Poetry Friday: “Don’t Ask a Dinosaur” book trailer debut!

(Click to order a copy personally signed by both Deb and me!)

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know how excited I’ve been, helping to put together the trailer for Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books) – so I’m SUPER excited about sharing it with you!

Don’t Ask a Dinosaur is the new picture book I co-wrote with author Deb Bruss, which arrives April 17. Since I am a voiceover talent as well as a children’s writer, I volunteered to produce the audio for the book trailer here at my home studio…and it was a surreal experience.

You see, I’ve written and produced thousands of radio commercials over the years, but never a trailer for my own book! Once I knew how the publisher had set up some of illustrator Louie Chin’s images to use in the press release, I wrote a script using those images as a basis, recorded my voice, then added music and mixed the whole thing down to one audio file which I sent off the Madison Morales, the publicist for Pow! Kids, who married the audio with the video – and we came up with this:

What do you think?? It’s definitely not Flashlight Night, that’s for sure – with all the bright colors and craziness these two kids are dealing with, a little quiet evening out in a dark tree house might be just what they need!

I dedicated Don’t Ask a Dinosaur to my son, Greyson, whose love of dinosaurs inspired me to write this with my friend Deb, so in keeping with the dinosaur theme of today’s post, I thought I’d share a poem I wrote for Penny Parker Klostermann’s blog exactly two years ago for Poetry Friday.

It was inspired by a picture that my son (who had just turned 6) had drawn of some dinosaurs, and this is what came of it:

(click to enlarge)

And since Poetry Friday usually means lots of poetry, you’ll find plenty more at Carol Varsalona’s blog, Beyond Literacy, where she is hosting the official roundup!

=========================================================

“Don’t Ask a Dinosaur” hits bookshelves April 17!

The book tour is already taking shape with several dates! Here’s how our schedule looks right now (more dates to be added soon!):

• Sat., April 14, 11am:  Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, NH (Children’s Author Day with illustrator Ryan O’Rourke AND Local Book Launch for Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!)
• Sat., April 14, 2pm:  Toadstool Bookshop, Keene, NH (Children’s Author Day with illustrator Ryan O’Rourke AND Local Book Launch for Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!)
• Tue., April 17, 7pm:  Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur National Launch Party!! 
• Thur., April 26, 10:30am:  Pillsbury Free Library, Warner, NH Dinosaur Storytime with Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!
• Sun., April 29, 2pm:  MainStreet BookEnds, Warner, NH Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing and discussion
• Sat., May 5, 1pm:  Barnes & Noble, Nashua, NH Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing
• Sat., May 12, 11am:  Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord, NH Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing

=========================================================

School People (Wordsong), Lee Bennett Hopkins’ newest children’s poetry anthology, arrives Feb. 13!

Edited by  Flashlight Night editor Rebecca Davis, this book includes 15 poems about the grown-ups that children meet at school…including my poem, “Bus Driver”. I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy!

=========================================================

• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017!”
• KIRKUS Starred review!
• Amazon “Best Books of the Month,” Sept. 2017!
• “Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers

=========================================================

Purchasing personalized signed copies ONLINE? Yes, it’s true!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new way to purchase personalized signed copies of not only Flashlight Night, but ANY of my books or anthologies I’ve been part of!

I’ve teamed up with the good folks MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH to present an option for people who would love to have a signed copy of one of my books but don’t live anywhere near me. MainStreet BookEnds has ALL but one of my books available for ordering…and the best part is, you can get them personalized!

Just log onto my website and click the cover of whichever book you want, and they will get it to me to sign and send it off to you. Try doing that with those big online booksellers! (Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)

=========================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right!  (I usually only post twice a week – on Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day)

 .

Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!