MAY 2023
Our May line-up includes interviews with Dr. Joy Pillay, Flynn McGarry, Melissa Cristina Marquez, Jessica Brody, Lynnor Bontigao, Drew Beckmeyer, and Ame Dyckman!
Larissa Juliano opens her teaching toolbox and finds some fun facts, Conrad Storad talks about a bug who lights up the night, Judy Newman celebrates Mother's Day, Deedee Cummings is off to the races, and Nick Spake reviews Peter Pan & Wendy!
Check out our newest book reviews and spring reading list! It's all inside!
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Story Monsters Ink® is sponsored by Once Upon a Dance and Dr. Joy Pillay
FEATURES
What Thriving Feels Like
by N.C.
Based on her lived experience, Dr. Joy Pillay is sharing a message with children that they, too, can intentionally embrace thriving in her debut children’s book, My Wonderful Body: Living and Thriving with an Autoimmune Disease. Readers can be a part of not only empowering themselves with messages of resilience and thriving but can also be dynamically impactful in the lives of others, with a percentage of sales benefiting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles during the month of May.
I smell the all too familiar and tantalizing scent of coffee as I enter the reception area of Dr. Joy Pillay’s organizational leadership consultancy. I recognize her right away! She looks like her author photo in her debut children’s book, My Wonderful Body: Living and Thriving with an Autoimmune Disease, which I hold in my hand, but only this time she jumps out of the page and greets me with a big hug and even bigger smile. Quickly shifting her book from my right to my left hand, we shake hands. My hands are moist, as I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous, but my nerves seem to melt away as Dr. Pillay breaks the ice and says, “Come with me; let’s take a journey.”
I let out an awkward laugh, revealing my surprise, but with intrigue, I ask, “Where to?” Dr. Pillay smiles at me, sensing my confusion and answers my question, saying, “To where the intention, inspiration, and impact help to ground me: the beach! “Ahh, yes!” I say. The pursuit of “Leading with Intention, Inspiration and Impact”TM is a paradigm Dr. Pillay has introduced, as it not only informs and frames her work as an organizational leadership consultant in Los Angeles, California, but is a perspective she embraces in My Wonderful Body: Living and Thriving with an Autoimmune Disease as well. I’m immediately intrigued to take this “journey” with her.
I’m open to moving away from her office where we stand, framed by both near and distant shiny Los Angeles high rises, into the unknown. This unknown may not be so “shiny,” but more importantly, it seeks to deeply explore the impetus of what inspired Dr. Pillay’s book and beyond. As an interviewer, compelled to understand the human experience more deeply, that’s a place I’m eager to go.
Now in the car, Dr. Pillay turns to me with a smile on her face, saying, “You know, everything is meaningful data, so please, ask away.” I can tell immediately that she is not limited by the conventional setting of a meeting place, but is more interested in the grounding connection. She says it with a smile, but I can see the intentionality and the seriousness behind her statement. It’s true. There is meaning all around, so I lean into that.
Flynn McGarry
Encourages Kids to Explore Creativity
by Marcella Comerford
Flynn McGarry’s story is unbelievably true, and decidedly amazing. It is certainly not one you hear every day, and it doesn’t mimic anyone else’s. Which might be, in itself, a bit overwhelming for anyone, but mix in his age, and suddenly the fascination factor shoots up.
McGarry, at age 24, has accomplished a phenomenal laundry list of major achievements and successes, including his amazing new fully illustrated cookbook for youth of all ages, This Is Not a Cookbook: A Chef’s Creative Process from Imagination to Creation. It must be noted that this book is fantastic in so many ways, it’s hard not to tell people that it’s a real treat and they must run out immediately and grab themselves (and their kids!) a copy, and then another copy to pass along to a friend.
Ten might be an unusual age to step, or rather, slide, to a career home plate, but this is exactly what McGarry has done, hitting that homerun from ages 10 to 24. It was at this age when, bored with the menu at home, McGarry started learning all he could about gastronomy from Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook, YouTube, and food blogs. Soon, he was in the role of family cook, and really got promoted to full-fledged chef when his parents built a kitchen in his bedroom.
Yes, a full kitchen—with the basics and also what seems like some very advanced items for a bedroom kitchen, like induction burners, a binchotan grill, and an immersion calculator, to start. Meg and Will McGarry made a good decision when they let young Flynn start homeschooling in seventh grade so he could delve into cooking, as is evidenced by the start-up of his first New York City pop-up restaurant after graduating from high school at age 16.
Melissa Cristina Márquez
Takes Kids on a Deep Dive into Marine Conservation
by Lindsey Giardino
Melissa Cristina Márquez is many things. Renowned marine biologist. Shark scientist. Science communicator. TV presenter. Author.
In her debut picture book, Mother of Sharks, Márquez urges young readers to follow their dreams and help conserve our oceans.
The book is set at Playita Del Condado in Puerto Rico—a place Meli, who loves the ocean more than anything, doesn’t want to leave. With only five minutes left at the beach, she knows exactly where her last stop should be: the tidal pools.
While looking into the pools, she meets a crab, Jaiba, who takes her on a dreamlike underwater adventure, teaches her about the importance of shark conservation, and reveals Meli’s ultimate destiny: to become the Mother of Sharks.
Mother of Sharks, which is illustrated by Devin Elle Kurtz, blends the autobiographical with the fantastical. The picture book is ultimately a journey through the wonders of the ocean and, above all, a rallying cry for marine conservation.
Márquez shared that part of her inspiration for writing the story was the lack of representation of Latinas in STEM.
Jessica Brody
Has Mastered the Art of Reinvention
by Lindsey Giardino
Jessica Brody’s path to becoming an author is a fun journey for her to reflect on. “I knew when I was only seven that I wanted to be a writer,” she says. “I used to ‘self-publish’ my novels with cardboard wrapped in wallpaper, secured with electrical tape. But then somewhere along the way, I got it into my head that writing wasn’t a real job. I needed a serious job that came with dental insurance.”
To cater to this thought, Brody majored in economics in college and went on to become a financial analyst for MGM Studios in Los Angeles. “I loved working for a movie studio (probably because it touched upon my love of stories!) and I did really enjoy my job,” she says. “But the writing bug never left. I was writing on the side, as a hobby, but wishing I could do more with it.”
Then in 2005, MGM Studios was bought by Sony, and Brody was laid off. “I took it as a sign,” she says.
Even though her former boss got a job at another studio and offered her a job there as well, Brody turned him down. “I wanted to give this novel-writing thing a real try,” she said. “So, I took my severance package and stretched it as far as it would go while working on my novel. It took a few years, several rewrites, and over 100 rejection letters from agents before I finally landed an agent who sold my first novel to St. Martin’s Press. I’ve been writing voraciously ever since!”
One to Read:
Lynnor Bontigao
by Lindsey Giardino
When Lynnor Bontigao was in fourth grade, she would write and illustrate stories on paper that she had stapled together. “I used to write poetry (most likely horribly!) just for myself,” she added.
She was born and raised in the Philippines, and always liked art and found herself drawing constantly. “When my parents owned a shoe factory, I thought I would be a shoe designer,” she shares. “When we had a landscaping business, I thought I would be a landscape architect. I knew I would be doing something art-related; I just didn’t know what that would be.”
During college, Bontigao pursued a degree in advertising and joined a children’s book illustration group, which planted the seed for her wanting to create children’s books of her own. After she graduated, she found a job as a graphic designer at a top ad agency, where she worked until moving to the United States.
“Naturally, I thought I’d find another ad agency job,” Bontigao said. “I was new in the country and really still new to the industry, but I couldn’t. I interviewed at a temp agency, and I failed the typing test miserably. I worked at an art supply store, which made me sadder because I was helping artists with their portfolios when I, too, needed to work in an art-related field. I wanted to just go back home. Questions like What am I doing here? Why did I leave my friends and my job for this place? plagued me. I was frustrated and lonely.”
Then Bontigao’s brother convinced her to study programming because programmers were in high demand due to Y2K. After finishing the course, she was hired by a brokerage firm right away.
What Do You Want?Has Mastered the Art of Reinvention
by Deedee Cummings
I saw this meme the other day on social media. I love it. I wish I knew who made it so I could give them credit because it rocks. Don’t we all just want a little recognition and a little more guac? I know I do. It got me thinking about what is on my list of wants … my needs, my desires. My bucket list.
Believe it or not, this is a part of being mindful. People think being mindful is all about sitting in the “ommmm” position in the woods while being quiet, but mindfulness comes in all shapes and forms.
Mindfulness can mean being fully aware of what your heart desires the most: a little extra guac, a little “me” time, to laugh so hard I cry. It is empowering. I know what I want and, damn it, I’m going to get it.
Life moves so fast and if you don’t make a list of what really drives you and all that you are striving for, you will surely forget all about it. It seems that the world is designed to keep us busy—like little worker bees—and you will find yourself at the end of every day feeling unfulfilled. But the worst part is, you won’t remember why. You will lose the ability to prioritize you.
Make a list and don’t apologize for it. Make it grand and include all the things your heart whispers no matter how big or small they seem. Everything from seeing the pyramids of Egypt to demanding more guac. And everything in between.
MONTHLY COLUMNS
-
Life of a Reader
Down for Mother’s Day!
by Judy Newman -
Q&A
Drew Beckmeyer
by Julianne Black DiBlasi -
The Book Bug
Ame Dyckman
by Raven Howell -
Monsters at the Movies
Peter Pan & Wendy
by Nick Spake -
Liv On Life
I’m Just a Girl …
by Olivia Amiri -
Kids Corner
Spring Has Sprung
Click here -
Teaching Toolbox
Freshen up Fact Finding with FUN Books!
by Larissa Juliano -
Conrad‘s Classroom
Twinkling Night Lights: The Firefly
by Conrad J. Storad
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