FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Saturday, March 6 – Laguna Beach, California: BOOK SIGNING. Former Laguna art gallery owner and now author Susan M. Finch and illustrator Alison Seda will be signing and reading from their new children’s book Dino Manners on Saturday, March 6th from 1:30 to 3PM.
This will follow the annual Laguna Beach Patriot’s Day Parade.
Location:
Latitude 33 Bookshop,
311 Ocean Avenue, Laguna Beach.
Telephone number: 949-494-5403.
Because they ate their chums.
There weren’t a lot of friends left
After they’d licked their thumbs.
Good manners matter; especially when you’re a dinosaur. But since dinosaurs have come and gone, the same manners matter when you’re a young child living in the world today. That’s the message behind Dino Manners: Some Prehistoric Lessons Featuring Our Friends from the Cretaceous Period. Of course, eating your friends is always bad form whether you’re a dinosaur or a young child, but the real lesson for little ones is to always treat your friends with respect and to remember great friends are your best treasures. That’s just one of gems that Dino Manners lays out in easy-to-read and colorful spreads.
First-time children’s book author Susan Finch and illustrator Alison Seda have crafted this engaging primer for pre-school and elementary school aged children. In addition to breezy and memorable prose, each spread also offers teachable, common sense lessons on how to treat others in a variety of social situations, laying a foundation for responsible behavior. Pages are also filled brightly colored dinosaurs and interesting dino-facts, highlighting different species from the Cretaceous period. It’s is an especially attractive bonus for boys, who have always held an extra fascination with pre-historic set.
Dino Manners sprang to life after Susan began telling bedtime stories to her kids each night. When they began asking for the same stories over and over again; Susan began writing them down. And before long, Dino Manners was born.
Dino Manners is also a great book to have in the classroom. Teachers and children alike can refer to it over and over again as various social situations arise throughout the school year. It sparks conversation about friendship, conflict resolution and allows them to relate the characters to themselves or people they know. Although its targeted to children, parents who need a refresher on manners and a reminder that they are role models for their children will benefit from reading Dino Manners too. Dino Manners makes no bones about the fact that good manners are timeless, whether you’re a 140 million-year-old dinosaur, a busy, stress-filled parent, or a 4-year-old child learning the ways of the world for the very first time.
About the Author/Photographer/Publisher
Susan Finch had plans to write children’s books for most of her life. Along the way she was pulled into corporate life and ventured into public relations and advertising. This side step led to her current occupation of the past 13 years, web design and development. The deep need to create is constantly moving in her. After having children, the stories were jumping out her head and into the children’s bedtime routines. They were always asking her to tell her same stories over and over. She finally decided to start writing them down.
Susan was raised in Orange County, California and now lives in Beaverton, Oregon with her husband and two amazing children. They will never surpass Alison’s menagerie, but have their share of animals with a dog, birds, fish and lizards.
About the Illustrator
Alison grew up drawing feverishly at every opportunity on anything that was able to be pinned down. Her parents enrolled her in art lessons at an early age and continued lessons for years. That intense love of drawing is still a vibrant and integral aspect of her life today and, “having children of my own and being able to share my art with other children just makes it all that more special for me, “I mean really, who doesn’t want to make a kid laugh?”
Alison currently lives in Southern California with her husband and two wonderful, hilarious boys who are always dragging something new into the house or making something new to display in it for all to admire. Also residing with them are their cats, dog, unruly guinea pigs, fish, chickens and one very, very naughty rooster.
Alison Seda and Susan Finch met in 1995 when Susan owned an art gallery in Laguna Beach, California.
Susan was impressed by Alison’s talent and humor. When the idea for Dino Manners came to her, the first person she thought of to create the sweet and naughty dinos was Alison.
311 Ocean Avenue Laguna Beach • California • 92651 949 – 494 – 5403 Fax 949 – 497 – 4574 email: latitude33@earthlink.net