to get her attention. Will he be able to make the old lady feel as if she is no longer just by herself?
I sat down and read this before I read it to Alyssa and I have to say it really resonated with me. I used to take my own grandmother to a particular cafe and now go there with my own mum and for as long as I can remember I used to sit quietly and look around and I’d notice all the old people sat there alone. I can remember at one point crying because I was worried that they were sat there alone because they had no one to go home to and to me that was so incredibly sad – my nanny lost my grandpa when he was only 64 and spent the rest of her life a widow. She always said that she was lucky to have us – this is why I think this book is so important! Some people, young or old, will be feeling lonely…so why not just throw them a smile?It might just make their day.
If you want to grab your own copy head over to James and the Amazing Gift now
Nicola Rowley has very generously given me two copies of “James and the Amazing Gift! to give away to two of you lucky lot!!
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6 Comments
Helping an old man pick up all the change he had dropped on the floor
I helped a self harmer go to the Doctors. I hope she’s okay. She doesn’t reply anymore.
I have been helping the new people at work settle in this month
I held a door open for about 50 people at the local high school. The school staff were laughing because I was there for so long as everyone marched through.
Helping people with directions
Helping vulnerable people cross the roads x