Amazon Amanda

Amanda Chambers announced today the release of her children’s book, Lunar and Hamlet, published by Outskirts Press. A moral tale for children, written by a child – Amanda was only in the fourth grade when she wrote it – the story of how a seemingly homely chick and an equally “different” puppy overcome their troubles in life will be completely real to other young children and fully appreciated by them.


Although written when Amanda was only in the fourth grade at Andersonville Elementary in her native Tennessee, Lunar and Hamlet immediately won the Dalton James “Dream Big, Write It Down” writing contest and was selected from among all the books submitted by children across the country.

In Chambers’ story, a small chick named Hamlet is born into a family of siblings, all of whom are bright yellow and growing large quickly. Hamlet, however, is brown and small, and the inhabitants of Green Pines Barnyard tease her unmercifully. Only her mother and an equally undersized, oddly colored puppy named Lunar spare her from the continuing barnyard taunts.

Hamlet and Lunar quickly become friends and when Hamlet falls into the river and is swept away by the fast moving water, Lunar comes to her rescue. Their bond is complete.

When Lunar later gives birth to a litter of puppies, one is smaller than the rest and a different color. Shortly after Hamlet hatches six young chicks, and one of them, too, is small and different in color.

What happens then provides a pleasing conclusion to this charming tale, made all the more accessible to its young readers by the fact that the story was conceived and written and its delightful, full color pictures drawn by one of their own.