Taking 60 years to bring a book to market is not usual practice in the publishing industry, but for my family from central Pennsylvania, which has been vacationing on Long Beach Island since the mid-1940s, that’s exactly how long it took to publish a new children’s picture book about an intrepid little starfish who lives in the waters just off the coast of Barnegat Light.
Today’s iteration of the book features professional illustrations by Ana Truqui.
My grandmother Jane Tomlinson (1918-2001) first imagined “Sammy Starfish” in 1964 when I was 3 years old during a long ride home to Altoona, Pa. from Ship Bottom.
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