Danny the Dragon fans are the best! Hearing from them lights up my day like nothing else!

Recently a family purchased the Danny the Dragon set (the Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy softcover book and Danny the Dragon DREAMS CD). The mother, Chantelle, wrote in to tell me how happy her son Rohan was with his set, and she even sent me PICTURES!

 “We have one VERY EXCITED little boy!! ” Chantelle wrote, “He absolutely loved waking up to a package on Saturday morning.”

The Danny the Dragon set that Rohan is posing with in these pictures is available for sale here. The set is the recipient of the Creative Child Magazine Media of the Year Award!

I always love to hear from my fans, especially when they send in fun things like pictures and drawings. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Tina Turbin

www.DannytheDragon.com

Every couple of months this amazing group showcases certain children’s book writers and illustrators and this issue I was honored to be selected. See what the wrote about Danny and I in their publication

Danny and I are very thankful to be part of such an amazing group!

Tina Turbin

www.DannytheDragon.com

k.m.

See great article in the Dunedin Beacon about Danny the Dragon and Author Tina Turbin!

We are so honored to be showcased in this paper!

Tina Turbin

www.DannyTheDragon.com

k.m

Great news to share with everyone- read this! Tina

Ever since Tina Turbin, the multi-award-winning children’s author, released Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy, the first book of her illustrated kids book series, she has been recipient of critical praise, numerous awards and honors, and media attention. The release of her book was followed by that of a Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy iPad and iPhone app, the first one for the hearing impaired, featuring a reading of the author’s acclaimed book with sign language interpretation. Now the author is generating even more media attention with her app than with the debut of her book, as coverage of the groundbreaking product is appearing in some of the leading news blogs in the publishing world, specifically Alice Pope’s SCBWI Children’s Market Blog and MediaBistro.com, the global web resource for media professionals.

“I knew when I decided to launch Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy as the first [app] to offer sign language interpretation that I should expect some media interest,” the author said on her blog at DannytheDragon.com.

“However, nothing could prepare me for the attention that the Danny the Dragon app has generated.”  Turbin said she was “honored” to find her app mentioned by Alice Pope in her SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and

Illustrators) Children’s Market Blog and by MediaBistro.com.

Alice Pope is a former editor of the Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market and authors a blog covering the children’s book market for SCBWI. In her Friday feature, “In the News This Week,” where she shares the latest children’s publishing news, she included the release of Turbin’s Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy app with a link to the story in the Ebook Newser Blog at MediaBistro.com.

Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy tells the story of Jimmy’s chance meeting with Danny the Dragon at the beach. An unlikely friendship develops and Jimmy’s family invites their son’s new friend home with them where they show them hospitality and family togetherness. The book has been praised for its pro-family themes and has received several awards, including the Purple Dragon Book Awards, Mom’s Choice Awards®, Indie Excellence® Awards, and the International Book Awards. Turbin’s iPad app was produced by iStoryTime, the app developer for DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon.

Turbin is not only an acclaimed author of kids books but is an active humanitarian in various arenas, particularly on behalf of the gluten-free community. The author was diagnosed many years ago with celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction caused by gluten, a protein in wheat, barley, and rye, which damages the intestinal tract and interferes with absorption of nutrients, resulting in a variety of serious health issues. In an effort to help celiac patients and other gluten-free individuals with the challenges of the gluten-free diet, Turbin founded GlutenFreeHelp.info, which was voted in the number-two .info website in the world. Her Gluten Free Help blog offers news, gluten-free product reviews, book reviews, gluten-free recipes, and more. Turbin advocates for children’s literacy and education; her storybook app with sign language is a testament to her support for deaf literacy. The profits for her Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy app are being donated to support the author’s favorite causes.

Despite her already hectic schedule, the author with the help of her publicity team is busy managing the media interest and booming sales her iPad app release has generated. Meanwhile Turbin is wrapping up her West Coast book tour and getting back to what she enjoys most-writing.

Kris Newby—-New World Post

Tina Turbin

www.DannytheDragon.com

The multi-award-winning children’s author Tina Turbin has been recognized again for the first book of her children’s book series, Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy. The illustrated children’s book, which is already the recipient of a number of awards, has been awarded in the Purple Dragon Book Awards.

The adventures of Danny the Dragon begin with Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy, the story of how Jimmy comes across Danny and his little travelling buddy, Skipper, on a family outing. The book has been acclaimed for its portrayal of family values and togetherness.  The Mom’s Choice Awards®, according to its website, “recognizes authors, inventors, companies, parents and others for their efforts in creating quality family-friendly media, products and services.” Not surprisingly, this program has selected Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy as an awards recipient.

The Annual Purple Dragonfly Book Awards announced its winners in Chandler, Arizona. It is one contest in a family of Five Star Dragonfly Book contests, such as the Green Dragonfly Book Awards, which honors books that raise awareness about the environment. The Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, which recognizes high-quality children’s literature, is highly competitive.

“Winning any place in the Purple Dragonfly Contest is a huge honor because in order to maintain the integrity of the Dragonfly Book Awards, a minimum score of 55 out of 80 must be earned for a place to be awarded to the entrant – even if it is the sole entry in a category,” explains Linda Radke, president of Five Star Publications, who sponsors the Dragonfly Book Awards. “Competition is steep, too, because there is no publication date limit as long as the book is still in print.”

“It’s such an honor to have been recognized by the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards,” Turbin said about the honor. “It’s so gratifying to see that Danny the Dragon has resonated so deeply among both children and adult readers.”

The announcement comes after Turbin launched an innovative application for deaf children with iStoryTime, the iPhone App Developer for DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon. The app features sign language interpretation for the first book in Turbin’s series, Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy. The author, a renown humanitarian, is donating profits on behalf of literacy and other worthy causes.

Aside from her work as a children’s author, Turbin runs a non-profit gluten-free resource website, GlutenFreeHelp.info, which was selected as a finalist out of 6.7 million registered .info websites around the globe in the Best .Info Website Awards Program of 2010. Turbin suffered for years without an answer to her painful physical symptoms before finally, as the result of her own research, she was diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction caused by gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Turbin created her website in an effort to raise awareness for the autoimmune disease and to help the gluten-free community deal with the challenges of gluten-free living. The Gluten Free Help Blog shares news, tips, recipes, and Turbin’s reviews of gluten-free books and products. The author’s other advocacy efforts include supporting children’s literacy and health, family issues, and the food allergy community.

As far as what’s next for the author, she says she’s excited to get back to work in her studio on her Danny the Dragon series. With her busy West Coast book tour wrapped up, however pleased she is with all her recognition for Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy and her gluten-free advocacy, Turbin says she wants nothing more than to do what she does best—write.

Kris Nickerson

     A passionate literacy advocate, I was alarmed by the literacy statistic among the deaf, and now I’ve begun raising support for education for deaf children. Upon the release of my Danny the Dragon DREAMS, the proceeds of my Danny the Dragon DVD, which features a signed reading of the book for deaf children, will be donated to the local deaf children’s school, Blossom’s Montessori School for the Deaf in Clearwater, Florida. I’m  very happy that I’m able to do something to improve deaf education!

Tina Turbin

         If you’re like most Americans, you probably haven’t even heard of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder which causes an immune reaction that can affect the entire body, causing both physical and mental problems. The cause? An allergy to gluten, a component of wheat, barley, and rye. The problem with celiac disease is that doctors don’t know much about it either. They don’t know that it affects an estimated 300 million Americans and that with a simple test, a diagnosis can be made and the easy treatment can begin—a gluten-free diet.

     An estimated 300 million Americans have celiac disease and only three percent of them know it. When I’m not working on the latest installment of my Danny the Dragon series or the Danny the Dragon Cookbook, I’m working hard to change this statistic by raising awareness and support for this disease that affects more people twice as many of those who suffer from Crohn’s disease, ulceric colitis, and cystic fibrosis combined.

           Proceeds from the Danny the Dragon CD will go to the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center, one of the major research centers around studying and bringing awareness to celiac disease. It is one-hundred percent focused on studying celiac disease and carries out research connecting it with various other diseases which it is believed to lead to if left untreated. Its goal is to change the lives of celiac disease sufferers for the better around the world, a goal which it is actively achieving, little by little, every day.

As an active literacy advocate, I do as much as I can to get kids reading to revert the literacy statistic of this country. However, it wasn’t until recently that I became aware of another alarming statistic—the literacy rate among deaf children.

     The average deaf child is diagnosed at two or three years of age for hearing loss. This means that there is a good chance that his language development has been severely affected, as the child may have been missing large portions of spoken language, if not all auditory experience, that hearing children get from birth. What’s worse, the demand for academic achievement among deaf children is lower than for other children, resulting in learning and home environments which aren’t as focused on reading. With an upbringing that doesn’t emphasize language and literature, it is difficult to expect deaf children to perform at the same analytic and linguistic levels as other children.

     That’s why I have created the signed reading of Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy DVD, all the profits for which are going to supporting the amazing school I visited, Blossom Montessori. Its Montessori education encourages imagination and allows for real-life applications of subjects learned in the classroom. By supporting schools such as Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf, I know I am truly contributing toward reverting the deaf literacy statistic and enriching the lives of many bright children.

Look at what is happening tomorrow at Sunset Park Elementary School behind

Disney, in none other than lovely Florida!

Sunset Park Elementary School, located in Windermere, Florida, welcomes author Tina Turbin to share her Danny the Dragon book with over 500 students, teachers, and parents. She will sharing her work with large groups and will talk about what it is like to write children’s books. In January, Danny the Dragon will make a return appearance when the school cafeteria celebrates “Appreciate a Dragon Day”- January 16th, so mark your calendars.

We are thankful to have stumbled upon Ms. Turbin’s character building and nutritionally themed works and can’t wait for the kids to be introduced to the delightful characters!

Sunset park Elementary

If you’ve been keeping up with me as the children’s author of the Danny the Dragon series, you’ve probably heard me talk about the new Danny the Dragon CD, which is soon to be released, containing a reading of Danny Meets Jimmy by a talented vocal artist followed by a compilation of ten original classic songs by up-and-coming composers. What’s great about the CD is that, as with the book, it can be enjoyed by people of all ages—the young and the young at heart. What’s even better, though, is the fact that the proceeds are going to a cause which is near and dear to my heart in my research and humanitarian efforts, a cause that you may not know much about—raising celiac disease awareness.

If you’re like most Americans, you probably haven’t even heard of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder which causes an immune reaction that can affect the entire body, causing both physical and mental problems. The cause? An allergy to gluten, a component of wheat, barley, and rye.

The problem with celiac disease is that doctors don’t know much about it either. They don’t know that it affects an estimated 300 million Americans and that with a simple test, a diagnosis can be made and the easy treatment can begin—a gluten-free diet.

Many years ago, I found myself with many painful symptoms and without any answer to what the source was or how to treat it. I went in circles with doctors, nutritionists, and testing. Finally, I decided to do my own research. It became clear that the answer was an allergy to gluten. What became even clearer was how little doctors knew about celiac disease and the vast numbers of people suffering without a diagnosis and treatment.

An estimated 300 million Americans have celiac disease and only three percent of them know it. When I’m not working on the latest installment of my Danny the Dragon series or the Danny the Dragon Cookbook, I’m working hard to change this statistic by raising awareness and support for this disease that affects more people twice as many of those who suffer from Crohn’s disease, ulceric colitis, and cystic fibrosis combined.

Proceeds from the Danny the Dragon CD will go to the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center, one of the major research centers around studying and bringing awareness to celiac disease. It is one-hundred percent focused on studying celiac disease and carries out research connecting it with various other diseases which it is believed to lead to if left untreated. Its goal is to change the lives of celiac disease sufferers for the better around the world, a goal which it is actively achieving, little by little, every day.

Why is it that you and your doctors probably haven’t heard about celiac disease? Although the amount of research on celiac disease is growing, it depends entirely on the generosity of private benefactors for its funding. Without these charitable donations, there would be no way to continue this research and the efforts to raise awareness. Out of the estimated fifty autoimmune diseases that have been discovered by doctors, it is the only one which isn’t supported in its research by the U.S. government.

That’s why I support centers such as Columbia University’s Celiac Disease Center. I look forward to the release of the Danny the Dragon CD. Not only will it delight Danny the Dragon fans, but it will help support a cause that has the potential to change the lives of millions of people for the better.