Monday, February 11, 2013

Night Buddies Spotlight & Giveaway


Author Sands Hetherington & Illustrator Jessica Love join the
2013 World of Ink Virtual Tour


The World of Ink Network will be touring author Sands Hetherington and illustrator Jessica Love's nighttime adventure children's chapter book, Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine the second book in the Night Buddies series published by Dune Buggy Press throughout January and February 2013.



The first book in the Night Buddies series, Night Buddies and the Pineapple Cheesecake Scare is available anywhere books are sold.



Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine, the second book in the Night Buddies series, has a ton of mischief going on all over the Bourough, done by a red crocodile and causing confusion and hard feelings everywhere.


About the Book:
For young John Degraffenreidt, lying awake at night is no reason to fret when it brings a bright red crocodile named Crosley out from under his bed. Night Buddies like Crosley promise a big adventure to any kid not sleepy yet--and tonight is no different! Out of bed, and into the city, John starts on a very special Program (Night-Buddies-speak for adventure) with his crocodile friend. Crosley is a unique, wacky character, the only red crocodile in the world for sure, but look-alikes have started popping up all over town, committing crimes, causing confusion, and making Crosley crazy at the sight of them. The imposters must be stopped, and Night Buddies John and Crosley are just the ones to stop them! Stakeouts and wild chases in a fantastic flying machine, far-out schemes to snare the imposters with the help of old friends and new ones, and a never-ending supply of Crusted Crème Fro-Madge frozen yogurt make for one totally super night.
 

ISBN Numbers
Book 2: 978-0-9847417-2-4
Book 1: 978-0-9847417-1-7
Publication Dates
Book 2: February 1, 2013
Book 1: June 1, 2012
Juvenile Fiction/Chapter Books for Ages 7 and up.
Places where available for sale:
Amazon.com; BN.com; wherever books are sold.
(Dune Buggy Press titles are distributed by Delphi Distribution and are set up with
wholesalers like Ingram and Baker & Taylor.)
 
About the Author:
Sands Hetherington, creator of the Night Buddies series of chapter books is delighted to have published his second title, Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine. Sands credits his son John for being his principal motivator in creating Night Buddies. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. They collaborated many nights on escapades starring John and Crosley, until eventually it occurred to Sands why it was that Crosley was bright red. That was when the first book came together. Now, Sands is pleased to announce the second title in the series!
 

Sands is also a Civil War buff. He would like to spend a month of evenings with common soldiers from both sides to see how they felt about the business. And eccentric generals like Jackson, Sherman and Forrest, and most of all Lincoln. Because Lincoln never gets to smile in his pictures.
 
Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. He lives in Greensboro now, and hangs out with his longtime friend Ann and their Saint Bernards Dudley and Maggie. He likes visiting ancient Mediterranean sites in Turkey and Italy, and most of all Greece.





About the Illustrator:

Jessica Love grew up in California, with two artist parents. She studied printmaking and drawing at UC Santa Cruz, then went to study acting at The Juilliard School in NYC.
 
Jessica currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, toggling back and forth between her work as an actor and her work as an artist.

 

Follow the Night Buddies at:
Fan Website:

www.nightbuddiesadventures.com
Facebook Fan Page:

www.facebook.com/nightbuddies
Twitter: @Night_Buddies

Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/nightbuddies2/
GoodReads

Author Sands Hetherington
Publisher Website:

www.dunebuggypress.com
To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit
http://worldofinknetwork.com

Sharing the Love of Reading:

Hi, and thanks for having me. Sharing the Love of Reading With Children? I can certainly pass along what worked with my son John and me. It's simple and it's guaranteed for life.

I immersed him in stories from the time he could understand speech. Bedtime stories were an absolute essential to us, like air and food. We may not have missed five nights in ten years, even on trips. And on trips we would listen to books on tape for days in the car. I read him everything from Aesop to Tolkien to Dahl (Harry Potter hadn't come along yet). By the time John was twelve we had gone through most of Dickens and Victor Hugo. So he was always immersed in stories, and man did it ever work! He got an M.A. at Edinburgh University with Firsts in German and Russian, reads two or three books a week, and still watches Hobbit movies.

If you're determined to get a kid hooked, there's something you can do in addition to bedtime stories: Get him involved! Let me illustrate by telling how my Night Buddies stories got started.

The series features John Degraffenreidt and Crosley. John is a young kid pretty much like mine was, and Crosley is a bright-red crocodile. He sneaks John out of the house for adventures on nights when John isn't ready to go to sleep. John invented Crosley from whole cloth. One night when I was done reading, I may have suggested he make up a night companion to go off to sleep with. Maybe I didn't. He may have done it by himself. But in any case, in a day or two, there was Crosley, red color, goofy name and all.

So at bedtime we started batting around the Crosley stuff. I encouraged John to make up episodes. I mostly listened. If he did come up with something, I told him how super it was and asked him when could I hear the next installment. I think he was still six. He got really facile at it, and I got the larcenous idea of putting the two of them in a book.

I had to explain why Crosley was red, of course. (He was red because he was allergic to water.) And the rest fell into place fairly easily: Crosley began as a lights-out buddy, so let'spart of Night Buddies Amalgamated, whose members sneak kids out on adventures when the kids aren't ready for bed yet. That's the story formula, and John was hooked, and I was hooked.

You may need some luck with the getting involved part. But anybody can do bedtime stories, and I haven't met a child yet who didn't take to bedtime stories. You just have to do it and do it every night. And if you do, the child will enjoy it and look forward to it and quickly know literature as a pleasure. And then, when he learns to read, he will want to read. It's that simple. And try to get him in on the process if you can.

Sands

Now for the giveaway! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win!
 
 





a Rafflecopter giveaway

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