Daily Journal Reviews Raceboy and Super Qwok Adventures and we have Fun at Clifton Fun Days!

I was snapping pictures of the Clifton Fun Days talent show when I looked over at the table Chris and I had set up for the Clifton Fun Days. He was sitting behind copies of the book, Raceboy and Super Qwok Adventures, which we were selling as a part of the local event. And he was intently reading The Kankakee Daily Journal. I thought that was unusual, because Chris hadn’t shown up with a copy of The Daily Journal. As the talent show wrapped up and I got back to the booth, Chris smiled and waved the paper. “We got a review! What great timing!” And here it is:

Since I not only wrote the book but also published it, there are a number of comments that Phil pointed out that it was satisfying to see. I know Chris likes to joke that I drone on with discussions about fontfaces, but I really spent a lot of time looking at different fontfaces to find the perfect type for the copy of this book. To have Phil acknowledge that it is “set in large type for easy reading” means that all that work was really worth the effort and paid off in readability. My goal was that the font would not be a barrier to the reading of the book, but would invite reading.

Value was also important to me. I am thrifty by nature, and wanted a book with a price that consumers could consider a good value. Angelo recognized that the book was priced fairly: “at the price, it is a lot of reading for your dollar.”

“By midbook, Winkel gets a bit more clever,” he writes. In my own read-through of the proof copy I felt that the book took off around page 150. The characters have matured, the villains have been introduced, and the stories get longer and more elaborate.

To me, the greatest compliment is this: “It’s certainly unique–much longer and thicker than any book in the modern era. It is sort of a holdover from earlier times, more like ‘Treasure Island’ than ‘Dr. Seuss.’”

One minor correction I should add is that Angelo listed my sons as Andrew and Bryan, but it’s really Alex and Bryan. Bryan was supposed to be Andrew, but that’s a story for another time (Andrew Edward, which my aunt pointed out could be shortened to Drew Ed, or Druid, and we miffed it by going with Bryan; but he really is a Bryan, so that’s okay; I just have to wait for grandkids to have one named after me).

The result of the review was that we had at least two people who walked by our table at the Fun Days and said, “Hey! I saw that in the newspaper!” One family bought a copy of the book after seeing the review, as though fortune had aligned to show them the book and the place to purchase it all on the same day.

A highlight of our day in the heat was having a young reader tell me that the book was awesome. I didn’t get exact quotes from the boy, or even his name, but he looked to be about seven. I asked him which story was his favorite, and he replied that he liked them all. And before he continued on his way with his family, he told me that he reads it a lot when he’s in the bathroom.