Update - Winner Announced! Celebrate Summer Reading & Fun with June Smalls!

7/15: Congrats to Danielle Hammelef on winning June's book giveaway! We'll be in touch soon with more details.

A special thanks to everyone who joined us to celebrate Summer Reading & Fun!

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6/23

Hi, readers, writers, and dino-fanatics of all kinds! Who's ready for another day of Summer Reading and fun? We are, too! Today we have the incredibly talented June Smalls with us sharing her newest board book series, Digging for Dinosaurs. And seriously, what better way to celebrate summer than with a beach day where digging for dinosaurs is included? June's new book allows the readers to go "digging" for dinosaurs at the beach by lifting flaps of various sizes. You'll discover many interesting objects hidden in the sand and shore along the way! Want to know more about June, her adorable and interactive new board book series, PLUS want a chance to win your own copies of Digging for Dinosaurs and Digging for Dinosaurs at the Beach? Read on...

Q: Hi, June! We’re so excited to feature you today for our Summer Fun Reading Event! Your new books Digging for Dinosaurs are the perfect reads for summer. Before we get started, can you share more about yourself with our readers? What inspired you to become a children’s book author?

A: Thank you for having me! I’ve always loved reading and writing and when I first thought about writing seriously I thought about writing romance or contemporary adult works, but I could never love a story that I was creating from beginning to end. I’d get bored. 

Then, while reading to my own child I remembered when I fell in love with reading. Sitting in the library as a little kid or being read to in the classroom. Those first books that let my imagination soar. THAT is what I wanted to do. Spark curiosity, wonder, giggles. Once I tried children’s books I fell in love and never looked back.

Q: Your Digging for Dinosaurs series had me hooked upon first sight! Can you share more about the

series and the inspiration behind it? 

A:  My brother is a relic hunter. He uses a metal detector to find civil war artifacts (and lots of garbage). When his daughter was four years old, she told me once she turned five, she’d go digging in the dirt. 

I asked what she’d find there. 

She replied, “History.” 

Then she ran off and did a cartwheel. 

In that moment, I knew a four-year-old could easily understand archeology and paleontology. Digging in the Dirt was a phrase that sat on a post-it in my office for a while before becoming Digging for Dinosaurs. Now my niece is an adult, and that seed she planted is finally blooming out in the world.

Q: When this was pitched to Sourcebooks, was it pitched as a board book/lift-the-flap book? Was it pitched as a single book or a series? Or is this something they suggested & helped with? We’d love a behind-the-scenes look at how this came about! 

A: Digging for Dinosaurs started as, and was pitched as, a three book series. But it wasn’t entirely dinosaurs at the start. 

It was always a lift-the-flap book. I wanted the kids to uncover and discover the treasures, trash, critters, and, of course, dinosaurs. That interactive element and that feeling of, “What will I discover?” was the whole basis for this series. I wanted to spark that curiosity for dinosaurs, and more.

Q:  How do edits work with a STEM novelty book?

A: The most interesting thing about working on a lift-the-flap series was the amount of edits and work we had to do on it. For every edit on the manuscript portion we had to keep in mind, not just the art, but the physical structure of the book.

Once we decided where the flaps would be, their size, and orientation we had to carry that structure over all three books. That meant sometimes having to flip larger words with smaller ones to fit the flap better or reworking the order we found things to work with the layout.

While this is fiction, all the information is accurate as well as the tools you see in the art. Grace Habib did an amazing job bringing this story to life with vibrant colors and adorable side characters (that happy little crab 🙂 ) while working around the structure of the flaps and adding everything from ground penetrating radar, to safety gear, to sifting boxes. I hope science grown-ups reading this to their little ones are pleased!

Q:  What other titles of yours are perfect for summertime reading? 

A: New this year is They Work: Honey Bees, Nature’s Pollinators. This is perfect for summer as so many of those young readers are seeing bees out in the wild doing their jobs. From rooftops in the city to wide open orchards we see bees forage, but they do so much more.

Like the other books in the nature series with Familius, it has a dual story line. You can read the short lyrical story by itself, or with the nonfiction sidebars that give you a deeper look into each part of the bee’s lives.

Q: BONUS QUESTION: What do you love most about summer?

I love summer because my day job slows down and I have more time to read, visit libraries for story times, and to go on adventures!

After selling Digging for Dinosaurs, I decided I wanted to actually hunt for fossils. While I did not find a dinosaur, I did a scientist led dig at Calvert Cliffs in MD and uncovered shark’s teeth, sea glass, and even prehistoric dolphin bones. 

So cool! Thanks for sharing this picture with us.

Q: Would you like to leave a tip or a treat for our readers?

A: A treat! I'd like to offer a Two Book Giveaway. One copy of Digging for Dinosaurs and one copy of Digging for Dinosaurs: At the Beach.

Thanks for such a dino-sized treat! And thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your fascinating story with us, June. We loved getting to know you and your books more!

Giveaway Details: Readers, to enter to win June's amazing book giveaway, 1) share this post on social media and 2) leave a comment below to thank her for stopping by! Dinosaur GIFs are welcomed and appreciated - of course!

Giveaway winners will be drawn and announced on or about 7/11!

Books will be shipped in the US only.

About June Smalls:

June Smalls has been making up stories since she only had pets and stuffed animals to share them with. She writes fiction and nonfiction books that are funny, educational, odd, and entertaining for both the educational and trade markets including the Leads series, Hear Them Roar! 14 Endangered Animals from Around the World, and Digging for Dinosaurs.

June loves research almost as much as writing and would love to dig up a dinosaur, study sea turtles, or track wild elephants! She lives in northern Virginia with her family and an ever-growing assortment of animals.

For more about June, check out the below links:

Find June Smalls online at www.junesmalls.com

Bluesky: ‪@junesmalls.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/june_smalls/

Threads: @june_smalls

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuneSmallsAuthor/

To purchase June's books on Amazon, or to leave a review for them, click here.

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