Romeoville Resident Publishes Children's Book

Romeoville IL

10 June, 2022

9:31 AM

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ROMEOVILLE, IL — Romeoville resident Megan Deliberto recently published her first children's book, "No Place For A Lizard," which tells the tale of a bearded dragon looking for his place in the world. Deliberto said she fell in love with books and reading when she was in third grade. "I would walk to the public library after school instead of going home and I would sit there for hours reading," she told Patch. "When my son was born, I would read to him every night." She would often make up stories for him, where he featured in the starring role. "Some nights Anthony was a knight fighting bad guys with his sidekick dragon and other nights he was an explorer traveling the world in a hot air balloon with nothing but cookies for food," she said. She came up with "No Place For A Lizard" when her son started asking for a pet bearded dragon. The book, illustrated by Tiemoko Sylla, features a bearded dragon coming face-to-face with lions, monkeys and a polar bear. Deliberto said the story is ultimately about friendship and inclusion. You can pre-order Deliberto's book through Kickstarter. Her book is being published by Rodney K Press. "My husband urged me to send the story into publishers to see if it could go anywhere," she said. After receiving auto-generated responses from major publishing houses, stating they only accept manuscripts from agents, and receiving auto-responses from agents stating they only considered authors who were published, Deliberto found Rodney K Press. Her manuscript was accepted in January, and presale on Kickstarter started June 7. "The presale is being done through Kickstarter, which apparently is very common for boutique publishing houses as children's books are very expensive to produce on the front end," she said. She has also chosen to print her book in the United States, which has raised print costs. "I have always dreamed of being a published author and this journey has been amazing. I am excited to share this story with my community and hope they love it as much as I do," she said.