The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel (Between Two Worlds, Book 6) by Evy Journey Book Tour, Review, Guest Post & Giveaway! {Ends 10/9/23}

Review By LAWonder10:

The Golden Manuscripts is a slower-paced drama. In the beginning pages, while setting the background, I found it difficult to find a real interest in the book. However, since it is based on a true event and as the story continued, it became more interesting.

This is a unique and unexpected story. There are some debatable points and a portrayal of how many individuals’ growing years are indeed variegated. Is there such a thing as a “normal” childhood”?

The characters began to feel real and the background scenes were easily visualized.

This book centers around post-World War ll events that are still trying to be resolved. It is also a book with some romance and adventure.

The Title is fitting but the Cover image depicts the story but is not eye-catching to “the browser”.

This book can be recommended to reading groups, providing several convincing points for discussion. It is quite well-written.

I offer a Three and a Half Stars rating.

This book was gifted me with no pressure to post a positive review. This is my honest review

The Illustrious Origins of Picture Books

Are you ever curious how picture books and, by extension, even graphic novels, first began? Has it ever occurred to you that picture books might have illustrious beginnings?

As a mother who read to my son when he was a boy, I claim some expertise on picture books. If you’re a parent, you understand how wonderful they can be. Pictures in books are not only entertaining, they also teach. Remember how your child began to recognize the letter “A” after you’ve shown it to him accompanied by images of objects beginning with the letter “A”?
Admittedly, my children’s picture book expertise is fairly limited and not up to date (my son is now a grown man), but I do have some nearly-forgotten specialized knowledge.

While selecting books for my child, I learned to recognize different styles of illustration in popular children’s books. A Berenstain style, for instance, is employed by these well-known authors. Then, there was Maurice Sendak.
Children’s book reviewers loved Maurice Sendak for dealing with the “little demons” that plague children as they grow up. His books included illustrations he did of his stories—illustrations that, in their vividness probably helped make those demons more concrete and easier to deal with.

My interest in picture books went into hibernation as my son relied on me less and less to show him the pleasures of books. But I found that when I read books for myself—\ excluding those that must rely on illustrations to make more sense (art books, for example)—I enjoyed them more when they had
illustrations. They helped me imagine and, sometimes even understand, what I read. I especially loved them in fiction.

One of my favorite books is an old almost tattered copy of a collection of Jane Austen’s novels featuring illustrations of scenes from the novels by a nineteenth-century artist. Before Masterpiece Theater and my exposure to films of 19th century England, these drawings shaped my limited conception of everything that was old English. Now, I have an ebook copy of an old illustrated Jane Austen collection.

Today, we take picture books for granted. We love images. We whip out our cell phones and take pictures to preserve memories of instances in time.

Illustrated books have medieval beginnings. And while there’s often more than one version of history, I believe the credit for such beginnings belongs to Charlemagne during whose reign in the 9th century, picture bookmaking flourished. Most people in the Middle Ages couldn’t read, so he championed the creation of picture books to teach them about God.

Historians called those early picture books illuminated manuscripts or manuscript illuminations. They were handwritten and illustrated on parchment (dried and stretched animal skins), often by the same creator.

An illumination is a picture or illustration in a book that conveys the meaning of a piece of text. It is “illuminated” through the use of gilding—gold or silver decorations on letters and figures. In medieval times, these manuscripts represented a high art form.