Daughter Elise has finally completed her highly imaginative and wonderfully illustrated children’s book, Skaritch Skaratch Munch: A Cautionary Tale. A perfectionist, she labored over every detail, as I do words, and the result is well worth all the toil she invested.

Of herself, and her book, Elise says:

“This is a project that has been very dear to me and that I have been working on for well over a year and a half now.  I wrote in the style of a reverse cautionary tale, where instead of the adults being right, (as they usually are in cautionary tales,) in this tale it’s the children who are right all along and who ultimately come up with a solution to the problem.  I always like to try out new ways of illustrating so for this book I decided to go with some major mixed media creating and I had a lot of fun experimenting with it.  I greatly admire author/illustrator Mo Willems ,and his book Knuffle Bunny is one of my inspirations for illustrating this book the way I did.”

*Before and After images below

Having lived and breathed the ongoing efforts of an artist at work for many moons, I much more appreciate all that goes into illustrating a children’s book, not to mention writing it, and the thought behind even the font size and positioning of the words on the page. And a big plus, the two darling little people featured in the book are my grandbabies Emma Rose and her big brother Ian.

I’ve always loved children’s books and took Elise to the library faithfully when she was young. She haunts used bookstores and secondhand shops and has amassed quite a collection of her favorite authors and illustrators. Sometimes she or I even buy the copies new, but considering the library she’s building we must keep an eye on the budget. Any funds she gets from her own book will probably go back into buying others.  Or art supplies…computer software….

For eager readers young and old, Skaritch Skaratch Munch: A Cautionary Tale is available in print from Createspace.com and Amazon.com

To visit Elise’s newly formed blog and learn more about this book and her other projects visit: Coloring On The Couch

“Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning,” the whimsical directions to Neverland.

The timeless story of Peter Pan was first shared with me when I was five and visiting my missionary grandparents in the Philippines. An elderly gentleman with a twinkle in his blue eyes gathered us children beneath the shady boughs of a tree and read from this wondrous book while his pet monkey ran up and down the trunk chittering at us. I sat enthralled listening to Mr. Mahy’s every word.

It was a simple act of kindness on his part and the beginning of a lifelong love of stories and imagination on mine. I will always be indebted to him. Not that my parents weren’t also gifted in storytelling, but this singular event is still stamped in my mind with images of pixies and sparkly dust that made you fly, Wendy and the lost boys, the bad old croc that swallowed a clock, and the battle of good and evil between fun loving Peter Pan and the heartless Captain Hook.

And I wonder, what exactly is Neverland? A place of magic and adventure where anything is possible, a land of pure enchantment, or does its potential lie within each of us who have hearts to believe? Is it only children who possess this ability or can any of us, beleaguered and cynical though we might be, still reach for the stars?

Clearly, writers believe that. I’m beginning my seventh—or is it my eighth--novel and have yet to be published. Ah, but I shall be, someway, somehow. I hear the whisper of tales yet to be told and feel the brush of angel’s wings.

Each of us can bring a bit of wonder into the lives of those within our circle. Tell your stories, whatever they may be. Share the wonderful gift of imagination, and believe. Someone will be very glad you did. Thank you Mr. Mahy.