​Book number two has arrived!  So exciting to see “Mysty the Mystical Unicorn” in print and to be able to share her with everyone!  This book is dedicated to my only granddaughter Ainsley, it is her love of unicorns and everything pink and/or purple that provided the inspiration for Mysty.

Travel along to a magical, mystical enchanting land with Mysty where children can be whatever they desire, there are no limitations to their imaginations, all they have to do is believe in themselves!
​
Mysty believes in children as much as they believe in her!      Enjoy!

It is official, Frankie the Ferret will be featured on Storytime with Fergie and Friends on Friday, June 25th!  I can hardly believe that this is happening, they receive so many requests from talented authors all over the world!  Stay tuned, I will post the YouTube link once the reading has been completed. 

So exciting!  Thank you Storytime with Fergie and Friends, we are very grateful and honored to be included!

Frankie has had a very busy year!  He has received some awards and recognition which is very exciting.
The Canada Book Awards was his very first win, followed by the Literary Titan Gold Book Award.  Next, he was awarded with the 2020 Best Book Award by American Book Fest.  Following that, Frankie received the Royal Dragonfly 2020 Honorary Mention and finished up with being selected as a 2020 Best Excellence Awards Finalist.
Frankie was recently invited to be included in the Story Monsters Inc Review promotion program where teachers, librarians and parents were invited to request e-book copies of the participating author’s books throughout the United States.  Frankie was requested numerous times, he seemed to be enjoying his newfound popularity. Here is a quote from one of the students provided by his First Grade Teacher:
Book Title: Frankie The Ferret
Type of Reviewer: : Teacher
Book Reviewer's Name: Keenan Mann
Book Reviewer's Title: First Grade Teacher
Email: [email protected]
Rate this Book: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rate the Cover: 5 - Love it
Write Your Review of the Book: When I first introduced the book to my students, they were wondering why a bear was eating a flower. Ha! After discussing the title of the book, as well as what a ferret is, they were very excited to read it! Most had never heard of a ferret and none had ever seen one. Right away, they noticed the rhyme. They pointed out all of the end-of-the-line words that rhymed and those that didn't. They even had discussions about pronouncing words "wrong" to make them rhyme! SO much learning happening! It also had them giggling nonstop at all of the funny, and sometimes tricky, things that Frankie was doing! They have been quoting "Zzzzzzzzzzz you later" all day! One student even said it was "the second best book in the world!" All in all, I think this book is a new favorite in my class!
 
Exciting news, Book # 2 is now almost ready for production, more details to follow soon!

Frankie has enjoyed a very successful 2020 by being recognized with his third award this year.  Thank you to American Book Fest for selecting Frankie as the 2020 Best Book Award Winner for Children’s Picture Books, Softcover Fiction, we are very honored!
Here is the link to the announcement: http://www.americanbookfest.com/childrensbooks/picturebookfiction.html

Just recently, we were asked to do an interview for All Author, you can read it here on my author page.  
Thank you All Author for this opportunity.
https://allauthor.com/interview/kimberleyannp/

​Frankie loves Christmas and would love to be under the tree for your little ones this holiday season.  Thank you to all my family, friends and many others who have supported us this past year, we truly appreciate it!

Even though 2020 has been a very challenging and difficult year, Frankie the Ferret has been enjoying success, he has been awarded twice!

First, Frankie won the Canada Books Award back in the spring, we were so proud!

More recently, he has been awarded the Literary Titan Gold Book Award which came along with a 5 star rating and glowing review, click on the link to read the review.    https://literarytitan.com/2020/07/21/frankie-the-ferret/
A big thank you to Grady Harp for his 5 star rating and review of Frankie and for posting to my Amazon page for everyone to read, here is the link for that as well, along with other reviews posted there.
https://www.amazon.ca/Frankie-Ferret-Kimberley-Paterson/dp/1525547313/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=frankie+the+ferret&qid=1598633103&sr=8-1

To keep you updated on Frankie’s adventures, we have added new click buttons to my homepage where Frankie is active on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest along with my author pages on AllAuthor.com and Independent Author Network.

​We love sharing Frankie with everyone and with ferrets being an exotic pet, children love to giggle along with Frankie’s antics.  Thank you for all of the great reviews and for your support!

Frankie has been receiving some great reviews since his release, so exciting that others enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Literary Titan recently reviewed Frankie, rated 5 out of 5 stars, with a glowing review, thank you!
You can read the full review here:  https://literarytitan.com/2020/07/21/frankie-the-ferret/ 

A question was posed to me regarding a sequel for Frankie the Ferret, but alas, there is no second book about him in the works.  I am currently working on my second children's book but it will be unrelated to Frankie.  Looking forward to releasing this book in the near future.

In the beginning, I thought writing the book would be the hardest part but I was wrong, marketing your book requires plenty of time and patience.  Just like any new project, it takes plenty of research, along with the assistance of others to steer you in the right direction.  I have learned a lot during this process and enjoying it immensely.  

Frankie is new to twitter and absolutely enjoying it, there are so many amazing writers/authors out there and I am excited to be a part of that. Thank you to the #writingcommunity on social media, they are just like family and always there to help you promote your work!

Thank you to everyone who has been there for me from the beginning, I would not be where I am now without you!

What is happening in Frankie the Ferret’s world today?

Well, since Frankie was announced as a Canada Book Awards winner, he has been increasing his social presence, he is the newest member of Twitter where he seems to be enjoying himself.  He now has over 40 followers and is currently being tweeted about by Self Publishers Showcase and the Independent Author’s Network.

The Altoona Public Library in Pennsylvania contacted us through our publishing company Friesen Press.  It seems they have a trio of pet ferrets that visit libraries, schools, etc. so they researched online for a children’s book about ferrets and immediately fell in love with Frankie.  He was invited for a virtual story reading online which they will be recording and posting on their website, how exciting is that!  Once that is available, I will post it on my website – kimberleyannpaterson.com as well as Twitter and Facebook.

A new children’s book author from Europe reviewed our book and provided us with a glowing review on Amazon and Goodreads, after which she contacted us, so we, of course, checked out her first children’s book as well.  We are happy to report that she did an amazing job with both the writing as well as the illustrations….check it out:  Oh No!  I lost my teddy! By Serena Cuisimo….it is a beautiful book!  Well done Serena!

​Frankie is always looking for his next adventure, so we are working on his next steps, updates to follow!
Stay safe out there!

This was Frankie's favorite thing to do, sometimes you would think you had lost your mind because your socks or other items were not where you were sure you had left them.  Frankie had a special spot for storing his borrowed items, we all knew that if you could not find something, it more than likely would be there.

Frankie loved to take socks, right out of the laundry basket, clean or dirty did not make any difference to him, a treasure was a treasure.  Ferrets love anything made of rubber, which we did not know until we adopted him so he was famous for stealing toothbrushes, hair brushes, rubber oven mitts, you name it, he tried to carry it away.  Size was never an issue, he would run backwards dragging the item by his teeth.

We found his treasure hiding spot by accident during the weekly vacuuming when I discovered a pair of socks and a toothbrush.  We were not aware that Frankie was doing this during his free time from his cage and just figured they had accidentally fallen there from the couch.  But with every new week, cleaning provided more and more missing objects.  We were beginning to suspect who the little culprit was but still had not caught Frankie in the act.

One day we were watching a program while Frankie was out and about looking for trouble when we saw him run by with a toothbrush in his mouth.  When we called his name, he quickly scurried under the couch with his prize.  Aha, caught red-handed but how did he get that toothbrush?  It seems that the item had been sitting on the side of the bathtub and he was able to stand on his hind legs and grab it.  

What a sneaky little fellow he was!  There were many items that he collected that we had to retrieve which concerned Frankie that his items kept disappearing but he was quite happy to venture out to find more.

When we picked Frankie up from the pet store, my son had a hockey practice so Frankie came to the arena with us.  As this was all new to him, he just slept in my jacket the entire time with his head sticking out.  One of the fathers related a story to me about his interaction with ferrets.  He was a firefighter and had been called out to a small fire in the upper level of the house a few years back.  They had to cut open the wall to contain the fire and they found 50 pairs of socks (his words not mine) stocked up in between the studs which they found quite interesting.  When they mentioned it to the owner, he was shocked but it certainly eased his mind because he could not figure out how his socks kept disappearing over the years, mystery solved.

Frankie was such a beautiful little creature and we miss him dearly!  Now, our toothbrushes are exactly where we put them last!  Makes me wonder where the socks really go when they are transferred to the dryer from the washer?

Thank you for reading, more adventures to follow! 

Better not leave the door open, I will be through it in a flash was Frankie’s favorite thing to do!

He was forever sneaking outside, every chance that he had.  There was one time that he did escape unnoticed and ended up being missing for 7 days, we thought that we would never see him again.

When we realized that we could not find him in his special sleeping spots outside of his cage, as a family, we all went outside in different directions calling his name but he never appeared.  Every day from morning to night, when we could, we would all do our part going out and continuously calling him as we walked the property but being situated on a 12 acre property, he could be anywhere, Frankie was pretty  fast and quite elusive when he wanted to be!  When ferrets are sleeping, they are in a very deep sleep so us calling him would go unnoticed by him, so timing was very important.

As the days continued without any sign of him, we started to resign ourselves to the fact that we may never see Frankie again.  This was during the month of October and it was getting colder at night, we all were pretty upset that Frankie might actually be gone for good.

On the 7th day which was a Friday night, my son and I decided we would go to Haugen’s restaurant in Port Perry to get takeout, we love the food there and thought this might help to cheer us up a little.  Just as we arrived there, I received a call on my cell from home.  When I answered, my husband quickly said, he’s back, we did not even have to ask who, we knew our little guy Frankie had returned, probably very hungry by this time!  We were all so relieved!

​When we arrived home with dinner, we discussed the details on how Frankie reappeared.  Stay tuned for the details of Frankie's safe return home in my next blog.   More details to follow, stay tuned!

Thank you for reading!

​Hello and welcome to my blog. 
 
Let me introduce myself first, my name is Kimberley Paterson and I have just recently published my first book for children entitled “Frankie the Ferret”.
I was born in Uxbridge, Ontario, a small rural farming town about one hour north of Toronto and have remained very close by for the past 40 years in Claremont with my spouse Doug, our chocolate lab Molly along with two cats, Kitty and Tobey.  My children live close by as well, my daughter Melanie, her spouse James and their three children, Bryce,  Ainsley and Preston as well as my son Shayne, his spouse Natasha and their son Colby.

Over the years, we have had quite a menagerie of family pets with Frankie being one of the most entertaining furry little creatures you could ever meet!

This book has been in the works for approximately 15 years and is dedicated to the memory of Frankie, a very cherished member of our family for nine years.  After I became a grandmother, I thought it would be a great idea to share Frankie with my grandchildren since they would never have a chance to meet and love him like we did.

My lifelong dream has been to write a children’s book, to not only entertain children but to enrich their lives.  I believe that books will stimulate young minds, provide development by learning new things, and provide relaxation so that they too can provide relieve from stress as they grow older, they can learn so much.
​
Next time, as outlined in the book, I will provide some details to those Frankie adventures!
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate all of the love and support that has come my way from family and friends since the release of Frankie the Ferret!