At last the big day is here. The Growly Books #2, Widewater, is finally available! We started writing it back around the time Begin was released. There have been lots of early mornings at the computer, watching Growly’s story unfold word by word. Times of planning and discussing and re-writing and editing. And now, along with Growly, we’ve made it to the end of the second part of his journey. We can’t wait for you to read it!
In the corner of our home office are stacks of books, fresh from the printer, waiting patiently to find their homes, and the second part of Growly’s story is ready to be sent out.
Once again, we want to thank our illustrator, Annie Barnett, for her incredible talent and tireless devotion to this project. She never ceases to amaze us as she turns our words into pictures. Many thanks also to Sandra Peoples for her excellent copyediting skills!
Oceans are crossed, one wave at a time …
Growly’s adventure has taken him far from home in search of C.J., his grandfather’s long-lost friend who disappeared over The Precipice. Now, the desperate quest continues as Growly, Chippy, and Tully find themselves facing a journey across the Ocean. In a makeshift sailboat, Growly and his friends embark on their greatest adventure yet. It is a journey that will take them to far-off lands and mysterious cities—into the unknown …
across the wide, wide water.
The Giveaway
In celebration of the Widewater launch, we are giving away two 8″ x 10″ prints of original pencil and hand-painted watercolors by Annie Barnett, the illustrator of The Growly Books. These illustrations were featured in the first book of the series, Begin. The images are printed on high-quality cold press matte paper, to replicate the feel and look of the original watercolor.
My kids and I are loving Begin. They beg to read it together every night and we’re almost done. I’m ordering Widewater right now. Thanks for such a good family series.
Thanks, Amanda! We’re so glad your family is enjoying the book! And thank you for helping us spread the word about Widewater! 🙂
Just ordered Widewater on Amazon. Thanks to Prime membership, it should be here on Wednesday! (gulp) we need to accelerate our re-reading of Begin so that we’re ready! The kids can’t wait – they’ve been creating their own illustrated adventures for Growly and Chippy to pass the time.
That’s so great Ryan. Our girls have been waiting (as patiently as they can) to read Widewater. They didn’t want to read the story until it was released as a “real book”, so we’ll be doing some Begin refreshers too. We love seeing kids’ pictures of Growly and his friends. That’s one of the really fun parts of working on this series.
We read Begin and our kiddos have been waiting for the next book, thanks for the giveaway!
I hope your kids love Widewater just as much as Begin. Thanks for stopping by today! 🙂
So excited to start to read this next book with my daughter!
Thanks Katherine. We’ve just started reading it with our girls too. They wanted to wait until their copies were in hand and signed before they started reading.
We are all soo excited to find out more about Growlys adventure!
Thanks Carrie. Hope you have a great time reading.
Yippee! When I opened the email from you and read that book 2 is available today, I grinned and clapped my hands like a little girl. (I may have even exclaimed “Yay!” a couple of times.) My son and I read “Begin” together at the beginning of the summer and were entranced. We have been waiting for this day! I can’t wait to continue the adventures with Growly and friends. Thank you so very much for creating this delightful series.
That is so fun to hear. We love hearing that parents are enjoying the read too. It’s been a joy for us writing these books, and it is really encouraging to hear from others enjoying it too.
I stopped by! Off to purchase this and my kiddos will flip out of their Christmas jammies when they see this!!!
Thanks, Jennifer! It will be a fun Christmas surprise for sure! 🙂
Congrats on the second book – I’m sure it will be amazing! I hope I win! 🙂
Thanks for visiting, Melissa!
YAY!!! I have been waiting to hear that book #2 was ready to order….on my way there now! Although my kiddos are grownups, I am not in a hurry to be a grandma, but I am currently re-building my collection of stories and videos, both the tried and true ones from my own childhood (and beyond) or those that were my children’s favorites. Ordered “Begin” on a whim, and LOVED it! The Growly books will be joining the collection…For this still-child-at-heart. Can’t wait to see what happens next…
That is so Great Dianne. We were hoping these books would be fun for “Grown-ups” too. Your comments are really encouraging.
we have been anticipating the next book release. So excited…will make a great christmas present for my girls!!!
Thanks, Lori! I hope your girls love Widewater! So fun to hear they’ll be opening it on Christmas morning!
We are LOVING Widewater!!! Annie’s illustrations are wonderful!
Thanks Amy. Annie is amazing. Makes us want to hurry up and finish book 3 so we can see what she draws next!
My 5 year old boy has asked when the second book is coming out every day since…FOREVER it seems;) We’re so excited to get our copy!!
That is so fun to hear! We’ve worked super hard to get it ready as quickly as possible. It’s been hard for our girls to wait too!
My little boy has been waiting for this day! He is so excited to get Widewater. We both loved Begin.
Yay! I know it’s hard for the little ones to wait! (It’s hard for us to wait sometimes, too.) 🙂
I love books and am excited that my three children also have a love of reading. The story series seems very endearing. I have held onto some of my favorite childhood books to enjoy with my kids when they are older. This is a series that I would like to add to our collection.
Both Phil and I have a love of reading too, and it’s been important to us to instill that in our girls as well!
We are SO excited to order Widewater. It’s my son’s Christmas present…he’ll be completely jazzed. Both my kids were so disappointed when we finished Begin and there was no way to continue the story! The pain of waiting is about to become the joy of discovery!
btw, we ordered Begin through Amazon. I didn’t realize that there was an additional incentive to buying it through your site. If we buy through you, could we get the Begin prints and bookmark with our copy of Widewater?
I can definitely send the Begin bookmark, and there’s a postcard that’s included with all orders. I’m not sure if by the print you’re referring to the 5 x 7 print of Growly and Tully that we had for sale on the site?
Just the freebies (bookmark, postcard) that went along with the earlier book…that would be GREAT!
Also, will your box have any “give away” signs on it? This is to be a Christmas surprise. If my kids see any marks on a box, they’ll never let me keep it put away until the 25th! 🙂
Our envelope does have a “Growly Books” return label with Growly’s picture on it. If you need it to be plain, we can do that. Please indicate this in the comments when you place your order.
This giveaway gift would mean THE WORLD to my children. We have followed you and commented a ton on your fb page. As a former elementary teacher and now mom of four I can tell you I believe this is HANDS DOWN THE BEST book series I have ever had the privilege of sharing with children. Everyone I know that gets a gift from us is getting Growly books. I have talked it up on my fb page, with friends and family, and fellow homeschooling families as well as former co-worker teachers. Growly and company are like friends to my kids and this would be such a treasure for them. Thanks for raising the standard on awesome new literature!
Wow! Thank you so much Kristen. That is super encouraging. Growly feels like a part of our family too. Our girls have a toy Growly and Chippy who’ve been around long before we even started writing these books. (Just finished a post on Growly’s journey with us: https://thegrowlybooks.com/first-steps/ )
That is SO cool!!!!!! I love it!
Yay! So excited to read this one, and even more excited to make this the first chapter book series I read with my girl when she’s old enough!
Thanks so much, Crystal! I remember that feeling of anticipation when our girls were smaller … waiting for the day when we could sit down and read chapter books together. We are so honored that Growly is waiting on your bookshelf for that day! 🙂
So excited for the new book!!!! We are reading Begin right now and my 5 year old loves it!
Thanks Jennifer. We love hearing about families reading it together, and our hopes were that younger “listeners” would love the story too.
I stopped by to buy the book because my kids can’t wait to start it!
Yay! Thanks so much, Marci! 🙂
We’ll be finishing book one this week and my kids are sooooo excited to know that book 2 is on the way!
That’s great Lisa! I’m so glad your kids are enjoying the series!
My boys and I thoroughly enjoyed Begin! I was always telling the boys that we could read one more chapter because I actually wanted to know what was going to happen next! There aren’t too many books that the parents and kids can both truly enjoy, but ths is definitely one of them! My boys and I can’t wait to read Widewater!
We just started the first Growly book! We are loving every minute of it and I’m so happy that the 2nd one is out just in time for Christmas shopping 🙂
Hi! Mu 9year old loved the first book! So excited to read the next…Definitely will be putting it under the christmas tree!
Excited to read these with my little one!