(Today I have a special treat – Eloise De Sousa is having a blog tour for her children’s book, Space Dust. Take it away, Eloise!)

From the Elastic Limits, we now journey due east to a place that celebrates things that make you smile each week. Thank you Trent, for hosting us today.

With a hop and a skip, let’s discuss one of the trips Big Ox and Little One take in their special canoe, propelled by Big Ox’s absolute favourite spoon. The planet they visit has seven rings and, though they may be made of mere dust and gas, Little One discovers that Big Ox’s imagination goes beyond the sublime.

“What about sea horses swimming in creamy mushroom soup?
With spring onion beams for them to do some slippery loop-de-loops?”

I love sea horses! The delicious mix of alliteration in sea horses swimming on Saturn encouraged my crazy imagination to envision these little creatures frolicking around in creamy mushroom soup, performing spectacular, acrobatic feats with their spring onion rings. Drawing them was a challenge; trying to capture sea horses doing the loop-de-loop is not easy. After several attempts, I thought it best to call it a day and stick to my delectable dancers dallying about on a page designed to mimic the colours of Saturn with a creamy mushroom flavouring.

Whilst reading to the book to the older children at the Summer Reading Challenge, they stopped me to question the morals of putting sea horses on Saturn.

“That’s impossible!” one exclaimed. “Saturn doesn’t have any creatures living on it because it’s made from gases and rocks.”

True. I considered my options on answering that question, bearing in mind my audience and their age range. So, I took the same tactic as Big Ox. I replied. “That’s all true. But how do you know if you’ve never been there before?”

The child sat back to consider this, and I continued reading. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe in something you can’t see, let alone enjoy it. Little One struggles to see all the wondrous creatures they encounter on their adventure in space, very much like the child listening to my story. With all the coaxing Big Ox gives, Little One only budges after realising that Big Ox is starting to lose his belief because of Little One’s reluctance to engage in the use of imagination. It encourages Little One to try a little harder at imagining amazing things too. That is enough to bring a smile to Little One’s worried face, knowing that their shared belief can create a fantastic adventure for them both.

Space Dust goes beyond the obvious approach to solving Little One’s worries. Facts alone are not enough to get us through life’s worries. Having faith in those around you who try to help carry that burden of worries and transport you away from them, even for a little while, requires you to have a little faith and believe. Amazing things happen when you do!

Thank you for stopping by and finding out a bit more about this special story crafted for the local libraries to support their Summer Reading Challenge. Please click on the link below if you haven’t already ordered your copy of Space Dust.

Click here to order your copy of Space Dust.
Or here for US site

Do send in your pics and reviews of the book, or any of the others. I’d love to share them with the rest of the readers.

Here is a list of my children’s books available now:

If you would like to find out more about my books or about me, please click on any of the links below:

Author Page
Amazon //(US site)
Lulu
Facebook

Thank you for joining me. Tomorrow, we will be visiting Sally’s Café and Book Store. See you there!

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Thank you, Eloise, for stopping by as part of your tour!