10/26/16

Trucker Books (and the Trucker) a Big Hit with All Ages

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Trucker/husband Paul Wesley Gates and I went before two audiences last week where we had a ball. While at one, a woman came up , tapped my husband on his arm, and said: “You look just like Roy Rogers.”

I laughed, inwardly, as I thought:  “That must make me Dale Evans.”

I get why she said it. He’s tall, lanky, with a Southern drawl (he’s a long-ago transplant from Arkansas who got here as a Navy Seabee.) As such, he’s a great favorite of the ladies. It helps that he wears a western hat, cowboy boots, and a leather vest with insignia sewn on.

I freely admit:  I use him for my presentations.

You see, I write about his adventures in our children’s books, Grandpa and the Truck (Books 1 and 2), for he was a long-haul, big rig driver who went all over the United States, moving households. Our books are the perfect vehicle (pun intended) to teach geography, regional differences, dialect, trucker lingo (the words we can safely use). Each story comes with guide questions, maps showing where the truck is, a moral (remember—I’m a teacher) and table of contents.

To date, we’ve published two colorfully-illustrated books, and we give lively presentations to children, too.  Our biggest audience was a 200-child school gathering in Tiverton, RI.

How we doing? Our colorful books fly out the door, at these presentations, with women who recognize their value….author-signed books recommended by teachers and truckers.

If you order your own now, we get them to you before the holidays….

#truckers #bigrigdrivers #kidstruckbooks

01/23/16

Truckers Buying Our Books

gatorman(Trucker’s nickname was ‘Gater’…Truckers LOVE nicknames)

Had a talk with a recent buyer of our Grandpa and the Truck books. It seems she found us on the internet, when she was scouting around for a baby “onesie” (all-in-one outfit for you who don’t know.) You see, she’s expecting their first child and husband is a trucker. She wanted to get books that an actual trucker team writes (trucker and published author wife.)

She wants to be able to read the child the stories, showing what Daddy does when when he’s away.

Smart thinking on her part.

And if it’s a girl child, book 2 has “Girl Truckers” as its second story (each book has two) so the little one doesn’t think only men can be truckers.

Books 1 and 2 are available now, with more in the pipeline:  “How This Trucker Saw the Woodstock Music Festival”…”The West Virginia Coal-Mining Road”…”Truckers Love Their Big Rigs”…are all being readied.

Buying our books will enable us to continue with the series that accurately portrays a long-haul trucker’s life on the road.

It will also teach your child amazing things.

If you buy from us (at this website,) we can autograph your book(s), too and personalize them to the child (tell us his/her name.)

If you’ve already bought, we thank you…as does our trucking industry, for we’re the only ones doing this–telling of the important job our nation’s truckers do for the American economy. We appreciate your help.

12/19/15

Trucker Graveyard

Their big rigs have probably disintegrated, over the years, in the heat and dust of a Laredo landscape. But the bones of their drivers remain. Truckers who never made it beyond the SHORT CURVE in the road. Loved ones couldn’t retrieve, for they’d gone too far down. Now, they lay, tangled, in a Truckers’Graveyard. I bow my head when I pass, in my own big rig, and say a silent prayer………Trucking’s not for the faint of heart.

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04/29/15

“Grandpa and the Truck” Going to 2 Big Audiences in Tiverton, RI

Our flyer announcing our first BIG show….

“Grandpa and the Truck” coming to Walter E. Ranger and Ft. Barton schools May 13, 2015.cab and trucker

Named to Atlas Van Lines’s “Elite Fleet” (of drivers,) “Gator” drove millions of miles, flawlessly, across America in the big rig.

Now, he tells his exciting adventures to student audiences, focusing on the men and women who drive these big metal beasts….their challenges…natures’ role (hurricanes, fog, ice) and the beauty and diversity of our great land.

“Grandpa and the Truck’s” trucker and 30-year retired teacher, Providence Journal Op-Ed writer, Colleen Kelly Mellor (trucker’s wife and author) bring their lively show to Tiverton little ones.

Signed and personalized books may be ordered right here, on this website

www.grandpaandthetruck.com

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11/5/14

We Were a Smash Hit at the Authors’ Expo

 

This past Saturday was our first appearance at RI Authors’ Expo…We are the first to produce the Grandpa and the Truck books (for kids 4-9), about husband’s 30-year big rig career, transporting household goods all over America. OOIDA has named us “Cool Gifts for Kids” and Women in Trucking endorses us, too. And now, schools are inviting us in, since we’re the perfect vehicle to teach geography, nature, science, math, and important life lessons.  They love the fact, too, that we meet  Common Core standards.

This is our first entry into the book fair circuit but we’ve got lots more appearances on tap. We’re especially thrilled with the schools who are signing up to test-drive our books.

Our books are perfect as gifts for the countless children’s birthdays folks need a present for…Christmas…Channukah…kwanza.

If you’re a trucker, why not give a gift that tells others the important job you do, in moving ALL of America’s products? So far, no one’s done that. We aim to change that.

If you’re a trucker’s family, you’ll love the fact we recognize truckers as True American Folk-Heroes.

If you buy our books for a child, tell us how to personalize and we’ll autograph (how cool is that?) Then the books become a rare, individualized gift for a child, instead of a store-bought, everyday item…

Finally, your purchase will enable us to continue telling a trucker’s tales to our biggest fan base (kids), so truckers can finally get the recognition they so richly deserve.

Pay buttons are above….and “Thank you.”