A Morning Stroll in Noanie’s Garden!
I’ve been thinking about…
…A Morning Stroll in Noanie’s Garden!
We are very excited to see this book in print! Jo Ann’s illustrations are gorgeous. What amazing gardens she has created for Noanie and young Jamie to explore!
We are so honored to have this book receive the Gold Award from Mom’s Choice — our fifth Gold honor. I am most pleased for Jo Ann – none of these would be books without her talents!
A Morning Stroll in Noanie’s Garden was actually the first children’s book I wrote. I wasn’t even thinking of writing children’s books, but I was working on what I hoped would someday be a book about the Library’s history. Seeking answers to a host of questions about writing and publishing, in 2017 I went to a writers’ conference offered at Rutgers.
The editors and authors who presented were more attuned to fiction rather than my interest in non-fiction work. They did, however, offer advice on how to prepare manuscripts, the steps in getting published, and so much more. Feeling overwhelmed, I opted to spend an hour in a session offered by Alex Dawson on young adult literature, my comfort zone after years of sharing reading with my middle school students.
Dawson, an assistant teaching professor in Rutger’s English Department, did more with children’s lit than young adult. But as he read Patricia MacLachlan’s All the Places to Love, a comment he made resonatedwith me. He pointed out that children like knowing the proper names for things.
Yes, they do! I had little grands at that point, and I enjoyed seeing their delight in naming dinosaurs, and types of penguins, and so much more.
Homesick for my garden on that beautiful June day, I scribbled out a story of a grandmother enjoying an early morning stroll through the garden with her grandchild as she named the plants and shared their “nicknames,” much to the child’s delight.
Over the next year or so, I shyly shared “Noanie’s Magic Garden” with several artists, knowing that the story, as much as I liked it, was nothing without illustrations. What I learned is that illustrating books is an art form unto itself.
With God’s grace, I found Jo Ann. I now had three children’s books in draft form, and I was still seeking answers to how to get a book published. Jo Ann was introduced to me as a “book coach.” When she gently asked “What is your biggest concern?” I replied honestly that I have the stories, but I am not an illustrator. Children’s books are nothing without illustrations.
“I illustrate children’s books,” Jo Ann humbly offered. Indeed, she does! Jo Ann is an award-winning illustrator of children’s books.
We began our collaboration in 2020, the depth of Covid days, working by Zoom and email. I think for both of us, the books were a lovely distraction from the crazy world. Each book took on a life of its own —with different illustration styles.
Now A Morning Stroll in Noanie’s Garden has — finally — arrived! What a joy to see it in glorious, full color print! Welcome, Spring!
