NIghty Night Dinos, Hello Debut PB! Craft Chat with Deborah Holt Williams & Book Review by Kathy Halsey

 

Congratulations to Deborah Holt Williams and illustrator Anna Doherty on their debut picture Nighty Night Dinos scheduled to release June 16, 2026! Deb and I have been longtime friends and have supported each other on what can be a loooong journey over the years. It’s so dino-rrific to witness her debut book! Big congrats and dinosaur roars! 

Nighty NIght Dinos Book Review

By Kathy Halsey

I’ll put on my educator-librarian-book reviewer hat to discuss this appealing book. How does one take an evergreen topic like a bedtime story and make it stand out? Deb took the path of adding another perennial topic, dinosaurs, to the mix along with rhyme to make a lyrical read aloud that also shares the importance of sleep. 

I can picture parents gently rocking their children to sleep as they read this or taking an active kiddo, not ready for sleep, and imitating the dinosaur’s motions of romping, splashing, swimming, and flying. Once the cadence of the book slows, the little dinos yawn, find their stuffies, curl up in their favorite blanket, and rest their crests on the best pillows, hopefully as a nudge to their young readers! Shh! 

I was surprised to learn about dinosaurs I’d never heard of before. Curious kids will be interested in discovering these less traditional dinosaur classifications, too. 

Illustrator Anna Doherty has created a soft, unique palette that amplifies dreams and sleep. I’ve never seen such cute, cuddly dinosaurs. The end papers feature a striking sky of dinosaur clouds that lend whimsy to this picture book, too.   

This is a winning combination for kids and parents that will last through many a storytime and be a welcome addition to public libraries, too.

Craft Chat with Deborah Holt Williams

 Kathy: It's a pleasure to be in conversation with you today, Deb. My copy of NIGHTY NIGHT, DINOS arrived earlier than I thought, and it's such a fun, charming book featuring one of children's literature's favorite animals, DINOSAURS!This is such a delightful story. What is the origin of this book? Did you envision it as a board book or a poem, or did you always see it as a picture book?

Deb: First let me say it’s an honor to be featured on your blog, Kathy! We’ve been in the submitting trenches together a long time. NIGHTY NIGHT, DINOS started off as an entry in a bedtime story poetry contest in January of 2020. It was not a winner, but I really liked it, so I made it a bit longer and envisioned it as a board book. I sent it to Familius publishing in February of 2021 and heard back the very next day! (How rare is that?) The company’s owner, with the wonderful name of Christopher Robbins, liked it but they had a few other dinosaur books in the pipeline already. We kept in touch but a couple years went by. Then in October of 2023, Christopher wrote and asked if I would add four more stanzas so they could turn it into a 32-page picture book! Absolutely! I sent them off, and then in November of 2023 I was in the hospital after a procedure, couldn’t sleep, turned on my laptop and there was the contract! Just what the doctor ordered!  I first saw the artwork for DINOS in September of 2024, while we were in Greece for a wedding, and I loved it! Anna Doherty is so talented, and a lovely person, too.

Kathy: Yes, we've been writer friends for years. It's delightful to host you on the GROG! Congrats!

I understand there will be two more books in this series, Nighty Night Bears and Nighty Night Puppies, both due out in 2028. Did you have these others waiting in the wings, or how did you approach this as a series for Familius? 

Deb: In April of 2025, an e-mail arrived from Familius. Tariffs were everywhere, and I was afraid to open the e-mail. Paper comes from Canada, books are printed in China, and I was sure that this email was to tell me that they could not produce my book after all. (I’d had two close calls in the past from other publishers on other manuscripts.) But, I opened it and… it asked if I would consider doing a series! I got cracking, and shortly after that, contracts were signed for NIGHTY NIGHT, PUPPIES and NIGHTY NIGHT BEARS, both due out in 2028. In January of 2026 the book jacket for DINOS was sent for my approval, and the School Library Journal review came out and was very positive. That was followed by a good Kirkus review in March, and my ten author copies arrived on May 1st. The book comes out on June 16 this year, 6 years after it’s first iteration.

Kathy: So, there's still time to pre-order this book! Excellent news. I’m curious about how you decided which dinosaurs would make their sleepy time appearance. Some of them feel very similar while others I've never heard of. Did you have to do any research on these dinosaurs?

Deb: I’ve loved dinosaurs since I was 6 and found my first fossil. I took my youngest son on a dino dig when he was 6, and we read tons of books about dinos, so I didn’t have to do too much research there. But when I saw Anna’s illustrations and all the bats she put in, I had to check and see if there were bats in the dino days. (There were.) When I learned she was planning on painting clouds for the endpapers, I asked if she could make the clouds look like chubby dinosaurs, and she did. She is from Scotland but lives in Switzerland, and I hope I get to meet her someday. Now that the book is done, we chitchat on Instagram.

Kathy: What plans do you have for the NIghty Night Dinos debut? A blog tour? A launch party? What are you most looking forward to as a published author? What project are you working on next?

Deb: Our town hosts Colorado’s oldest festival every summer, Strawberry Days, and our terrific local bookstore, Alpenglow, will have a booth where I’ll be sitting with them to sign books on the 20th of June. So that will be my book launch! I’m scheduled for a few blogs, and to appear at several local libraries (the national summer reading theme this year is dinosaurs!) and I even got an invitation for a bookstore in Denver, on the other side of the Rockies. (I live on the western slope, in Glenwood Springs.) I’ve contacted some dinosaur museums in Colorado and Utah but haven’t heard back. I’m still writing and submitting, and I learned recently that 12 states have an official state dinosaur, so the wheels are turning about a story where they decide to get together and…well, I’m not too clear on the plot yet. But I’ll keep at it!

Kathy: That will be fun, especially visiting museums! Thanks, Deb, for chatting with me today and for inspiring me with your journey. Finally, here's a tip for writers from Deb.

Deb: A tip for aspiring authors:  I find it really helpful to volunteer at my library, wiping down the picture books and keeping them in order, because it helps me to see what’s new and which publishers my stories might fit.

Connect with Deb here! 

Website: https://deborahholtwilliams.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lucky.williams.7  

Bluesky: @debwriter.bsky.social

Instagram: @debwriter