From art to mental health and back
When I first started this blog, I mainly wrote about my art – how I made it and why. Then, as I tried to find a publisher for my picture book Adventures with phearnik!™, I learned the importance of building a platform to help launch my books and curricula into the market. That’s when I started to post more about how most of my work is about boosting mental health skills. Today’s post has a little of both –art and mental health skills.
Most of my picture books so far, I wrote for my granddaughter, Fia. One Christmas, I made her a pillow out of a coat that had been her great-grandmother’s, my mother, Lucy. I wrote Lucy’s Pocket to tell the coat story and how it became a pillow. The following year Fia wanted a rag doll like the one I had made for myself. I made her a matching doll and wrote Adventures with phearnik!™ to explain the meaning of the doll and gave it to her for her birthday. The book giving is now a tradition where I try to make one a year for her birthday.
Picture books in the making
This year I had two book ideas – one a pastiche of the book Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (more about this later) and a book about her Uncle Peyton. She doesn’t see him often, so I wanted to tell her more about why he drives a power wheelchair and how he’s a power soccer athlete.
When I started writing about “Uncle Peyton,” I couldn’t stop! I wrote pages and pages – many more words than a picture book. So, I thought I had started a chapter book. But after getting feedback from my critique group, I got the manuscript back to picture book size. This week, I sent the “Uncle Peyton” story, JP Wants to Play Sports, out to a publisher looking for stories about disability, diversity, and inclusion!
JP Wants… is a somewhat fictionalized story of how Peyton (“JP” in the story) looks for sports to play as a power wheelchair user. I hope the book is published so that non-disabled children like Fia learn about their disabled peers and see how, in many ways, they share the same desires. Plus, the book provides a way for disabled children to see characters like themselves in picture books, an essential mental health booster for their social and emotional health!
New character sketch
I submitted the manuscript without illustrations but told the publisher that, if interested, I would be happy to do the pictures. I did do a character sketch of JP, though. I like how it came out. I think he looks a lot like the young Peyton – happy, confident, and full of life!
So, fingers crossed that I get a positive response from the publisher. In the meantime, I’m working on the illustrations for the pastiche (I’ll tell you more about that later)!
If you know a publisher who is looking for picture books about children with disabilities, contact me here!