Perceptions Friends is volume three of a series published by Inklings Publishing. The series of books are designed to assist teachers and parents teach their children to read. It’s scheduled to launch in February.
Melinda and I wrote two children’s books last year right before we went to India, and those books are included in the Perceptions series.
The type of people who write children’s books
Anyone who knows us would not expect that we are the type of people who would write a children’s book. My wife works in government affairs for a Fortune 50 company. I’m a family attorney and write murder mysteries. But then we had a granddaughter: Vivien Belle Flynn. Tell me that doesn’t change everything?
It all started with our first Grandparent’s Day at Vivi’s new school. While my wife was excited and loves that sort of thing, I don’t. I’ve always hated school functions that involved parents. Didn’t like them when I was a kid. Didn’t like it even when my children were little. Don’t like it now. The problem is that there are too many kids. If it was just my granddaughter, I’d be happy, but it’s not.
The inspiration
The first part of the morning involved Vivi’s class singing in the auditorium before all the parents. Vivi didn’t sing. She just acted embarrassed and looked out in the crowd trying to see her parents. I couldn’t tell what the rest of the kids were singing. The most amusing part was how rude the parents were trying to shove in front of each other to take pictures. Many were recording the whole performance, even those parts their child wasn’t in. In thirty years, I thought, they’ll wish they had an editor.
The last part of the morning was ‘Visit the Class’. Still a lot of strange kids, but for Vivi, I thought I could bear it. Near the end of the teacher’s presentation, Vivi showed me pictures she’d drawn, including one of an elephant. She was really proud of it, and Katie, my daughter and her mother, said elephants were her favorite.
Boom, it hit me. I love elephants. Always loved elephants. My granddaughter loves elephants. That’s a book.
The writing
That afternoon, I went to the place where I write almost everyday, and spent my time writing a story about a little girl named Vivi and a baby elephant in Africa. I thought it was pretty good until I got home and showed it to Melinda. Once we read it together, I realized it was terrible. That happens when I write. Many times I write something thinking it’s brilliant at the time, only to come back to it later and realize that it’s not.
So together, Melinda and I started over and wrote a completely different story about Vivi and the baby elephant. Then, in our enthusiasm, we wrote a second one about Vivi, the baby elephant, and a baby rhino. (Some people have asked me why we wrote about a girl. That’s easy to answer: because we have a granddaughter, not a grandson).
What we hope to accomplish
Our first goal was to write stories that children who read them would enjoy. We designed the stories to help children learn to read; at the end of each story, we included aids to help teachers and parents in that endeavor.
We hope the books plant seeds of appreciation in the children who read them: seeds of appreciation for elephants and rhinos. Over the past several decades the population of elephants in the world has decreased by 200,000. One species of rhinoceros went extinct in 2019. We want Vivi to care, and we want the next generation to care.
These children’s books are our small contribution.