Book Blitz: Kind Kids by Jenna McDonough @RABTBookTours

The Adventures of Hurley, Pearl, and The Pink Soldiers of Kindness

Children's Book

Date Published: October 10, 2025

Publisher: Gatekeeper Press

Hurley and Pearl are a brother and sister duo who usually get along but, like all siblings, sometimes struggle with their emotions. One day, when Pearl’s singing pushes Hurley to his limit, a family conflict teaches them both an important lesson: kindness begins with understanding and taking responsibility for your emotions.

With Mom’s loving guidance, Hurley and Pearl learn the power of pausing, breathing, and reflecting before reacting. They discover that kindness can heal hurt feelings, bring people together, and make everyone feel seen and loved. Inspired by Mom’s story of spreading kindness through small pink toy soldiers, the siblings embark on a heartwarming mission of their own—to brighten others’ days, one soldier at a time.

At school, Hurley comforts a classmate with a pink soldier after a tough moment on the playground, while Pearl lifts the spirits of a substitute teacher who feels overwhelmed. Through these small but powerful acts, Hurley and Pearl realize that kindness doesn’t just help others—it also fills their own hearts with warmth and happiness.

Their journey is about more than sharing toys; it’s about spreading love, empathy, and connection to everyone around them. Along the way, they discover a simple truth: kindness can change the world, one thoughtful gesture at a time.

Complete with a heartfelt letter from the fictional Colonel Michael T. Pinkerton, Kind Kids inspires young readers to share their own adventures of kindness. This delightful and empowering story encourages children to take small steps to make big impacts in their families, classrooms, and communities while reminding them that kindness to others begins with being kind to themselves.

Perfect for parents, teachers, and children alike, Kind Kids is a touching exploration of sibling dynamics, emotional growth, and the ripple effect of simple, kind acts.

 

About the Author

My name is Jenna McDonough, and in addition to being a children’s book author, I work with both adults and children to help them better understand and manage their emotions. I am the creator of the Peaceful Kids App—the first-of-its-kind emotional intelligence app designed to teach children and their caregivers how to integrate tools and techniques for emotional regulation into daily life. Organized by both age and emotion, the app offers meditation, mindfulness activities, somatic resets, breathwork, and binaural beats. It also includes an Adult Meditation Library and is home to two of my signature courses: Highly Meditated and Introduction to the Healing Arts.

Beyond the app, I guide adults in identifying and releasing stuck energy through meditation, sound baths, and custom-designed healing experiences. I also developed coaching programs, such as Lifestyle Design and a proprietary program for high school juniors and seniors, as well as for any young adult navigating a transition year, to help them prepare with confidence for life beyond the classroom.

My professional journey began in education. I hold a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Communications Journalism from Florida Atlantic University, and started my career as an Elementary ESE teacher. While I found teaching deeply fulfilling, I also experienced firsthand the challenges of burnout, which inspired me to seek balance through meditation, mindfulness, and yoga. As my life evolved and I became a mother, I continued to deepen my personal practice, remaining committed to wellness while shifting my focus toward family.

During the global pandemic, I witnessed the surge of anxiety and stress across all ages and felt called to expand my work. What began as a personal passion evolved into a mission: to equip others—children, parents, and adults alike—with the tools they need to navigate life’s challenges with greater peace, presence, and emotional intelligence.

In recognition of my dedication to wellness and emotional regulation, I have and continue to serve as a member of the 2024 and 2025 Forbes Health Advisory Boards.

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Book Blitz + #Giveaway: Ceremony of Innocence by Stephen Asher @RABTBookTours

Literary / Historical Fiction

Date Published: 12-02-2025

Publisher: Scrivener Quill

It is June 1924 when an inquisitive but skeptical Gemma Danforth graduates from Wellesley College. Despite a loving family, an idyllic New England girlhood, and family summers in the Hamptons, little had assuaged her doubts Now, with college behind them, she and two classmates leave America bound for post war France where they will be immersed in the pulsating culture of European modernism. While in France, she reunites with her Paris based parents, and, in Nice, amidst its creative ferment, she falls in love with Rhys, a British aristocrat and ex-pat journalist. During this year spent along the Cote d’Azur, encounters with Sara and Gerald Murphy, Somerset Maugham, Zelda, Isadora Duncan and others, adds a depth and richness to the ambience of le midi. And so begins the process of displacing her doubts.

She and Rhys return to American where their values collide with antithetical and alien attitudes. It is these experiences that come to challenge long-held beliefs and provide a vivid counterpoint to their recent immersion in the Modernist aesthetic and world view.

Resolved to return to France, Gemma shares a final day in America with Gerald Murphy at his ocean front Hampton estate. As this unhurried afternoon unfolds, it becomes clear that Gemma’s skepticism and doubtfulness have been replaced with a clear-sighted maturity and hardened resolve. The next morning, aboard the Ile de France, Gemma and Rhys sail for France.

 

About the Author

Stephen Asher is a graduate of UCLA and was subsequently educated at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, and St. Catherine’s College Oxford. His professional life was spent as a neurologist, often walking the fine line separating the mind from the brain, a vantage point which encouraged a perspective molded not only by the scientific and the rational but also shaped by the aesthetics of the senses. It is this unity of world view that fashions one of the novel’s central themes.

Asher and his wife were drawn to Idaho’s arid vistas, glistening rivers, and rugged skylines. As a travelling angler, he has pursued Atlantic salmon throughout their natural range, has sought sea run brown trout in Patagonia, and steelhead in his home waters in the Pacific Northwest. He and his wife have cycled much of France, and, during quiet times at home, he enjoys music and plays cello.

Previously, he has published essays, and short pieces in the British sporting literature. He is a member of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, the Barbara Pym Society, and is a proud supporter of PEN America. He lives in Idaho with his wife, adult children, and his bird dogs.

 

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