The best ones also offer wine and snacks during the book signing afterward, with an opportunity for everyone to mingle and celebrate. Nearly all such events include a reading and a talk by the author, followed by a question-and-answer session. I’ve attended many book launches that were high entertainment, and others that dragged on like mammograms in winter. For the reader, it’s an opportunity to meet the person behind the name and interact by asking questions or making comments about the book. For the writer, it’s an opportunity to thank everyone who helped support the endeavor along the way. A launch party gives an author the chance to be surrounded by her village as a book makes its debut. Hilary Clinton once famously said it takes a village to raise a child. Nepal, because a book launch party is a terrifying event for any writer. Told with heart, humor, and affection, The Gerbil Farmer s Daughter is Holly s ode to a weird and wonderful upbringing and her truly one of a kind father.Cartwheels, because I’m so happy to have a new novel to introduce to my family and friends.

To support his burgeoning business, the family eventually settled on a remote hundred acre farm with horses, sheep, pygmy goats, peacocks and nearly nine thousand gerbils.įrom part time model for her father s bestselling pet book, How to Raise and Train Pet Gerbils, to full time employee in the gerbil empire s complex of prefab Sears buildings, Holly was an enthusiastic if often exasperated companion on her father s quest to breed the perfect gerbil.

Soon the Annapolis trained Navy commander was breeding gerbils and writing about them for publications ranging from the ever bouncy Highlights for Children to the erudite Science News.

Starting with a few pairs of gerbils housed for curiosity s sake in the family s garage, Donald Robinson s obsession with the pocket kangaroo developed into a lifelong passion and second career. That’s the question that Holly Robinson sets out to answer in this warm and rollicking memoir of life with her father, the world s most famous gerbil czar. What kind of Navy officer sits on his ship in the middle of the Mediterranean dreaming of gerbils?

The Wishing Hill by Holly Robinson