Books
Good Morning, Morning! Good Night, Night!
A children's picture book
This picture book marks my debut as a children’s book author. The two stories of the book explore the transitions in color of the sky at dawn and dusk as well as the sights, sounds and smells at those times of day. The reversible aspect of the book suggests the continuous cycle from day and night as the earth turns.
Good Morning, Morning! Good Night, Night! is the result of a collaboration with my good friend and artist, Flor Carrascosa. Flor specializes in in the artistic design of educational toys and games for young children. Her experience in graphic design and her sense of color, texture and aesthetics made her ideal for this project. The fact that Flor is Spanish, we work together in French, and my text is in English, meant we spent many hours exploring and translating the text. This pushed us to polish both the language and illustrations of the two stories. It was time well spent: Flor brilliantly captured the metaphors and word play of the text in her vibrant illustrations.
Available for purchase on Amazon, BookBaby Bookshop and other retailers.
Moving House
(coming in late 2024)
Historical fiction/children's picture book
This story is based on events in the life of my grandmother who grew up in Bay City, Michigan. The story is set approximately in the late 1890s or the year 1900. My grandmother was 3 years old when her mother died of tuberculosis. Before dying, her mother asked her husband to promise that their daughter would be raised by her family.
I can imagine how unsettled my grandmother’s early years were: she was first adopted by her grandparents and then a few years later, by her aunt and uncle. In the story, I draw a connection between her need for a sense of belonging with the move of the family’s summer house on Lake Huron across the ice one winter.
The illustrator for this story is a family friend, Clara Vior. Clara is from Galicia, Spain and currently lives in the United Kingdom. She and I spent many hours collaborating to get the right feel of the book, capturing the time period as well as the beautiful scenery of Lake Huron in winter. I probably also tested her patience in my insistence on accuracy with the historical and geographical context!
Available for purchase on Amazon, BookBaby Bookstore and other retailers this summer.