When Alec Longstreth approached his sister Galen about doing a children’s book together, she jumped at the chance.
“Alec is very cool and smart,” Galen explains, “If Alec approaches you about doing a project the response is, ‘Yes, are you kidding?’ It wasn’t just, ‘Hey, we’re siblings and it’d be cute if we made a book together’ — it was a real opportunity.”
As an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator — you might’ve seen his work in the popular James Patterson and Julia Bergen book “Middle School: Ultimate Showdown” — Alec was ready to dive deeper into the world of children’s literature. Galen, three years his senior, just happens to be a fount of kid-lit expertise, having worked as a teacher, a librarian, a children’s book specialist, and a children’s bookseller at Powell’s. She debuted her own children’s book with illustrator Maris Wicks, “Yes, Let’s,” in 2013.
The manuscript for their co-created book “Night is Nigh” (written by Galen, illustrated by Alec) was a rhyming picture book about the sleepaway camp the Longstreth kids attended each summer, Hidden Valley Camp in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains north of Seattle.
“I said sure, I would like to mentally spend time in that space!” Alec recalls, “For a lot of this I didn’t even need a reference, I just drew what I remembered from spending so many summers there.”
The result is a picture book filled with vivid and engrossing full-page pictures conjuring woodsy campfires and cabin pillow fights. The simple, evocative text is adapted to the tune and cadence of “Taps,” which they sang each night at camp before going to bed, sometimes led by young Alec on the bugle (the original words and music are included at the end of the book). It’s a classic “bedtime book,” a genre all parents need in their please-go-to-sleep-now repertoire.
The reception for the book was warm. They held a release party at Island Books in Mercer Island and a crowd of Hidden Valley alumni showed up to relive their camping glory days. Galen’s daughter is now a camper there, too. When they threw another book release in Santa Fe, where Alec lives, a woman who just happened to be at that bookshop in the middle of the desert that day had a surprising revelation: “My great-uncle is the guy who founded that camp!” Another impromptu Hidden Valley reunion.
“It was a magical thing,” Alec says, “It’s been a great joy having it out in the world.”
As kids, the siblings’ reading habits foreshadowed their eventual careers. Alec loved comics and books full of illustrations like the work of William Steig and Roald Dahl, while Galen read text-heavy books voraciously — Judy Blume, “The Babysitters Club” — all the chapter books I could get my hands on.” As adults, these proclivities took them on parallel paths leading to their eventual team-up. And they’re not done yet.
“In book publishing, the highest compliment you can give is working with someone again,” Alec says, “And we’re working on another one!”
Book recommendations from the Longstreths
We asked Galen and Alex what books the recommend to young readers, other than ones they’ve written or illustrated themselves. Here are their picks along with why they love them:
Alec Longstreth
- “Our Pool,” by Lucy Ruth Cummins: “An awesome book that gets into all the small details of going to the public pool in Brooklyn. It feels so summery.”
- “Fireworks,” by Matthew Burgess: “A book about the 4th of July and what it’s like to be a kid and watch the fireworks. It uses some cool printing techniques with neon ink, it’s a full sensory experience.”
Galen Longstreth
- “Hot Dog,” by Doug Salati. “We’re a neurodivergent family in my house, and this is about a dog who has a complete meltdown and its owner exhibits the most beautiful, loving care.”
- “The Sleeper Train,” by Mick Jackson. “As an appreciator of picture books as art I love this book, and as a teacher it’s got so many entry points for things you could do with kids in school.”
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