The Adventurous Life of Monk and His Boy.
It's kind of exciting to see a book with your name on it. To flip through crisp, new pages, knowing those words were once just ramblings in your head. To read a chapter you've written and remember actually living out the story years earlier. It's an amazing feeling.
If you know my family well, you know that we really have eight children. Rachel is 8 years old now and with her comes Piglet. We don't know where Piglet came from, but he's been with us almost as long as Rachel has.
Jeremiah (the star of this book) is five, and Monk is around four (we think). Monk hasn't left Jeremiah's side in years (except for a few scary incidents...that you can read about in the story!) and is definitely a part of the family.
Katie May is three, and she got LaLa (her doll) for her second birthday. LaLa isn't quite on the same level as Piglet and Monk, but is quickly joining the ranks of deeply-loved stuffed friends.
Josiah is almost 18 months old (WHAT?!). His bud was given to him on his first birthday (you'll have to read the story to learn about this one!) and he is getting more and more attached to him every day.
My husband and I have often joked about our "eight kids". When we are leaving church on Sunday afternoon we always ask "Do we have Piglet? Monk? Where's LaLa...?"
We count the buds while grocery shopping to make sure none of them have jumped out of the cart. We tuck the buds into bed each night along with their owners. And they even eat meals with us.
"Buds" are kind of a big deal in the Marshall house, so it really shouldn't be a surprise that my first book is about one. =)
This book is based on true events. The incidents in the story actually happened. That's one of the reasons I'm so proud of this. It's a part of my story. My life.
The kids and I worked on this together, and it was such a fun experience for me. We wrote 15 chapters about Jeremiah and Monk and could have easily added 15 more but wanted to keep it somewhat short. Maybe we'll have a second book someday =)
If you are interested in the book, you can find it here. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, but more importantly, I'd love a review from your kids! I wrote it FOR children, so reviews from adults don't really mean much to me. No offense... =)
Here's an excerpt from one of the chapters, just for fun. =)
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The drive was short, to the monkey’s dismay, and he was suddenly being carried into a small, brick house. The man walked right into the little house and plopped the monkey on the floor in front of a little boy.
“Here you go, Tweet Body!” He said in his deep grandfather voice. “I got you a bud!”
The boy couldn’t have been more than a year old. He moved as though he was just learning to walk on two feet. He waddled and often fell down onto his diaper-padded bottom. He smiled with his whole face when he saw the monkey. Even his eyes were smiling. He reached out with two chubby hands and pulled the monkey into a tight hug. Henry could hear the little boy’s heart beating softly in his chest, and could tell the boy was happy about his gift. Henry, however, was unsure.
Henry was pleased to have a new owner, and he was excited to see what adventures awaited him with this boy, but he was also a bit nervous. This new boy was just a baby! A chubby, drooling baby who would have sticky baby hands, smelly baby diapers and no experience whatsoever caring for a stuffed animal.
Would Henry survive this? He had been so sure that he could not be broken when he had lived with the little girl. He had longed for more adventure. But, now… now that he was in the hands of this small boy baby, Henry’s immortality was in question. Maybe he could break? For a second, he wished that he could speak out loud. He would ask the grandfather man to take him back to the truck, set him back up on the dash and just let him live out his days viewing the world from the front window. These thoughts crowded Henry’s mind for the next few minutes, until something gave him pause. The boy had turned Henry around to face him and was talking (if you can call baby grunts and ramblings talking) to him. For the first time, Henry got a good look at the little boy’s face. There was something there, something in the boy’s eyes, that gave the monkey peace.
Yes, this was just a baby. He had no experience caring for a toy. He would probably drop Henry often. He would probably get Henry sticky and dirty. He would probably not care for Henry as well as the girl had. But, Henry could see something in the boy’s eyes that made him want to stay. A gleam. A sparkle. Something that made his little stuffed heart skip a beat with excitement.
Henry could see… adventure.