Author/Illustrator Ashley Belote is coming to the Summerville Book Festival! Ashley will be featured in our Stories on the Square Children’s Stage and you’ll get the chance (before anyone else!) to grab her brand new release, Squirrelock Holmes!
It’s a mystery, my dear Watson! Detective Squirrel Lock Holmes and her trusty sidekick Mole Watson are on the hunt for a missing pet rock in this first book of the hilarious early graphic chapter book series.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING PET ROCK
Victim: Reggie the Rabbit’s Pet Rock, Dwayne (aka, “the Rock”)
Scene of the Crime: Pet Rock Obedience School
Suspects: Reggie’s classmates — and even his teacher!
Detective Squirrel Lock Holmes and her partner in crime-solving — Mole Watson — are experts in finding lost things. But can they find Reggie’s pet rock? Or will they hit rock bottom?
Early chapter book readers will laugh along at the problem-solving skills of the silliest sleuths in the forest in this full-color graphic novel.
PLUS – Ashley will read her new fractured fairy tale picture book, Little Red and BIG, BAD FRED, along with one of her most popular titles, Sheepwrecked!
Following the story time, Ashley will lead the audience in a guided drawing session at the Main Street Reads tent and teach everyone how to draw a character from her stories. Participants will follow along step by step and have fun while they learn!
Ashley Belote is the author/illustrator of LITTLE RED AND BIG, BAD FRED (PRH 2025), WITCH & WOMBAT (PRH 2023), SHEEPWRECKED (PRH 2024), DON’T WASH WINSTON (Feiwel & Friends 2024), LISTEN UP, LOUELLA, THE ME TREE, and A PARTRIDGE IN THE WE TREE. She is also the illustrator of FRANKENSLIME and VALENSLIME by Joy Keller (Feiwel & Friends, 2021). Her debut graphic novel, Squirrel Lock Holmes: The Pet Rock Mystery, will be released by Random House in March of 2026!
Ashley studied traditional animation under the direction of Don Bluth. She is a West Virginia native and earned her BA from Alderson Broaddus University. She earned her MA in Arts Administration from the University of Kentucky. Her graduate study included a children’s literature and illustration course, The Whole Book Approach, through Simmons College at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. She also serves as the Illustrator Coordinator for the Carolinas chapter of SCBWI. Ashley is represented by Moe Ferrara of Triada US Literary Agency. To learn more and see her work, please visit AshleyBelote.