 |
|
| Sheppard and Cascone at Let's Play Books in Emmaus, Pa. | |
Gina Cascone and Bryony "Bree" Williams Sheppard, the mother-daughter writing team behind the picture book Around the World Right Now (Sleeping Bear Press, illustrated by Olivia Beckman), have embarked on a summer-long tour of at least 75 bricks-and-mortar bookstores. The duo will be on the road until August, with Sheppard's two children in tow. They have already visited several independent bookstores in New Jersey, including Watchung Booksellers in Montclair and [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, and planned visits include stops at stores in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Around the World Right Now is a travelogue of the world's 24 time zones, highlighting different peoples and cultures in each time zone. It marks the first picture book for Cascone, who has written some 30 other books, and is Sheppard's debut. Cascone used to own Wit & Wisdom, an independent bookstore with her husband, literary agent Roger Williams, while Sheppard is an educator. According to Cascone, Around the World Right Now grew out of her granddaughter's "unrelenting curiosity" about the world. The duo will be writing about their trip on their blog.