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Good morning, Sandra, welcome back to this show. You know
I love you so much.
Speaker 2: Well, I love you too. Thank you for having me back.
It is so sweet.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you though I realized this is a
YA book, but in all honesty, I want it to
be in the Hallmark section because every adult on this
planet wants would love to have this as being their
Valentine's Day card.
Speaker 2: I have to say that this has been the theme
of the whole morning. I can't wait to tell my editor.
Every person I've spoken with has said you saying, this
is for adults. You know, an adult more than ever.
If that's what an honor that was is here that
well that I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1: That was the vibe I picked up on it by
going from page to page to page. I kept thinking
to myself, Oh my god, I could activate this right
now in life. Whereas as a YA reader might say, well,
when I fall in love one day, I'm going to
use this.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Well, and we've really been worded for a little kids.
It's a board book, you know, for a year to four,
you know, so it's really for it's the beginning of
that emotional learning, and we're learning ABC is usually in
these books up and now we're learning about love and
kindness and thoughtfulness.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean you've always been in touch with that,
with that fun, loving side of life period, because I mean,
I mean one of the things that I really love
is that when it comes to love, wiggle and giggle.
I mean I mean saying, you put words together that
we don't even think but when we read them, I'm going, oh,
I'm using that. I'm going to totally borrow that from Sandra.
Speaker 2: We know what I love that you said that is
that this book is about because love is action. Yes,
And I can imagine assume the reader leading to a
little one and when they get to that line, you know,
let's wiggle and giggle. I can see a sickle session
going on and very though the book is now doing
what it's meant to be. It becomes an action, it becomes,
you know, a not just words on a pace deer
move to doing something beautiful. And that was the whole
point of doing it in this format.
Speaker 1: Well, one way that you got to my heart instantly,
my entire life. And if you were in this studio,
you would see how many blue elephants I have in here.
That is my weakness in life as an adult and
as a child. And right there in the most important
part of a book cover where you put your thumbs
in your fingerprints, what is it? It's a blue elephant.
You got me from word one.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm a girl who have this loovea blue elephant myself.
Elephants put it, they're so kind to one another. They
take their their neighbors and their friends, and in each other.
They perfect each other. They're amazing creatures out in the wild.
And I have always loved all of them.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons why I love promoting you and
talking about you everywhere I go, And the reason why
is because you really do hook up people to words
that are powerful words. And you prove that true on
page number two my word. I swear to God, I
live by this word in all things that I do,
the word enjoy. And when I saw that in there,
I went, she's connected. We're connected somehow, some way. She
knows that word enjoy is very important to me.
Speaker 2: Well, it is important. And I think one of the
things that I help with teaching children through this book
and by mentoring and reading, is to learn to love themselves,
you know. And so there are all these gentle ways
to give kids clues that it's important to love yourself
and take care of yourself and believe in yourself, Enjoy
the things in life, Notice the things in life, See
the things in life that bring us pleasure and comfort,
and trust in kindness. And so this book is layered
with that. It's the reader is sharing how much they
love the little ones, and the little one is learning
how to love themselves and learn to begin to communicate
love to others. And that could be more important as
we grow as human beings, whether you're two years old
or you know, two hundred years old, we need both
of us to love and be loved. And this is
the book that I hope shares those actions and give
folks to gentleminders that it's not the big stust that
we do over day that says I love you little things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, one thing that listeners are probably just discovering
you today, But what they need to do is go
and discover your entire collection of things. And they're going
to quickly learn right off the bat that you deal
with three D book covers. This one doesn't have that
three D effect. But as far as I'm concerned, the
way that you work the words and the way that
you work the illustration, Oh, the three D effect is
going to be in mind, imagination and in my heart.
Speaker 2: And in your actions. You're gonna be pickling the person
you're reading to. You're going to be reaching for the star.
You're gonna you know, Darance, you know when the spirit
moves you, when it gives you these sums all the
way through, so you're gonna laugh. So that's the thing
that we did here, the three D elements. It's you
is the action, and you're right. Often you see Bunny
ears with I love you, honey, Bunny, or I'll love
you even when you're Prabby has a clamp crowd clause
at the top of it. I'm known for creating these
three dimensional elements that draw the child into the story
more and it gives them something to hold on to say,
Now you are the piece of art in the book.
Your actions are are that? Is that technique and is
that really important element that makes the book come to life?
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Sandra Maximine coming
up next. This time around, her book is called one
hundred Words to Say I Love You from author Sandra Maximine.
You get very creative on the book cover. In the
way of it here, I am bringing up the book
cover again. I'm not judging your book by its cover,
but I'm fascinated by it because it serves as a
ticket to ride. I'm stealing from the Beatles when I
say that one hundred words to say I love you,
not one hundred words of you know a way to
say I love you? It is to say there's your
action that you were talking about.
Speaker 2: Yes. And on the first page of the book, the
little poem is love.
Speaker 1: Is all around us, Yes it is.
Speaker 2: Let's find one hundred words and ways to say I
love you with the books and then each chapter, each
page is like a little chapter, if you will. Using
the word very badly, and we go from morning night
to it's the child's world, you know, the zoo or
the garden, the playground, even out of space bed time.
So every page places the child in an environment where
they can practice loving and feeling that they aren't loved
all the way through.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So in the past what we talked about was Pilly
rich and you remember there are stitches stitching, like the
images were stitched like on a quilt throughout the book.
And now I'm doing a much bolder graphic contrasting big
eyed characters that are engaged and are action and they're
almost animated, like you can almost feel the butterflies and
the fireflies taking flight. So we use a different style
of illustration that I've created with my daughter Hannah, who's
working with me now, to really make it even more
playful and nearly about movement and action. And I call
it cuddle mobility. They wanted to cuddle up with this book.
Speaker 1: Did you know that when you put this book together,
that each one of these pages can be a place
of creativity for every imagination that lands here. In other words,
you get like, for instance, like you've got be the
best you Now I can tell that over here too.
You can be the best you if you create your
own sunshine, if you have a buddy, if you're staying
with care inside your heart, if you enjoy your day,
every one of these pictures on each one of these
stories can create a story all its own inside that
that why a reader's mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I hope so. I mean, you know, even
if you move to the gardens, but keep growing, And
how do you keep growing well by hopping in the fun,
by listening with their by spreading joy, by being helpful,
by thinking about others, you know. So it really is
this kind of woven together idea of imagery and birth
and action. That is love, you know, and it's the
living and all the while we're creating, you know, helping
to give kids this emotional intelligence. And the one hundred
word format is one that I love, and that's why
I chose it for this project, because it is that
it's the early education for our children. It's the first word,
numbers of first colors, all of these things. And now
I was talking about first ways we looked at feeling
and looking at ourselves and staring for ourselves feels great.
Speaker 1: If you're doing the illustration, what comes first the illustration
or things like cuddle up, hang together, trust you can.
Speaker 2: The entire the whole book is written as a sup
of poetry. First, I do every book that I write
a piece of poetry. And then the imagery and those formats,
the layout of the way this book is laid out,
and these fun quote grid like patterns back to my
quote love. That was a way that I could get
large images and small images and lots of activity given
the characters. But then I began to decide to be
a good buddy. I thought that the owls dancing together
in the sky made a good image for that because
they are just, you know, so happily sharing space and
like enjoyed the day. You know, we have a little
pigrit jessup as a chef serving cupcakes. And you know,
the idea that you can use characters and animals and
you know, all the things that make a good illustration
to share the story and bring a feeling was it's
It's done after I write the poem, and then it
becomes you know, it's like you bring the thing to life.
You know, it's becomes something that actually carries the message
that I want.
Speaker 1: It is such the great book and I know that
I'm running out of time here if i haven't already
done it, but I've got to tell you about those
owls because you touched on it with being good buddies.
I live in a forest on the far right hand
side of the forest, you'll hear and way way, way,
way way on the other side of the forest. So
they are good buddies. You are spot on when you
talk about them being good buddies because they are no
matter how close they are or distant, owls are buddies.
Speaker 2: They are and in fact, their communication is showing that
they care and that's the basis of love. And then
on the next page you turn in the gardens listen
with there, so you're listening what's there, so you're respecting
mature that's become a part of you as they're communicating,
and you know it's all connected and that's you know,
hopefully that's the thread too. We're off connected and our
actions are off connected, and they can work as a
tsunami of love, kindness, and generosity with just a little
bit of effort.
Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you?
Because like I said, you've got a whole entire collection
inside this catalog.
Speaker 2: Well, if I have an Instagram account, I also have
a website which is my name that they're mag Famine.
And on that website there are lots of principal things
for teachers and parents differnt out. There's a whole lot
of New Valentine's Sake far as you can prints and
making color and you can give them the people your love.
Speaker 1: You got to come back, but you got to come back.
You know, the door is always going to be open
for you. Sounder, You know I have. I really enjoy
sharing conversations with you.
Speaker 2: I do too. It really is so meaningful and I'm
so grateful. I feel like you really see me in
my work and and that is really very loving and
I'm so appreciative. So thank you.
Speaker 1: You'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, and you have a beautiful day.