Now on the shelves at Michigan’s Kent District Libraries, Schuler Books Grand Rapids, Newaygo Bookstore, and other local booksellers.
READ! Rapid Growth Media: Journalist’s whimsical children’s book celebrates collaboration, community roots
LOOK! Grand Rapids Magazine Author goes hyperlocal for children’s book
LISTEN! PBS WGVU Radio Morning Show: Local author Estelle Slootmaker and book designer Karen McDiarmid join in to share their work.
WATCH! Fox 17 Local News Morning Mix: Wyoming author pens lighthearted children’s book “Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine.”
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Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine. Printed and bound by 5 Lakes Press, Wyoming, MI, USA. Constellations Concept & Copy 2025. 40 pages. Paperback. US $16.99 ISBN 979-8-218-57252-8
Hyperlocal new children’s book delights young and old
Wyoming, MI Aug. 27, 2025 — A writer, two artists, and a printer walkinto Wyoming one night. The writer asks, “Is this one of those Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine?” “Only after sunset,” the artists reply. “Not at my shop,” says the printer. “Our lights are on 24-7.”
Not funny? Well, we promise the book’s punchline will make you laugh.
Written in verse with rib-tickling illustrations, Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine was conceived by local working writer Estelle Slootmaker, a fifth-generation Wyoming, Michigan resident. Over the past 30-plus years, you may have seen her byline in The Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids Magazine, front row entertainment, and other regional publications. Currently she is a writer and editor with Issue Media Group and book editor for Karen McDiarmid Design.
“Where are the Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine? Little Mouse asks and then replies.”
Slootmaker and McDiarmid met at the Advance Newspapers in Jenison in the 1990s — McDiarmid (then a typesetter) encouraged Slootmaker (then a proofreader) to do a little news writing — launching her career. McDiarmid went on to design books, including Stranger in the Woods, a New York Times #1
Best-Seller and Benjamin Franklin Award Winner. McDiarmid designed Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine. McDiarmid says, ”I love designing books—especially when I get to work with witty and talented authors like Estelle whose new book, Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine, is a brilliantly bright spot of laughter! With clever rhyming prose and illustrations as delightful as the story, this book is guaranteed to make kids (and their grown-ups) grin. I’m so happy Estelle asked me to help bring her book to life.”
Slootmaker met the book’s artist Edward Kurlowicz (Eddie Killowatts) in the Chicago new wave scene in the late 1970s. After losing touch for 30+ years, they got married in 2015, and Kurlowicz moved to Wyoming.
Places Where the Sun Don’t Shine was printed in Wyoming by 5 Lakes Press, 4.2 miles from Slootmaker’s home office, as the Google crow flies. The team was thrilled to find such a high quality book printer so close to home.
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