Patch Land Writings: November 2012

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Allison's Book Bag

By Allison's Book Bag. Interview with Carmen Swick Patch Land Adventures by Carmen Swick Posted by: Allison on: October 13, 2012 What happens if you’re a mom and your son is diagnosed with Amblyopia and Strabismus? Well, first, you might ask what those terms mean? Amblyopia is the loss of one eye’s ability to see details. It is considered the most common cause of vision problems in children and can lead to blindness if undetected. Strabismus is a disorder in which the two eyes do not line up in the same direction, and therefore do not look at the same object at the same time. Next, if you’re Carmen Swick, you might decide to write a series of books. Patch Land Adventures is intended to help ease the time for other children who need to use a patch and to let the them know that they could do anything. Swick hopes that ultimately the series will also help educate others about why a child might be wearing an eye patch. She desires to bring awareness to low vision and to stress how important it is for children of a very young age to see a pediatrician eye doctor. A child wearing an eyepatch in an attempt to cure Amblyopia. Her own son, Preston, is legally blind in his left eye and needs to keep up with his eye patching six to eight hours a day. As with many other children with the same ailments, her son must wear a patch over the stronger eye in order to strengthen the weaker eye. He also has a patch dog buddy. The series features Preston having various adventures while wearing his patch. In Fishing with Grandpa, Preston spends a day at the brook with his Grandpa catching fish. When he returns home and climbs into bed, he takes off his patch but dreams of adventures where everyone wears a patch. In Patch Land, Preston can do amazing things like fly a jet in the sky like spies but also more ordinary things like play baseball with neighborhood friends and dogs. The next day he has an eye appointment, where his status is updated. Afterwards, Preston and his mom have an outing of their own to celebrate. The next book in the series will be Camping at Mimi’s Ranch.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Book Award!

I am excited to share with you that my book won an award! Carmen Swick: Award winning author! so grateful and humble! Thank you Page Lambert for your editing and guidance! And Joey Manfre my illustrator! my team! Patch Land Adventures (Book One) "Fishing with Grandpa", a 2012 SEAL OF EXCELLENCE AWARD (Kids Books category)