Book Giveaway – Read This Book, Lemmings by Ame Dyckman

Congratulations to Ame Dyckmanon for her new picture book – READ THE BOOK, LEMMINGS launching November 7th. Ame has agreed to give one book away. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you did to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Check back to discover the winner.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The team behind the New York Times bestselling Wolfie the Bunny and Horrible Bear! is back with with new Arctic characters in this hilarious learning-to-read adventure!

Aboard the S.S. Cliff, First Mate Foxy reads an interesting fact: “Lemmings don’t jump off cliffs.” But Foxy can’t get the lemmings on the Cliff to read his book, too. They’re too busy jumping off.

After a chilly third rescue, exasperated Foxy and grumbly polar bear Captain PB realize their naughty nautical crew isn’t being stubborn: The lemmings (Jumper, Me Too, and Ditto) can’t read. And until Foxy patiently teaches his lemmings to read the book, he can’t return to reading it, either!

BOOK’S JOURNEY:

Hi, Kathy! THANKS for having me! Hi, Kathy’s “Writing and Illustrating” readers! So, you wanna know the Book Journey for READ THE BOOK, LEMMINGS!?

Okay. Just between us, I started writing READ THE BOOK, LEMMINGS!…

In a bar!

I know that sounds funny! But you see, there was a normally quiet bar in Pennsylvania I used to write in once a week or so.

Comfy stools. Cool tunes. Nice staff who’d let you nurse a beverage forever. It was a near-perfect Secret Writing Spot.

However, on that day in March, 2015, my normally quiet Secret Writing Spot… wasn’t.

It was St. Patrick’s Day.

AND THERE WERE INEBRIATED PEOPLE IN MY SECRET WRITING SPOT!

I opened my laptop anyway. There was a story idea I wanted to tinker with.

Some of you might remember an old nature documentary featuring lemmings, those little rodents who live in the Arctic. (Arctic hamsters, if you will.) I saw the documentary when I was little.

In some of the most famous scenes, lemmings inexplicably fling themselves off cliffs into the icy Arctic waters below!

Turns out, THOSE SCENES WERE FAKED! The lemmings were “encouraged” over the cliff. I found out when I was a “grown-up,” and I was indignant.

I knew I had to write the book that explained lemmings DON’T jump off cliffs.

For the past generation. For the next generation. FOR THE LEMMINGS!

I tried. But for the longest time all I’d written was the line:

It was a mighty big cliff.

Then I’d read that line, laugh myself silly, and never get any further.

This went on For YEARS!

But that St. Patrick’s Day, watching festive folks—in MY Secret Writing Spot!—who’d already had one too many festive beverages wobbling on their comfy barstools made me think of lemmings on a cliff again.

Only this time, I wasn’t thinking about it from the lemmings’ perspective. I was thinking about it from the new perspective of an Arctic fox—I like foxes, and illustrator Zachariah OHora likes foxes, and I wanted to do a third book with him—having to make sure the lemmings (celebrators) didn’t jump (fall) off a cliff (barstool) before they could go back to reading (WRITING!) their book that said lemmings don’t jump off cliffs!

I banged out the first few lines right there:

Foxy found a quiet spot to read his book about lemmings. “Huh!” Foxy said. “Says here, lemmings don’t jump off cliffs.”

And there we had it! Thanks to a bunch of rowdy St. Paddy’s Day revelers raising the wrist, I had the beginnings of READ THE BOOK, LEMMINGS!

It took a few weeks to finish the first draft, a few weeks more to polish it up for submission by my Super Agent, Scott Treimel, and then my amazing editor Mary-Kate Gaudet and Little, Brown team said, “We love it! LET’S DO THIS!”

So, we did.

Hope you love it, too! CHEERS!

AME’S BIO:

Ame Dyckman reads and writes when she SHOULD be sleeping. She’s the award-winning author with the little blue-hair (sometimes green! OOPS!) Ame Dyckman is short, loud, mischievous, and often dresses like her book characters. (SEE?!) She’s also the award-winning, internationally-translated author of the fantastically illustrated (THANKS, illustrators!) picture books BOY + BOT, TEA PARTY RULES, the New York Times bestselling WOLFIE THE BUNNY, HORRIBLE BEAR!, YOU DON’T WANT A UNICORN! and now READ THE BOOK, LEMMINGS! and more picture books and board books in the works!

Ame lives in central New Jersey with her family, ridiculously big-eared cat, book collection, closet full of hair dye colors, and of course, the characters from her stories. (For reals! She’s currently building a homemade swimming pool for the protagonist of her upcoming series, MISUNDERSTOOD SHARK—mostly so she can have her bathtub back.)

Follow Ame on Twitter (@AmeDyckman), where she posts picture book reviews, goofy poetry, and pretty much everything that pops into her (usually blue-haired, sometimes purple-haired, occasionally green-haired) head. Here is the link for Ame’s website: http://www.amedyckman.com

Thank you Ame for another fun book and sharing its’ journey with us. Everyone loves reading those. You are one hot picture book writer. Can’t wait to read this one. Keep in touch.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy