A Pleasant Hills parent has penned a new children’s book that may be a treat for families this fall.

“It’s Halloween,” the story of a boy excited about October and planning costumes with his mother, was independently published and released Sept. 29.

It is part of a series of stories crafted by Pleasant Hills councilwoman Nicole Leckenby and illustrated by her mother, Mary Dunn.

Their first book, “Summer Vacation,” was published last year. It is a rhyming children’s book about a little boy who recounts his summer vacation after his first day of school.

Both paperbacks are available on Amazon.

Leckenby’s books are loosely based on experiences with her husband, Brian, and their two sons, Liam, 11, and Colin, 7.

“It was something different,” Leckenby said about book writing. “I’ve always been doing different interviews or blog posts or little nonfiction pieces here and there. I just hope people enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them.”

She credits her mother with making her sentences sentient through her sketches.

“I was a little worried at first, but we work well together,” said Leckenby, 44. “I give her my words. She draws the pictures. She shows them to me when they’re done and they’re amazing.”

The books also serve as a way for the family to give back through charitable donations.

A dollar goes to Alex’s Lemonade Stand for every copy of “Summer Vacation,” and a dollar goes to Young Adult Survivors United for every sold copy of “It’s Halloween.”

Leckenby said she was inspired to contribute to charities who help families impacted by cancer because of her grandfather, Norman Rump, who died of cancer about 26 years ago.

Rump was a train engineer and military police officer during World War II.

Leckenby grew up in Whitaker and graduated from West Mifflin Area High School in 1994.

She credits her love of writing and attention to detail to her junior year English teacher, the late Betty Galya.

Leckenby called Galya strict with a focus on diagramming sentences and sentence structure.

“From there it just really clicked,” Leckenby said. “I always liked to write, but after her class is when it really clicked. That’s when I thought it was something I really wanted to do.”

Leckenby would go on to earn a degree in media communications from the University of Pittsburgh and worked for the local webzine, “The New Yinzer,” from 2005 to 2012 before starting her own online publication, “The Holiday Café.”

She still produces her quarterly webzine with the help of various contributors.

”The Holiday Cafe” features family-friendly fiction and nonfiction stories, poetry, essays, photos and drawings.

Leckenby’s first book, “My Crazy Life,” was a memoir of her experiences including stories of visiting her sister, Natalie Belin, in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.

One of the stories is about people who tried to sell them meat from the back of a pickup truck while another excerpt is about snakes.

Leckenby started her first four-year term on Pleasant Hills Council in January.

“I feel it’s important to know what’s going on in the borough you live in,” she said. “Right now everything is pretty quiet due to covid. I love my town. It’s a great place. It’s small and quaint.”

Leckenby does all this while working for Pitt as a grant administrator for its epidemiology department.

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