Extra! Extra! The Hollow News has reached Issue No. 3-and somehow Sleepy Hollow is still crime free.
That may sound like good news. It probably is. But in this town, a quiet crime report does not mean things are boring. It means the reporters have found other ways to keep themselves busy.
Duane H. Cave’s Granny’s Sleepy Hollow Rooster: The Hollow News is now a three-issue series of humorous read-color-and-activity books for kids and adults. Each 24-page, 8.5 x 11 paperback costs $9.99 and combines illustrated newspaper stories with coloring pages, puzzles, fake local advertising, classifieds, and community notices from the fictional town of Sleepy Hollow.
You can browse the complete Hollow News series on Amazon, or read on for a closer look at what makes each issue different.
What kind of newspaper is The Hollow News?
First, this is not the sort of newspaper that spends six pages discussing parking regulations before finally getting to the interesting part.
The Hollow News is published by THE Rooster, whose official promise is:
“If it happens in the Hollow, you’ll hear it from THE Town Crower!”
Each issue includes four illustrated Hollow News stories. The stories introduce readers to Sleepy Hollow residents, businesses, misunderstandings, schemes, announcements, and the occasional situation that might have been easier if everyone had paused for five minutes.
But the news stories are only part of the experience. Every issue also includes:
- Four full-page coloring scenes
- Fake advertisements from Sleepy Hollow businesses
- The Hollow Classifieds
- A community bulletin board
- A maze
- A word search
- An unscramble game
- A picture puzzle
- A Junior Hollow Reporter activity
- Answer pages
In other words, you can read the issue, color the scenes, solve the puzzles, and then try your hand at reporting from the Hollow. It is a newspaper, activity book, and small-town comedy collection all wearing the same wonderfully unusual hat.
Issue No. 1: Where the trouble begins
Issue No. 1 introduces readers to the tone, characters, and peculiar rhythm of Sleepy Hollow. The town is already full of stories, but the reporters of The Hollow News are ready to make sure no odd detail escapes notice.
The four featured stories include:
- Hopes & Dreams leave Sleepy Hollow.
- A meteorite nearly destroys Life, or did it?
- The Hog Calling Contest returns.
- Ray Dient interviews the Lie Master.
That is quite a workload for one issue. There are departures, possible cosmic disasters, competitive hog calling, and an interview with someone whose relationship with the truth may be considered flexible.
Issue No. 1 works as a starting point because it gives readers a proper introduction to the newspaper’s mix of humor and activity. The stories establish the kind of unusual events that make Sleepy Hollow memorable, while the coloring pages and puzzles invite readers to slow down and explore the details.
It is also a good reminder that in Sleepy Hollow, a headline may answer one question while creating three more.
Issue No. 2: Burn bans, automobiles, and an unusual business opening
By Issue No. 2, The Hollow News has settled into its role as Sleepy Hollow’s trusted source for information that other newspapers somehow miss.
This time, Mayor Maynot issues a citywide burn ban. That sounds like a sensible civic announcement, at least until you remember that this is Sleepy Hollow and sensible announcements rarely remain simple for long.
The issue also follows Granny as she discovers that buying a new automobile is not quite as easy as it sounds. Anyone who has ever visited a dealership, compared options, or wondered why a “simple purchase” requires so many decisions may feel a certain amount of sympathy.
Elsewhere, a Fellon opens a business in Sleepy Hollow. The name alone is likely to make readers pause, and possibly reread the headline to make sure they saw it correctly.
Ray Dient also meets a man who uses his own body instead of a measuring tape. It is the sort of practical solution that raises several questions, including one very important question: Who decided this was a good interview subject?
Issue No. 2 continues the format established in the first book while expanding the town’s collection of residents and businesses. There are more announcements, more local color, and more opportunities to discover that the Hollow’s idea of ordinary is not quite the same as yours.
Issue No. 3: The latest news from a town without crime
Issue No. 3 is the newest installment in the series, and it deserves its own moment in the newspaper box.
The central headline is encouraging: Sleepy Hollow remains crime free.
Naturally, that does not mean the reporters are short on material. Two Hollow News reporters reveal more about themselves than expected, which is one way to make a routine workday unexpectedly personal. Meanwhile, one resident proves that once his mind is made up, changing it may be nearly impossible.
That last situation may sound familiar to anyone who has ever tried to change a stubborn opinion, revise a plan, or convince someone that there is, in fact, another way to do something. Sleepy Hollow may be fictional, but its people occasionally demonstrate very real human behavior.
Issue No. 3 includes the same read-color-and-activity structure readers will recognize from the first two books:
- Four illustrated Hollow News stories
- Four full-page coloring scenes
- A maze
- A word search
- An “Unscramble the News” activity
- A picture puzzle
- A Junior Hollow Reporter activity
- Sleepy Hollow advertisements
- The Hollow Classifieds
- The community bulletin board
- Answer pages
Whether you begin with Issue No. 3 or read the series from the beginning, it offers another collection of strange headlines, local personalities, and activities built for more than one kind of reader.
A family storytelling world behind the headlines
The Hollow News grew from a wider family storytelling world.
Duane H. Cave created Sleepy Hollow with inspiration from his hometown of St. Helens, Oregon, along with the stories and imagination of his father, Hardy Cave, who wrote under the pen name Robert Yance Newton. The original family influence helped plant the seed, but Duane developed Sleepy Hollow into a living fictional town with its own characters, businesses, humor, and continuing stories.
That background gives The Hollow News a sense of community. The town is not simply a setting for random jokes. It feels like a place where people know one another, announcements travel quickly, and even the strangest event can become tomorrow’s local conversation.
And, of course, it helps to have a rooster running the newspaper.
Read the news. Color the scenes. Join the reporting team.
The three issues of Granny’s Sleepy Hollow Rooster: The Hollow News are designed to be picked up, read, colored, solved, and revisited. The format gives families and individual readers different ways to enjoy the same book.
You can follow the stories straight through. You can skip to the puzzles. You can investigate the fake advertisements. You can read the classifieds as though you are genuinely searching for a very unusual job in a very unusual town. Or you can take on the Junior Hollow Reporter activity and create a Hollow News story of your own.
Start with Issue No. 1, continue with Issue No. 2, and catch up with Issue No. 3. The complete collection is available through The Hollow News series page.
For more books from Duane H. Cave, visit his Amazon author page.
And remember: if it happens in the Hollow, you’ll hear it from THE Town Crower!
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