I wanted to share a brand new children’s author with you Susan Bernardo and to share her new book The Big Adventures of Tiny House. I can’t wait to share the book with Charlie.
Noted children’s author Susan Schaefer Bernardo has cracked the code for transmuting adversity and emotional pain into healing, inspiration and creative power
Fueled by the creative synergy she shares with illustrator and veteran art director Courtenay Fletcher, her long-time collaborator and best friend, these two creative women continue to forge a gratifying literary partnership, friendship and path towards personal growth.
In fact, this successful personal and professional collaboration has led them to (literally) reach for the stars. Their second book, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, co-authored with Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, is currently orbiting the planet aboard The International Space Station.
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm was read aloud by Astronaut Kate Rubins, and recorded for a unique STEAM initiative called Story time from Space.
Since meeting at a Mommy and Me class 12 years ago, their friendship has grown, along with their children, and deepened as they navigated Susan’s difficult divorce and the loss of Fletcher’s dear friend, another young mom, to breast cancer.
In their upcoming book, The Big Adventures of Tiny House (Inner Flower Child Books, April 25, 2017, 9780971122826, $17.95), the women transform their diverse experiences into a book that celebrates the art of living life your own way, learning to trust yourself, and not worrying about what everybody else is doing. It also explores salvaging the pieces of something lost to create something new and beautiful.
In The Big Adventures of Tiny House, aimed at children ages 3-8, the adventure begins when an old farmhouse gets salvaged and recycled into Tiny, a snug little house with a big heart — and WHEELS! With the help of Big Truck, Tiny sets off across America to discover if he is still a real home.
Tiny makes friends on the road, like Shiny the Airstream, Waverly the houseboat, and Buster the skoolie. He even goes to a jamboree! After thousands of miles, Tiny discovers that home isn’t a place…it’s a feeling in your heart.
The irresistible rhymes and delightfully detailed illustrations are sure to enchant children – and the book’s gentle messages about sustainable living and working together will delight parents and teachers as well.
“Remaking Home,” or how to rebuild your life following a traumatic event or big life transition. Bernardo and Fletcher’s book, Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs sought to heal her family’s grief over her divorce, help them come to terms with shared custody, and reassure her children that they were always connected, even when not physically together.
This perspective could resonate with divorced families, as well as those who have lost a beloved relative. Susan’s prescription: “Love your new life, fill your home – however tiny – with your art and friends and love….and keep rolling.”
Healing Through Creativity. Susan learned to manage bouts with anxiety and sadness, as well as her “busy brain” by cultivating multiple, creative coping strategies.
She’s found respite in such diverse pursuits as journaling, sculpture, writing poetry and communing with nature. Through these activities, she transforms her pain into something meaningful.
Susan is also an advocate for A Window Between Worlds, a non-profit that uses art as a healing tool to help combat trauma, in domestic violence shelters, veterans groups, schools and bereavement groups.
Following Your Dreams. Susan has excelled at following her dreams and has lots of insights to share on crowdfunding, indie publishing, surrounding yourself with like-minded souls, and not letting your vision be stopped by creative “gatekeepers.”
As Susan puts it, “Life is about learning and growing and expanding – it’s about listening to your heart, acknowledging where it wants take you, and then finding a path to get there, one step at a time.”
About: Susan Schaefer Bernardo
One of my books is in SPACE!!! (I had to lead with that – it has been such a grand adventure!) I’ve been writing poems and short stories since I could hold a crayon…but I never dreamed that someday one of my stories would be read aloud by an astronaut AND the First Lady!As a former language arts teacher (BA from UCLA, MA in English Lit from Yale, teaching credentials from Pepperdine), I love playing with words and looking for ways to engage, heal and inspire kids through stories and lyrical language.
To be honest…my love of words stems back from my first literary love,
Dr. Seuss! The first book I read all by myself was
Green Eggs and Ham – and now I write rhyming picture books! Never doubt the power of a good book.
Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs was my first children’s picture book — when I teamed up with illustrator
Courtenay Fletcher, a friend whom I met in a
Mommy and Me class when our kids were tots!
We were both struggling with
grief (I was going through a
painful divorce and
Courtenay had just lost a
dear friend to
breast cancer), and we wanted to do something to reassure our kids that
love is forever, even if you are physically separated from the one you love. We indie published
Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs with a Kickstarter crowdfunding drive and the help of a lot of our friends and family.What a joy to see that our book is now bringing comfort to THOUSANDS of kids, and helping them feel more connected to people they love and miss!
Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs was recently recommended by Amy Dickinson as a great book to help kids cope with divorce, in her nationally syndicated column
Ask Amy!
The book is being used by families, schools,
Child Life professionals, hospitals, hospices, foster care organizations, prisons, deployed military families – and so many more.Following one dream led to another
: LeVar Burton saw
Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs and invited us to collaborate with him on a new picture book.
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, which I co-authored with
LeVar and
Courtenay illustrated, helps kids cope with
traumatic events and realize there are helpers all around them.
The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm was selected as part of the Story time from Space program and is currently orbiting earth aboard the International Space Station.
(I even got to go to the
Kennedy Space Center when they launched the rocket that carried the
Cygnus spacecraft with my book aboard – and watched breathlessly when the
Cygnus attached to the
Space Station.)My latest picture book,
The Big Adventures of Tiny House, was inspired by the
tiny house movement and my own exploration of what makes a home (my parents moved frequently when I was a kid, so I know all about packing up and settling in again…and I am also a mom who went through the struggle of remaking home for my family after a
divorce).
And…once I realized dreams DO come true, I finally worked up the courage to write “The End” on a young adult novel I worked on for 24 years!
The title is
INSPIRED…and the main character is a girl named
Rocket who learns to follow that creative spark in her heart (sound familiar?), with the help of some inspiring
Greek Muses!In addition to writing books for kids, I’m a published poet (see
The Cancer Poetry Project 2 anthology and
All We Can Hold: Poems of Motherhood). I am currently working on new picture books with my amazing illustrating partner,
Courtenay Fletcher (we met in a
Mommy and Me class when our kids were tots!).
I am a strong believer in the magical healing powers of nature and creativity! In between daydreaming and writing sessions in my backyard purple tent, I facilitate creativity workshops and stay close to my inner flower child by dancing, raising cats and chickens, traveling to museums and exotic places in search of my next idea, sculpting, painting, tide pooling and taking nature hikes with my love, my terrier, and my sons (some of these excursions led to me create the ABC Guidebooks Explores Santa Barbara Coloring Guidebook for Kids).
I am so proud to be an indie author – and love playing a part in every aspect of the book-creation process (in my photos section, there’s one of me at the INSPIRED press-check at the printer the day my books were printed on the big presses- so COOL to watch!).
Thank you for visiting my Author Page – and for checking out my books! You can see more of what I am up to on my Susan Bernardo personal website or at my Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs page (which also has some great healing art activities to accompany the book!).
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
