BY MIKE WARREN

STRATFORD – Ashlyn Solinsky is coming out with her third children’s book in just over two years.

Solinsky, 17, is releasing “Jack’s Unexpected Journeys” on Dec. 15. “The theme of the book is adventure and imagination just like the first two, except it has a more reading-based theme,” the Stratford High School junior says. “It’s about this little boy named Jack. He always plays games on his phone and never puts it down. And one day his mom takes it away from him, because you know how moms are,” Solinsky adds. “And she makes him go to the library and tells him, ‘You better have a book when I get back.’ Jack’s so determined he’s not going to read. He doesn’t want to. Books are so boring. But, the librarian shows up with an interesting-looking book and tells him it’s a magical book, and it’ll take him wherever he wants to go. So, he opens it up and starts reading, and – what do you know? – he finds himself sucked into it, and he goes on his own mini adventure through the book. My favorite of the three so far, I think,” says Ashlyn.

The latest adventure is a follow-up to Solinsky’s first book, “Happy Snappy Wonderful Places to Go,” released in the fall of 2020, and her second book, “The Adventures of Sammy C. Sunshine,” released in March 2021. “The first two were very similar,” Solinsky says. “The first one was about a little girl who’s sitting on her swing and she’s imagining going all these different places, and the second one is about a little boy in his tree house, and it’s kind of the same thing – he’s just imaging what he would do if he could go anywhere and do anything,” Ashlyn adds. “This third one is different just because it involves reading, and it’s supposed to show kids how you can actually go anywhere you want by reading, and you can do things you’d never be able to do in real life.”

The latest book takes its readers on four different adventures, and Solinsky says the writing is more detailed and in-depth than her first two books. “I think the most difficult part for me is usually the rhyming and the rhythm part, making sure it flows and it’s fun to read. But when I finished, that was what I liked best about it. It’s actually a lot of fun to read out loud, and I feel like that rhythm is more attractive to kids. I put a lot of work into making sure that just by reading the words, you could sum it up in your head,” Ashlyn recalls. “Even though there are illustrations, I kind of want to get across that the adventures in words can be just as good as adventures in real life.”

Solinsky’s new book is available through her Facebook page, “Happy Snappy Wonderful Places to Go,” Schalow’s Nursery in Marshfield, Ground Up Coffee Shop in Stratford and Bauman’s Nursery & Landscape in Edgar.