Stargazing StoryWalk

We’re excited to see Matt Forrest Esenwine’s The Thing to Remember About Stargazing all around New Hampshire, this October. See the press release, below!

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PRESS RELEASE

Library StoryWalks® Across NH to Feature Local Author’s New Picture Book

WARNER, NH – Nearly twenty libraries across the state will be featuring the same picture book, The Thing to Remember about Stargazing (Tilbury House, 2023) by Warner, NH author Matt Forrest Esenwine, on their respective StoryWalks® this autumn.

To celebrate its national publication on Oct. 3, the libraries are installing prints of the book in their StoryWalks® for October and/or November. StoryWalks® usually consist of small, waist-high kiosks where readers can enjoy an outdoor walk while reading the pages of a picture book along their journey.

Esenwine says he’s not sure if this sort of coordinated effort has ever been done before, but he is grateful for the support of the libraries and, specifically, the children’s librarians who manage the StoryWalks®.

“I love being able to share my writing with young people and families, and now in addition to the many libraries and schools I visit, I’ll be able to share Stargazing in the great outdoors – the precise setting for the book itself,” he said.

Participating libraries include Rochester, Litchfield, New London, and Hampstead public libraries as well as many others including Esenwine’s hometown library, Warner’s Pillsbury Free Library, which plans to have his book installed in their StoryWalk® in time for the 76th annual Warner Fall Foliage Festival on Oct. 7 & 8.

Stargazing, which encourages readers to get outside and enjoy the night sky in spare, poetic text, is Esenwine’s eighth children’s book and is illustrated by Italian artist Sonia Maria Luce Possentini.

Newbery Honor Winner author Joyce Sidman has praised Stargazing for “its playful, poetic voice” and national award-winning author/poet Padma Venkatraman says, “Esenwine’s carefully crafted, elegant yet simple words will be treasured by young and not so young readers.”

According to its organizers, the StoryWalk® Project was originally created by Anne Ferguson and developed in collaboration with the Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition and the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, VT.

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Happy StoryWalking! And happy book birthday, Matt!