I am so excited that this spooky Halloween book is officially published today! “Trick or Treat, Bugs to Eat” is a fun, informative picture book geared toward kids from ages 4-8.
This book started when my literary agent, Carrie Pestritto, mentioned that publishers were looking for Halloween books. While brainstorming, I remembered seeing a million bats flying out from Congress Bridge in Austin, TX in a huge wave at sunset, setting out in pursuit of bugs. Boom, “Trick or Treat, Bugs to Eat” was born! I did some revising at an “unworkshop” at the Highlights Foundation retreat center, worked on it with Carrie and with my critique partner Tamara Girardi, and we sent it out to publishers!
Thanks to Carrie’s submitting skills, the book found its home with Kelly Barrales-Saylor at Sourcebooks eXplore right as Covid was shutting the world down in March 2020. Sourcebooks found amazing illustrator Nancy Leschnikoff, who created adorable purple and pink bats without even knowing purple was my favorite color!
I got some extra bat fact checking from my friend and bat expert Liz Mering, and worked with the Sourcebooks team to create what I think is a pretty darn cute book!
I’m so excited for this book to start soaring into homes. Look out for lots of fun events and giveaways coming your way in September/October!
In the meantime, here are a few places where you can buy the book, though any bookstore should be able to order it:
My adorable little debut board book, “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby,” is officially published as of today, April 13th, 2021.
Here is some amazing news: thanks to the generosity of my friends, family, and readers, I have had ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR preorders, which means I am donating ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR books to babies in need via ShareBaby. *Update–the total number was actually 184 when I checked with the local bookstores!
Want better news? Well, the books come in boxes of 40. So I’m just going to round up and donate TWO HUNDRED books to ShareBaby! I’ll be back to update this post when I have pictures of the gigantic stack of books going to their warehouse. *Update: below is the stack of books plus some diapers we took over in my mom’s car, plus me with Amina Weiskerger, ShareBaby’s executive director, outside their warehouse!
Thank you so much to everyone who preordered, requested the book at their library, and helped spread the word. I am so happy to be helping two hundred families in Baltimore start their libraries.
Here is a darling book trailer to give you a sneak peek of the book!
You can buy the book wherever books are sold (at least online!), but here are some links to make it easy for you! I’ll be doing the rounds to sign stock at local stores in the coming weeks. Follow me on Twitter or Instagram to see where I’ve signed books! “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby” makes a wonderful baby shower gift book if you have friends who are expecting or have recently become parents.
If you’re looking for a baby shower gift book or durable volume for a toddler to enjoy, Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby, is available for preorder! It comes out on April 13th, 2021. I definitely recommend preordering as it looks like the first print run may sell out quickly.
If you preorder a book and let me know, I will donate a book to ShareBaby, a Baltimore-based charity that gives baby items to families in need.
All you have to do is forward your preorder receipt to tcgpreorders@gmail.com and your preorder will be counted (or order through this Amazon affiliate link and I’ll know automatically). You should receive an automated response right away. I will also check the emails manually; if you preorder multiple copies, I will donate multiple copies.
The book is available for preorder most places where books can be bought. I might be signing books/dropping off stickers at the following local stores, but details are pending everywhere but The Children’s Bookstore, which has agreed to ship signed copies! Yay!
Amazon: I am using an affiliate link to track sales here; your preorder will be AUTOMATICALLY counted with no need to send a receipt, but you still should so you can get the printable card about the donation I include in my auto response!
“My new favorite bedtime read, EVERYBODY’S SLEEPY BUT THE BABY has it all: pleasant rhyme and rhythm, cute illustrations, a plot every parent can relate to, and most important at bedtime, brevity! I smiled the whole way through.” Amanda Rawson Hill, author of “You’ll Find Me”
“With the gentle, rhythmic cadence of classics like Goodnight Moon and fun art featuring frazzled parents, Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby is perfect for the modern (sleepy) parent to lull their little one at bedtime.” June Smalls, author of She Leads: The Elephant Matriarch
“It’s a scene familiar to any exhausted parent: everyone is drowsy, sleepy, ready to hit the hay—except the baby, who is wide awake! As the parents, the dog, and even the toys wind down for the night, the baby wants to play, scrub-a-dub, and coo. Gold’s gentle, rhythmic text and Dafflon’s bright and lively illustrations combine for a perfect bedtime read for sleepy parents and (eventually) sleepy babies. Bonus: it’s just the right length for that ‘one last bedtime story’ that sets the mood for sleep. I am looking forward to adding it to my go-to baby shower gift list.” Kathy MacMillan, children’s librarian and author of Nita’s First Signsand Nita’s Day
I had so much fun chatting with Maria Frazer on her “What’s for Launch” podcast all about what it was like to publish “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby.” Take a listen if you’re curious about what it takes to publish a board book, the poetry inside picture books, and what it was like to launch a book in the middle of a pandemic.
Also, I’m super excited for Maria’s forthcoming middle grade book, “Margarita in the Spotlight,” which is an Audible Original coming out this Fall! I love audiobooks, and this one is about a family of musicians, so it sounds perfect for the format!
I am so excited that the cover for my book, “Trick or Treat, Bugs to Eat” is finally live! Illustrator Nancy Leschnikoff and the team at Sourcebooks Kids did such beautiful work on this book!
Here is a little video with the cover at the end that my agent, Carrie Pestritto, helped me put together!
To read about how I got the idea for this book, and enter to win a virtual call from amazing author Tara Lazar, head over to her blog, where the cover for this Halloween book was first revealed on April 8!
I am doing a preorder campaign for this book–if you preorder it, I will send you free stickers! I have details about that here. It comes out from Sourcebooks on August 1, 2021, with plenty of time before Halloween.
If you’re looking for some NEW books to read to or give to your kids, my friend Tamara Girardi has built an amazing list of books coming out in 2021! She has organized them by month, so you can preorder books for a kid in your life and know that they’ll have books every month of 2021 (yes, I am three months late in posting this, but I hope Tamara will do this for 2022 as well!).
What’s the cookie? If you submit each book you preorder to Tamara’s Google Form, she will enter you in a drawing for a $100 gift card.
The books range from picture books up to young adult, and they are, at a glance, from very diverse creators, featuring diverse characters.
Of course, as I know well, the original month of a book’s publication isn’t always the month it will come out, so why not order two per month to be safe? (;
Well, publishing my debut in a pandemic has caught up to me. Due to shipping delays, “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby” will now be releasing on….record scratch…April 13th, not March 16th, and not the original date of March 2nd.
The GOOD NEWS is that I have more time to reach my goal of donating a few hundred books to babies in need via ShareBaby! (I’m at 140 right now, spread the word and help me get to 300??)
If you ordered this book for a baby shower or any reason that makes it a pain that it’s delayed, please let me know! I will likely get my author copies closer to the original date and might be able to help you out.
When I was pregnant, I went to a friend’s baby shower, and she asked guests to bring a book instead of a card. At first, I was hesitant—weren’t books more expensive than a card? But then I found the wealth of baby books available for about the same price as a card (under $10, and in some cases under $5), and I knew I had to do this for my own baby shower, too! After all, it was so much better to have lots of books we’d use for years than a giant pile of cards we’d eventually throw out.
Now that my daughter is almost three, I am so glad I did this! We have so many books that are signed by friends and relatives. Every time we read them, we think of that person. This is something we will treasure for years to come!
So here are my 5 tips to have a great “bring a book, not a card” baby shower.
I did a “Bring a Book, Not a Card” baby shower, and it was absolutely wonderful! Every time we read one of the books my friends and/or family members signed, we think of them with love.
Of course, the trick to doing this without coming off as greedy to your family and friends is to find a bunch of inexpensive books to put on your registry! The good news is there is a wealth of amazing baby shower gift books to include.
The following list was compiled on 2/10/21, and it is possible that the prices of these books have changed since then. But at the time of this post, they’re under $10! These are all affiliate links. I will likely spend my commission on buying more books! If you’d like a longer list with options at more price point, I have listed some of the best baby shower books regardless of price here. None of them should break the bank!
Looking to join a community of writers and get some feedback on your work? Join “Writing a Brilliant First Page,” my monthlong virtual course with the Johns Hopkins University Odyssey program. This is a “lifelong learning” class that is open to anyone, anywhere. This is a LIVE, highly interactive course that will be limited to 20 students. I will, however, record each class, so if you have to miss one, it’s no big deal.
The last class I taught with JHU Odyssey filled up, so register before all the spots are gone!
“The first page of your novel, story, or memoir is key to capturing readers’ attention. In this class, students will analyze excellent first pages from published works of various genres and apply what they learn to their own work. Each student will have their first page critiqued by the class.”
Always wanted to write a picture book, but not sure where to start? Or maybe you’ve written a few and don’t know if they’re any good, or what to do with them now that you’ve written them.
Join me for a free class on “The Basics of Writing Picture Books” via the Orange County Library System on Tuesday March 9 at 6:30 to 7:30 pm EST. You don’t need to have a library card there to attend. Anyone can register at this link!
We’ll cover picture book writing basics, trends in the current picture book market, and what to do after you’ve written a book. Plus, we’ll do a fun creative writing exercise! Hope to virtually see you there!
