Well, the good news is that the book is finally done! Yay!
The book is called "Taming the Scratchy Monster" and it is about a boy going through steroid withdrawal being harassed by a scratchy monster that follows him everywhere and makes him itchy. We all know that feeling-right?
Anyway, here is a sneak preview of the first page of the book....
The book is designed to help kids with TSW to understand what is going on with their skin, but it could also be a useful tool for adults going through TSW to use with their kids to explain what mommy or daddy is going through.
The Scratchy Monster was invented by my little friend Keira. She is a little star. She went through TSW at 3 years old and is now completely healed. Here is a picture of Keira and her mom proudly holding her copy of the book at the Itsan conference in LA on Saturday.
The journey from initial idea to final book has been a long one, and luckily I had lots of help from my fellow bloggers and Itsan friends. My initial story was quite long and wordy, and the monster was pretty scary. Keira's mom suggested that I tone down the story to make the monster less scary for the kids and also to make the narrative a lot shorter so that we could use it in a picture book format. She found an AMAZING illustrator called Gloria Pineiro to do the pictures and bring the monster to life. I'm sure you will agree, he looks rather splendid.
The final book is great. Billy, the hero of the story has to fight his way through a red river, oozy swamp, hot volcano and dry desert to rid himself of the monster. It was a great way to illustrate all the yukky symptoms we go through during TSW.
The book will soon be available via the Itsan website. Any money raised from the sale of the book will go to Itsan, with the goal of helping more children like Keira. We are hoping that the book will be available in hard copy and ebook formats.
I am so excited about this project and would like to thank Kristina and Keira and all the other Itsan members who helped to turn an idea into something tangible.
Watch out for that Scratchy Monster....he is a nightmare to live with!
4 comments:
I don't think I've been excited about the release of a book since about the fourth Harry Potter!
The illustrations are AMAZING and the concept and your execution of it are just genius : )
Amazing work the lot of you!!
THANK YOU!
P.S Do I need to preorder as this will surely sell out!? : D
xxx
Way to go Louise! This looks like a fantastic book! Very proud of your efforts!
Thanks both of you.
There has been lots of interest about the book on the Facebook forums. Everyone seems to want a copy. Maybe it will be a best seller!
It was a lot of fun to write and working with Kristina was great.
OMGosh, you girls are RockStars!!!! Incredible effort! I can hardly wait to get a copy! :)
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