Press Release 6/20/21
Gina Gallois, author and owner of Moonflower Press, in Chamblee, Georgia, is launching a Kickstarter campaign on July 7, 2021 to fund the publication of her latest children’s book, Cicada City: A Bug Club Hotel Story. Please visit Gina’s Kickstarter Pre-Launch page for this project.
Gina’s first Kickstarter campaign, successfully run in 2019, led to the publication of her first book, Opossum Opposites, in three language versions: English, Spanish, and French. Scott Lange from AWARE Wildlife Center and Kathryn Dudeck at the Chattahoochee Nature Center kindly assisted with their fact-checking skills.
Gina’s newest project, Cicada City: A Bug Club Hotel Story, is designed to be the first in a series of several books, each focusing on a different creepy crawly creature. Hyacinth, Jaylen, and Sakura are neighbors, best friends, and most importantly, they all love bugs!
The excitement surrounding the return of Brood X cicadas this year was a big factor in choosing the first insect the Bug Club would learn about in the books. Readers ages 3-8 will enjoy the story of how the three friends build an imaginary city for their collection of cicada shells. They can also follow along with the notes Sakura keeps in the official Bug Club Journal, complete with adorable sketches and facts to share!
A team of passionate insect enthusiasts is diligently helping Gina to be sure the facts are rock solid. Although Gina has a background in environmental science, French literature was her overriding focus for many years, so she’s a little rusty!
Kirstynn Joseph and Caroline King have generously checked each fact twice, then cross checked and rechecked just for good measure. They are bug-loving angels. Kirstynn is an ecologist, freelance researcher, and podcaster with The Anthropo Scene living in Ecuador. Caroline is a graduate student at Loyola University in Maryland studying entomology.
Illustration by Elisabeth Clover.
Author Bio:
Known for loving opossums, rescuing street kitties, and kid-wrangling, Gina Gallois usually has an audiobook playing and a cup of Earl Grey in hand. Before becoming a children’s writer, Gina was a French professor. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Gina, her husband Fabien, and their two children jump at the slightest opportunity to travel somewhere new and gorge on the local pastries.
Since Gina’s first book, Opossum Opposites, was released only a few weeks before the pandemic shutdown began, many of her planned events were canceled, forcing her to regroup and offer free virtual author visits instead. Over the course of the school year, Gina was able to provide over 50 readings of her books to local schools as well as to schools in New York, Colorado, Louisiana, Ohio, North Carolina and Florida, to name a few. To help keep kids engaged, Gina uses her crew of puppets and stuffed animals.
Now that public events have resumed, Gina has plans to read at the Milton Library and at the Chattahoochee Nature Center in July. Other events are in the works and Gina hopes to be able to visit schools in person soon.
Illustrator Bio:
Elisabeth Clover is an illustrator and graphic designer. She was born in Kamchatka, Russia, but now lives in Europe. She has visited many cities and countries. Elisabeth has kept her passion for traveling and learning new things since childhood. She lives in Wroclaw, Poland (not to be confused with Warsaw,) where she enjoys strolling the city streets, always looking to discover something new.
When Elisabeth is not creating art, she is spending time with her family, two cats, and beloved house plants.
Social Media, Contact & Purchase Information
Find Gina Gallois’s website at www.MoonflowerPress.com
Instagram: @ArtemisOpossum , @Elisabeth_Clover
Facebook: @LivingImperfection
Email: WritingByGina@gmail.com
Books by Gina Gallois
Gina’s first book, a non fiction children’s book called Opossum Opposites, was made possible with funding from a successful Kickstarter campaign in October of 2019.
Opossum Opposites:
Are they trashcats? Dumpster divers? Rodents of unusual size? These are just a few of the unkind names we call opossums. If you’re not already a fan of possums, this book will change your mind and melt your heart. Parents and kids love the playful rhymes, adorably realistic illustrations, and fun factoids in Opossum Opposites. (Published in 2020 in English, French, and Spanish.)
Gina subsequently wrote two fictional stories starring opossums, with a whole cast of other nocturnal animals in cameo roles.
Mama Opossum’s Misadventures:
In Mama Opossum’s Misadventures, Mama takes a spill and all 10 babies go rolling in a different direction. Readers are invited to help Mama find her babies, each with a different critter. In the end, Mama wakes up the next evening to find a lost mouse snuggled in with her brood. (Published in English and French in 2020)
Opossums to the Rescue: COMING SOON
Mama Opossum is back! She and her babies are determined to reunite a lost mouse with her family. Baby Mouse begins to get discouraged when none of the animals they meet look like her, but the Opossum family won’t give up. Readers are asked to help compare Baby Mouse to each new animal. Could this be her family? (Slated for publication in summer 2021 in English and French.)
Cats and Dogs Make the Best of Friends:
Sage and Jaz have been best friends forever. They love all the same things. But what happens when Sage’s family adopts kittens and Jaz’s family brings home a puppy dog?
Cats and Dogs Make the Best of Friends is bursting with adorable kids, playful kitties, and one sweet puppy dog who helps Sage realize that it’s OK to change your mind and you don’t have to choose to love cats OR dogs. You can love BOTH!
Sage and Jaz love their pets so much, they have to invent a slew of their own silly new words to describe how fantasmagestic they are. Kids laugh out loud when they find out the puppy dog’s name – it’s a doozy!
Children 3-8 and their grownups will fall in love with Cats and Dogs Make the Best of Friends. (Published in 2021 in English and French.)
I Don’t Want to be Scary on Halloween:
Poppy Opossum is tired of scaring folks. When Halloween rolls around, all she wants is to find a costume that won’t scare everyone away. Her friends Pepper Porcupine and Sassy Skunk promise to help her find the perfect costume, but it’s not going to be easy! (Slated for publication in late summer 2021 in English.)
