Dragons Out

On the beautiful summer day, we decided that now is the time to celebrate the fact that Dragons Out book has both English and Finnish publishers. The English publisher Austin Macauley was chosen in March and the Finnish publisher Avain in June. Both have all the necessary texts and illustrations for taking the work towards the published book. Now we just wait and take a moment to enjoy the progress so far.
Well, there will be more to do, of course. Reviews of proofreading and design. Plenty of marketing to do on many forums. There's the blog to write. There's another school donation campaign to arrange (remember last autumn many companies funded the book by preorders that they will donate to schools for students to read). I'll continue the campaign come this autumn. Stay tuned.
And as a reminder, share the book project with your network! And preorder either the English or Finnish version by contacting me via the contact form : ).
Below the author Kari Kakkonen and illustrator…

I am glad to announce that I have signed the publishing contract for the Finnish version of Dragons Out book! The considerations took place on their own pace over winter, but finally, I was able to choose out of three publishing options and chose Avain. They have a great variety of children's books, professional books and educational books - and are thus a great fit for my book.
The Finnish Dragons Out will be published as a hardcover book only. Those few who chose an electronic book will get a hardcover book instead or can choose the English electronic book.
The publishing date of the Finnish book is before Christmas, currently set to Dec 1st, 2020, so the book makes an excellent Christmas present for any thoughtful parent or company. You can already preorder from me using the contact form on this site. I really appreciate anyone making up their minds early on as it will diminish some of the uncertainty that exists now in Covid-19 times.
The publishing date of the English book is no…

Today's excerpt from Dragons Out book is about spring - it has been quite pleasant here spring in Finland, if you don't count the Covid-19 challenges. The excerpt also reminds all of us about the importance of life-long learning. Even if you learn something at an early age (like the kids in the book learn dragon hunting / software testing), you are never ready. There's always more to learn. The sage Cho has understood this.Pre-orders of both English and Finnish book are still available - just contact me via the contact form. I much appreciate those who have preordered the book in the past few months to make my book project easier. Thank you.And the excerpt:One day, as the golden spring sun gently tickled the guards' noses on the walls of Iron Lake, they saw a horse galloping towards the village gates. The cousins Tom and Laura just got off guard duty and rushed to the gate to meet the rider. A young woman in hunter's clothing jumped down from the back of the snorti…

Today EuroSTAR announced the program of this largest software testing conference in Europe. My Dragons Out talk about how children learn about software testing is there! The conference takes place online this year due to the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis. Anyway, it will be great! So join me there to hear more about how children learn - and of course a bit about the book : )

As for today's excerpt from the book, I've chosen a piece about learning, as EuroSTAR theme for 2020 is Learn Together From Anywhere. This excerpt is from chapter four. It also features the name of the book!

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When autumn arrived, the villagers put the logs in place. Each log was driven deep into the ground, and the builders filled the pit around the log to the ground level. In this way, each log stood firmly on its own. Each time there were ten logs upright, three crossbeams joined them. Mathilda's wood-building skills were needed. The work progressed nicely.


After summer, the villagers build the pali…