The idea of Marty Mouse was born in the fall of 1998, when I took a course on children's literature from Brandon University. First Marty was to learn about textures, but when I was unsure how textures could be incorporated into a book, I decided to switch to shapes instead. Once I had a story written I wondered who could I get to illustrate it and promptly remembered Cynthia, then from Crystal, and her artistic abilities. I had taken a course at Crystal a few years previously, where I had seen samples of her cute whimsical work and felt her style would be a good fit for my story. I contacted her about teaming up to create I book and she readily agreed.
After sending my story to numerous children's book publishers and receiving just as many rejection slips, my manuscript together with Cynthia's lovely illustrations were stuffed into the bottom of a drawer and forgotten for almost ten years.
Marty's Adventure
Finally their time came! HB Book Centre canvassed the Hutterite community for books to publish. Someone remembered Marty Mouse; therefore, our first book, Marty's Adventure, was published and launched at ICHE 2008- in Canmore, Alberta. In this first book Marty scampers around Lizzie's house looking for food and discovers shapes.Since then I've frequently asked myself, "What did I know about writing back then?"
Marty's Colours Adventure
Marty's Colours Adventure was launched at ICHE 2010. In this book Marty ransacks the Kuchel for edibles and discovers the world of colour.
Marty's Counting Adventure
And now, in 2014, Marty learns to count! This time he counts his way around the colony and we're hoping to launch this final book in our Marty trilogy at the ICHE conference in August.Would you like a free copy of this book? What is Marty finding to count around the colony? Check out the illustrations on Cynthia's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.stahl.92 . In fact, she includes a stanza or two of the story to give you a head start. Leave your answers in the comments section below. All contributor's names will be entered in a draw. Ready, get set, GO!
Contest closes August 10, 2014. Winner's name will be posted on this blog page by August 12th.
 |
| See you at https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.stahl.92 |
Counting pigs
ReplyDeleteMy contest to win a Marty Counts book was scheduled to close yesterday. I will be extending the closing date to October 15th, 2014 for several reasons.
ReplyDelete1) Marty Counts shall unfortunately not make it to ICHE 2014 due to time constrains and budgets. However, we are planning for him to make an appearance sometime this fall.
2) I'm hoping to have a few more comments to this blog posts - say 10, since that's how far Marty is going to be counting. I wonder if I shall get that many...
Please check out the illustrations on Cynthia's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.stahl.92, check out what Marty is counting and come back here to leave your comments.
I love ur books Elma....and the illustrations are just too cute.
ReplyDelete