Book Giveaway: DUSK EXPLORERS by Lindsay Leslie

Lindsay Leslie has a new picture book, DUSK EXPLORERS, illustrated by Ellen Rooney and published by Page Street Kids. It hits bookstory today. Page Street Kids has agreed to share a copy with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is 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 do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Lindsay and Ellen, especially at this stressful time when authors and illustrators need to promote their books completely online.

If you have signed up to follow my blog and it is delivered to you everyday, please let me know when you leave a comment and I will give you an extra ticket. Thanks!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

It’s that special time of evening, when the hours and the possibilities seem endless: Light is fading. A buzz of excitement and wonder takes over the neighborhood….What outdoor adventures await? Join a diverse group of suburban kids as they dash and dodge in classic street games like tag and kick-the-can and reconnect with nature’s simple pleasures catching frogs, hunting fireflies, and climbing trees. These explorers play, laugh, and make the most of their own front yards right up until their parents call out that “It’s time to come home!” But when the sun begins to set tomorrow, they’ll be back for more evening excitement!

This ode to the timeless magic of summer evenings spent outside will remind kids of the fun and friends that wait just outside their doors and leave adults smiling with nostalgia for their own dusk explorations.

BOOK JOURNEY:

DUSK EXPLORERS jumped into my mind or was recalled from the depths of my subconscious while taking a session called The Verse Curse with Julie Hedlund during the 2016 Picture Book Summit. Many of us in the children’s literature world have heard that you shouldn’t write in rhyme unless you really really know what you are doing. I really didn’t, so I was curious to begin my learning on the subject. During the session, I didn’t fall in love with rhyme. In fact, I wonder if I will ever write in rhyme. Probably not. But I did fall head-over-heels in love with free verse and playing with the rhythm of words. I became a huge fan of lyrical writing and pulling on all the senses to bring a reader into the story.

During this session, I believe Julie asked us to think back to a childhood memory that might have staying power today. Our best way to relate to children is often to call up our own memories and take a modern twist, if need be. The moment in time that rushed forward for me was the many summer nights I would spend outside after dinner with my older sister and neighborhood friends. We would play old-fashioned games that still stand the test of time. We would catch toads and fireflies. We would share secrets and climb trees. We would all wait for the streetlights to blink on and give us the warning that our parents would soon call us home, and when they did, we would try to ignore them. I needed to write about that.

I first approached the manuscript from the perspective of the outdoors calling the children to come play because it missed having them. That’s how I connected it to the children of today. There are so many distractions, ahem … video games, that keep kids from enjoying the simple pleasures and wonders of playing outdoors. Plus, safety seems to be more of a concern today than earlier decades and parents may not be letting their kids go and explore on their own. The story took a gentle shift from that perspective, but the whole of the story stayed true to what I had written in my first draft. My other stories up to this point were heavily edited and shaped. This one seemed almost fully baked from the first draft. My editor, Charlotte Wenger, and I played a little bit with the flow of the various stanzas and a few word choices here and there. We tweaked the intro and ending and renamed the story. Otherwise, the meat of the story stayed pretty much the same. And that’s how Dusk Explorers came to be.

LINDSAY’S BIO:

A diary keeper, a journalism major, a public relations executive, now a children’s author—Lindsay Leslie has always operated in a world of written words. She likes to bring her unique outlook on life, quirky humor, and play with words to the page in picture books.

Lindsay is the author of THIS BOOK IS SPINELESS, NOVA THE STAR EATER, and DUSK EXPLORERS (Page Street Kids). She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, two boys, two fur-beasts, a guinea pig, and a tortoise.

ELLEN’S BIO:

Ellen is an illustrator, designer, and artist. She’s from the state of Massachusetts, but now lives in the southern Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Her first picture book as illustrator, Her Fearless Run, was published in April, 2019. She is busy working on more!

Ellen loves graphic shapes, textured colour, printmaking, drawing outdoors, painting. Her hidden art powers are released when cutting up paper. As a designer, her superpower is x-ray vision: if she stares at dense information, she can see its lovely skeleton just waiting to be shown to the world. Ellen thinks this is why she really loves interpretive design (stuff like museum exhibits and nature trails). Or, she says, “maybe I’m just a big nerd. Who can say?”

Lindsay, thank you for sharing your book and its journey with us. It brings back memories of the summer nights running around catching lightning bugs. That was so much fun; just like your book. Ellen’s wonderful illustrations kick up all the fun another notch. Kids and their parents will love to read this. Good luck!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy