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george smith publishing childrens books. |
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What the press is saying . . . Hunterdon Observer Saturday, August 9, 2003
Excerpts from: By Renee Kiriluk Hill Imagine being swept from your home by a storm, afraid and all alone. And everyone you turn to for help shouts, “Go away” That’s what happens to Little Red Boat, until she finds a new home and love with a little girl named Grace. In his first book, The Journey of the Little Red Boat, author George Smith combines geography and messages about acceptance and caring in a book aimed at younger readers. At its simplest level, the book was a labor of love inspired by Smith’s first grandchild, Grace. Last summer he was vacationing at his family’s long-time, primitive getaway spot on the Medomak River in Maine when a 9-foot boat that had broken loose from its moorings bumped up to his dock. The grandson of the late children’s author and editor George Henry Smith, he’d always loved writing and short stories. But Smith earned a living as a project manager and computer applications programmer. Now retired, the writing gene he inherited from the grandfather he’d never met took over, with a little prodding from a cousin who spotted a story in the lost boat. Two months later, Smith put pen to paper and decided to self-publish the book because he wanted it done quickly and he wanted control over the whole process, including illustrations. The writing was the easy part, he said. He supplied the illustrator with rough sketches for each illustration, then checked her work for geographic and marine accuracy. For instance, a boat on the cover initially showed a lobster buoy, but no lobsterman, so Smith added one with a yellow slicker. He also drew on his many Maine memories. On one page, before Red Boat’s appearance, Grace wishes for a boat to go fishing with her grandpa and to “row across the cove to the island to pick flowers.” Meanwhile she “tiptoed over the rocks, looking for little crabs and fish trapped in pools of water—left there as the tide went out.” Playing in the tidal pools was a favorite activity for Smith’s son and daughter, and he looks forward to Grace, now 4, and her younger brother Benjamin doing the same. The book is filled with ups and downs that keep young readers turning the page, while offering adults opportunities to teach or reinforce a lesson or two. When Little Red Boat is adrift, the “white and shiny and very pretty” sailboats chase her away, worried that she might bump them and scratch their paint. When Grace finds the boat, she eagerly shouts, “She’s mine, she’s mine ... I’ll take care of her. She’s mine!!” Grandpa points out the boat “must belong to someone,” and searches for its rightful owner. One day the owner does appear, but seeing the care and love Grace has lavished on the boat, and not needing it anymore, he lets her keep Little Red. Smith insists the end product was a collaborative effort, saying it made him “appreciate the creativity of others.” He’s feeling good about the positive response to his book, both in libraries and bookstores and especially by children.
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