By Maureen Parriott, Times-Chronicle
There’s a new little penguin in town.
His name is Preston, and he is sweetly determined to find just the right Christmas tree to hang his star on. He leaves his family’s igloo one morning and waddles off into the evergreen-filled snowy hills in search of it.
What happens next is a gentle tale of problem-solving and triumph titled “Preston Finds A Christmas Tree.”
Preston is the creation of cousins Shayleigh Bennest and Melissa Fowler. Shayleigh wrote the story and Melissa illustrated it. How they did it is a celebration of problem-solving and triumph, too.
“Even when I was little, I said, ‘We should write a book together!’” Shayleigh recalled.
But life happened, as it tends to do. Shayleigh, who grew up in Oliver, went to university and travelled before settling in Burnaby.
Calgarian Melissa visited Shayleigh most summers as a youngster and eventually moved to Oliver as an adult. After 12 years there, she recently relocated to Penticton.
But, “It has always been on my bucket list to write a children’s book,” Melissa said.
They never stopped talking about it over the years, but the dream was deferred until one day, one of their kids provided the inspiration. Melissa is mum to son Emerrit, 12, and daughter Arabella, 9, while Shayleigh has sons Arlo, 5, and Judah, 7.
They decided to just go for it, despite having zero experience.
They chose to write a book for children in their very early school years. Shayleigh carefully researched language for kids at that level of development and kept checking with her own to see if she’d gotten it right. Melissa, a talented graphic artist, did all of the illustrations on her iPad. That involved “painting” as many as 16 layers of colours and shapes that look for all the world like a pastel drawing.
“My favourite part was how collaborative we were,” said Shayleigh. “It wasn’t my story that I wrote or her book that she drew. It was a genuine collaboration. There was no ego, no hurt feelings when we exchanged ideas.”
The next step was learning about the business of publishing.
After much research, they decided to self-publish on Amazon, which is a bit of an involved process. They mastered it, and now anyone can order “Preston Finds A Christmas Tree” on amazon.ca. It’s printed almost instantly and sent to the purchaser in the blink of an eye.
The reviews from purchasers are rapturous. Many declare that it’s the “perfect” Christmas book, and others have said it will become a beloved family tradition.
Now the cousins are ready for their next collaboration.
They have begun working on “Preston’s First Day of School,” and “Preston Learns to Play Hockey.” They form their own “umbrella company,” called Liss and Shay Books, to house the Preston series. Melissa has also started a thriving graphic arts company called Rooted Designs.
But their heart will always belong to Preston.
“We have the same favourite page in the book: the floppy tree page,” Melissa smiled. Discover for yourself what they are referring to by going to amazon.ca. Prepare to be charmed.
