About

'Dale the Moose' is an original children's book classic concept that came to life in the early months of the year 2022. Following the self-publication of his first novel, "Essential," written as an ode to hard-working front-line workers during the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Esteban Serrano decided to challenge himself to write a children's book, but it needed to be an original idea with a good lesson that would captivate the idea of children's books- morals and education on the real world. However, in a kid-friendly, cute, and family-oriented way.

Being a busy high school senior, balancing a job and an internship, on top of other tasks to be completed in his personal life, Esteban found himself unable to complete stories for concepts he had written over the past few months. These included stories about sports, space, and even culture. His ideas failed, and he needed a new drive to write a classic.

One day in early March while on a date with his girlfriend- Marissa Escamilla, the two of them ended up taking a view at an art museum in Downtown San Antonio. They would come across some modern artworks in a dedicated section of the museum, and see a moose sculpture. Esteban glanced at it with pure creativity, and they both knew at that point it was obvious the light-bulb had shined right over both their heads.

On that same day, after having already seen sketches of hers, he asked Annalise Escamilla, Marissa's younger sister, to illustrate the book and come up with concept visuals for the now declared project. Over the next few months, from March to July, Annalise made over 60 drawings to illustrate the story. It took Esteban roughly two weeks to write the story, and with the help of his aunt, Dr. Jo Ann Paz, PhD, more than 8 weeks to edit the entire story into what readers pick up today.

Esteban formatted the project together, and self-published the book using the Barnes and Noble Press site to officially push it to Barnes and Noble online. In early July, the two would collaborate with Stay Strong Foundation and Noah Adams, who Esteban had known because of his peer friendship with him at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, and pledged to donate a whopping 60% of sales made through the first three months of sales. The donation period is set to expire November 5, 2022. The three of them appeared on KSAT-12's afternoon variety show- SA Live, to promote the book as well as the cause.

In the future, other 'Dale' works are very likely, and Esteban is happy to have gotten a great lesson across through this children's classic, which is that there really is no place like home.

'Dale the Moose' is available right now at BN.com and Google Play.