Billy Monkey Stays Up All Night: Counselor Sheri Sanderson's New Picture Book Arrives August 7

RICHMOND, Texas - Every parent knows the child who insists, with total confidence, that they are staying up all night. Author, illustrator, and Licensed Professional Counselor Sheri Sanderson has turned that familiar standoff into a warm, funny bedtime read with her new picture book, Billy Monkey Stays Up All Night, available August 7, 2026.

The story follows Billy, a silly little monkey who announces he is not going to bed. While his tired mom and dad head upstairs, Billy stays up to do all the important business of a monkey who refuses to sleep. He swings from the bedposts, eats all the bananas, marches through the hallway, bounces on the bed, becomes a fireman, builds a zoo out of his stuffed animals, and curls up as a bug. Then the house goes quiet. A sudden hush wakes his mother, who creeps downstairs and finds Billy exactly where all that energy finally ran out: on the floor, fast asleep.

Written in a bouncy, read-aloud rhyme, the book gives kids the fun of Billy's rebellion and gives parents the ending they were hoping for all along. It is built for the wind-down part of the night, the giggle before the yawn.

Sanderson writes from experience most children's authors do not have. As a Licensed Professional Counselor and National Certified Counselor, she works with children every day on anxiety, attention, behavior, and the bedtime and sleep struggles that come with them. That background shows up in the book's gentle, knowing sense of humor about a child who wants to stay in charge of the night.

"Every kid I know has tried to negotiate their way out of bedtime, and honestly, Billy is all of them," said Sheri Sanderson. "I wanted a book that lets children see themselves in the silliness, laugh along with Billy, and then land softly right where he does, asleep. And as a therapist, I love that not one of Billy's adventures involves a screen. That is a real problem for kids today, and this is a whole book of imagination and play without one. If it earns a family one easier bedtime, it did its job."

Billy Monkey Stays Up All Night is Sanderson's return to publishing. She previously wrote the first book "Incredible Edible - Gluten-Free Food For Kids" in the United States for parents of children with gluten intolerance, a title that sold more than 18,900 copies before going out of print in 2020 and made her a featured speaker at national conferences.

About the Book
Billy Monkey Stays Up All Night
Written and illustrated by Sheri Sanderson
Children's picture book, rhyming read-aloud
ISBN: 979-8-9970417-2-4
Release date: August 7, 2026
Independently published
Available in digital and print through major online retailers and stores.

A You Turn Counseling
Sheri Sanderson
8315 FM 723, Suite 28
Richmond, TX 77406, US
Email: sheri@sherisanderson.com

Sheri L. Sanderson, MA, LPC, NCC, is a Mental Health Counselor and the founder of A You Turn Counseling in Richmond, Texas, where she works with children, adolescents, adults, and couples. She is SYMBIS, CSTIP, and ASDCS certified and holds a Master's degree in Licensed Professional Counseling from Liberty University. Alongside her clinical work, she has a long history as a writer and author.

This release was published on openPR.