Children's books with life lessons: Why write them?

  

 Children's books with life lessons: Tails of Sweetbrier

There are millions of children's books available today, so why did I decide to add four more children's books? The answer is simple. I want my children's books to encourage children to reach for the stars! My goal is to teach them life lessons that will assure their success, regardless of the challenge.

Every child has dreams and mine was to become a champion horseback rider, even though I  was born with cerebral palsy, affecting walking. Doctors declared I would never walk, but my dad refused to accept that as truth. He told me to disregard the doctor's opinion. I did that and together we began our journey. At first, I did nothing but fall off my pony and get back on.  My legs would get tired and I'd slide off for no reason. In our family, giving up was not an option, so there was no question that I would try until I could savor the victories, no matter how small. It took years of practice before I passed the milestones that most kids reached in a few months. Finally, I could walk, trot and canter (slow gallop) my pony without toppling off!  Now I had to convince my dad to teach me to jump. He wasn't a big fan of that at first, because he knew I'd fall off many times. But I reminded him that he taught a blind man to jump, so eventually, my dad relented. I learned to jump, and win in competitions.

I believe that we are capable of changing circumstances, even the most challenging ones. We  only fail when we abandon our dreams.

 Here is an excerpt from the opening paragraph of my children's  book, Tails of Sweetbrier:

"Have you ever really wanted to be able to do something but you came across a roadblock of some kind? Maybe you're afraid of new things, or maybe you have a physical challenge of some kind. Are you going to follow your dream, or are you going to push it aside without even trying? You have to make a difficult choice. I made that choice once and it changed my whole life."

The next time you face  a challenge, remember that perseverance is the key to success, whether your dream is to publish animal stories for kids, or anything else.