Book Signing with Penny Klostermann
Penny Klostermann takes Santa to Mars
By Glenn Dromgoole
Abilene’s nationally acclaimed children’s author Penny Parker Klostermann has done it again!
Her new book, Merry Christmas, Dear Mars, is sure to be a hit as she takes the familiar cadence of “The Night Before Christmas” all the way to the red planet.
Penny will celebrate the official launch of Merry Christmas, Dear Mars with a book signing Tuesday, September 3, at Texas Star Trading Company from 4-6 p.m. You’ll want to be part of the festivities as Penny reads her story and signs copies. If you can’t make it, call or email us or go to our web site and reserve a copy or two or more so she can autograph them (325-672-9696; info@texasstartrading.com).
This is Penny’s third book published by a major publishing house. Her first one was There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight, followed by A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale.
The new book begins, “The stockings were hung in the spaceship with care — so surely dear Santa would make a stop there.”
In fact, Santa does make a stop there, but in outer space the sleigh malfunctions and requires a few cosmic corrections.
I don’t suppose it would be a plot-spoiler to expect everything to turn out all right. It’s a Christmas book for children, after all.
Merry Christmas, Dear Mars (Henry Holt and Company, $18.99) is wonderfully illustrated by Estrela Lourenco, a Portuguese children’s book author and illustrator now living in Ireland. Her book has already earned a starred review from School Library Journal.
Oh, one more thing: The author’s note about Penny includes a nice plug for Abilene: “Penny lives in Abilene, Texas, the official Storybook Capital of America, where inspiration is all around.”
Hope to see you Tuesday!
