“Hundreds of years ago, five seeds were sown in the garden of Anandpur, the City of Happiness. Elders and little ones wondered if the seeds would ever grow. Few held out hope.” – The Garden of Peace

Here begins an allegory rooted in the social despair of a time not too different from our own.

Al-le-go-ry
noun

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden [political or social] meaning

The seed for this story began its journey eight years ago or so, and when I look back at that very first draft, I realize how much I’ve grown as a writer over time. Picture books look so short and compact, that I think many people assume they’re really quite easy to write. For those of us who write for children, n-o-t-h-i-n-g could be further from the truth. Writing stories for children requires a craft that is nurtured over time. When writing stories that include historical backdrops, researching alone becomes a sensitive and arduous task.

The Garden of Peace was inspired by a nation-building event that took place in the lower spurs of the Himalayas, over 300 years ago. It was during the time of social and political unrest, with a tyrant ruler and a discriminatory social-class system, that harvested these citizens of change. Today, they are known as the Khalsa Nation, and are identifiable by their often misunderstood Sikh turbans.

I received the F&Gs last week and was able to use them to do my first book reading! Needless to say, there were also a lot of questions about the book making process and whether the illustrations and words that they see in their books are real. That question really made me reflect on the conversations we share around Literacy with our little ones, and also strengthened my belief of why meeting real authors and illustrators is so vital to these children’s understanding of literature, and ultimately, for them to feel that words and actions, carry power.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19th, 2017 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Diversity in Children's Publishing, Literacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.