I am super excited to introduce you to Mary West, a children’s author with an adorable new picture book. I had the joy and privilege of working with her on her story to get it ready for publication. Mary is fun and creative, and I had a blast through the entire process. I’ve asked Mary to share some behind-the-scenes details with our followers about her book Maggie and the Mysterious Noisy Bubbles.

So, Mary, here is the typical question authors get asked—how did you get the idea for this book?

My real-life Sheepadoodle, Maggie, was my inspiration for this book. I was sitting outside on a summer day watching my daughter blow bubbles for her. Maggie’s idea of fun is running around like a crazy dog and jumping in the air to pop as many bubbles as she can. It’s quite entertaining! As I was watching her, I thought ‘popped’ into my head. If this is so entertaining to me, I bet young children would find it entertaining as well.

Did you have any challenges while working on your story?

The biggest challenge for me was keeping my book short. I needed to be able to tell my story and also hold the attention span of my target audience of 3-6 year olds. My wonderful editor Crystal Bowman, helped me streamline this process. Thank you, Crystal! (You are welcome!)

I noticed some repetition throughout the story. Why is this important? 

I’m glad you mentioned repetition. I am a kindergarten instructional assistant, and I have listened to teachers read and have watched students listen to read-alouds countless times. So, I knew what literary devices I wanted to weave throughout my story. Repetition is one of the most important devices to incorporate into a picture book geared toward the youngest of learners. Not only do young children build confidence as they proudly recite the repeated lines, but they build their comprehension and memory skills as well. Repetition is also fundamental to language development.

Tell us about the illustrations—they are really cute!

I was truly blessed to find my amazing illustrator, Kim Sponaugle.  Since I had a real-life dog as a model for my character, I was able to send pictures of Maggie to Kim for inspiration as she created her gorgeous illustrations.  I was amazed by her ability to not only capture Maggie’s physical attributes but also capture her energy in the illustrations as well. 

What do you hope children will learn from reading your story?

I wrote Maggie and the Mysterious Noisy Bubbles with the idea that it would be a fun book to be shared between the reader and their young audience. Whether it is a parent or grandparent reading to a child or a teacher reading to their class, sometimes sharing a story together is just plain fun!

I would also like to mention a project that I started working on from the moment I knew I would be self-publishing. I collaborated with a vendor on Etsy and we designed a child-sized felt set. This set encourages learning through play. It includes your choice of either a hard back or a soft cover book and is available for purchase either through my website or at my in-person events.

How can our followers learn more about you, and where can they find your book?

Maggie and the Mysterious Noisy Bubbles is available on amazon.com as well as many other online booksellers.  If you live in the northwest New Jersey area, it is also available in several local bookstores and toy stores. To find out more, including in-person events, visit my author website marywestauthor.com. I hope you have as much fun reading Maggie and the Mysterious Noisy Bubbles as I had writing it!

A message from ME:
I recently read the book to my four-year-old grandson and he loved every word! He caught on quickly to the repeated lines and insisted that he say them (without my help!). The next day he said, “Hey, Gigi, can we read that noisy bubble book again?” Of course, I said YES! And if you are wondering why the bubbles are noisy—it’s because every time Maggie pops a bubble, the bubble makes an animal sound. Kids will be drawn into the story to find out how BUBBLES can make animals sounds. And one more thing to love about this book—it incorporates counting. If you want your littles to love books—this is one to include in your home or school library!

Here’s to enjoying fun picture books and popping bubbles!

Crystal

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