Love, Hope, and Joy Illustrations

🦊The misfortunate adventures of a fourth-grade boy who assembles a last-minute diorama that disassembles his life.🚀

Wry humor meets the sweet, strange magic of Velveteen Rabbit, in a story sure to charm readers big and small, written by Ann Val, illustrated by Emily Anne Hickman, and published through Twenty Hills. This book is releasing July 21st, 2026. The cover reveal will happen Monday, June 15th!
Nathaniel Ichabod Lampley woke up late one morning, remembering he’d forgotten something—a school project requiring a diorama of three animals in their natural habitats.
In a rush to not be late to school…again…he cobbles together his project: stuffed animals from a neglected toy chest, his sister’s crayons, and a Star Battles Trilogy shoebox.
What follows is an unraveling of misfortunes.
But Nathaniel is no stranger to misfortune. Misfortune has a way of finding Nathaniel.
Can he escape this curse—or is he destined to become the unluckiest boy in the history of the fourth grade?
Told by a Highly Important Narrator and interrupted by several less important side characters (not that they know their status), this charming, tongue-in-cheek tale is sure to delight readers of all ages.
Or anyway, this is what the author insisted I say.