Stand Up

In all this time of neglecting my blog a lot has happened.  But today I want to tell you about something that brings me a lot of pride.  And what better day to brag about the love of my life than the day after Valentine's Day?

David wrote a book.  But not just any book.  A really, really  great book.   Being a first grade teacher, I read a lot of children's books, so I consider myself a good judge.  But also, he's my husband and I got to see the many drafts and revisions he made to turn this into what it is today.  And I love it.

It started well over a year ago, when David said to me one night - "I want to write a children's book." And I said, "You should.  You'd be so good at that.  Definitely do it."  But then I was distracted by one of three boys, my full time job, cleaning my house (or not), and life.  I sort of forgot about it. And David had all these things going on too.  But he did it.  He wrote a draft.  And it was good.  And that began his LONG process of reading the story over and over, revising, rewriting, changing names.  Events.  Storyline.  Then changing things back.  Then trying this sentence one way.  Then another.  Getting outside opinions.  Putting text on pages. Etc.  Etc.  Etc.

He researched and interviewed illustrators.  Shared his vision for the pictures on each page.  Found someone he loved.  Someone amazingly talented.  It's such a beautiful story of friendship, and the ending truly causes the reader to stop and think.  It's not a clear cut and they all lived happily every after ending.  It's one that causes you to reflect on your own choices in how you treat people.

And he published it.  Like a boss.

Stand Up by David Stefanich

**** Shameless Plug*****  You can buy a copy HERE.  If you want :)  Or just click on the picture above.

There are a million things I love about this book.  But one of the things that was really important to David was that the main character had brown skin.  Minority kids are very sadly under represented in children's literature.  And it's extremely important to us because we want our children to see themselves in the books they read.


So the other day Kingston pulled David's book off the book shelf.

Yes, we have a few copies...  And this is only a fraction :)
But this is what happens when you self publish.  

He asked David to read to to him.  And slowly, the other boys made their way on his lap too.  I'm so glad I stopped to snag a picture because it was such a sweet moment.

But the part that was truly the sweetest thing was when Kingston said, "Daddy! He looks like me!"

 This blows my mind.  Honestly.  My two oldest boys have only recently noticed the differences in our skin color.  And not in a negative way.  Just that their skin is brown and mine and David's is white.  They point it out like they point out the colors of their matchbox cars.  Or the color orange in their shirt.  Which is the only color Kingston will wear these days.

So when he noticed that the main character, Xavier looks like him, it was perfection. It was awesome.  "Did he just say what I think he said?"  "Yes."  I'm confident that moment made the whole book writing process so worth it for my husband.

Because he wrote the book for himself.  To challenge himself.  To share his talent.  But more so, he wrote the book for his boys.   His legacy.  A piece of himself to hand off to them.

And he nailed it.