Publishing
your ideas used to mean overcoming many barriers. But today, those with a drive
to see their work in print can enter the system easier and sooner. Case in
point are a couple of young Barrie women whose children’s books could find
their way under your tree this Christmas.
One
has partnered with experienced local author Gwen Petreman on Gwen’s seventh picture book. This retired teacher writes engaging tales that engage children’s minds and
present interesting facts to supplement the story. Her latest is The Weird Week. For this project, Gwen
wanted to find an illustrator so she could focus on story and design. Luckily,
through a chance meeting at the local hair salon, she learned of Charlit Floriano, a talented student of illustration at Sheridan College. Charlit
recently won an international contest to design the album cover for English
indie-rock band Florence + the Machine and has done a wonderful job creating
the colourful, whimsical creatures of this story.
Gwen’s
other passion is increasing Barrie’s tree canopy, so she is donating 10% of all
sales from now to Christmas toward Living Green’s tree-planting projects. More
on these in a future column. Gwen also does free meet-the-author presentations
in schools; to book her for your classroom, email gwen@livinggreen.info
Another
local young author, Bailey Thompson, was so inspired by her gerbils’ antics that
she decided to build three series of books around them, each illustrated with
real photographs of her subjects acting out the story. She’s spent the last
four years taming and training gerbils to act on a green screen, to the point
that they appear to listen to the scene and act it out with precision!
Since
no publisher could match her ambition to publish a new title every month,
Bailey started her own publishing house, Gerbil Meets Mouse. She is now
preparing three series for release: Gerbs
in the House, a father & son who escape their cage to live in a
Victorian dollhouse, Melvin, a
hat-loving gerbil and his fantastical dreams, and EcoGerbs, on a mission to change the world.
Gerbs in the House: The Discovery is available for pre-order in a special expanded
edition due for release December 10, with the regular version coming February
15th, and another book on the 15th of each following month.
You can order them all at GerbilMeetsMouse.com.
You
may have seen the Facebook post urging you to buy local this year, or hope to
shun the preponderance of electronic toys on offer. Thanks to authors and
illustrators of this caliber, you can buy something local that your children
will treasure and that won’t annoy everyone with beeps, pows, and pings. No
batteries required to enjoy these brilliant visual stories.
Published as my Root Issues column in the Barrie Examiner.
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins is a director of Living Green
and the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
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