"The Brave Little Puffer Fish —Authenticity for Children”. My first children's book
/Thank you for visiting!
This is a snapshot of my precious book based on some of the questions I've gotten from folks who haven't read it yet, but if you have other questions that won't spoil the surprise, I'd love to hear them.
Interview with Trish Tonaj
This interview was added as an update to this blog post. I think it sheds light on “The Brave Little Puffer Fish Authenticity for Children” from an important perspective—how it lands for us as adults! Thank you Trish Tonaj for this, and for ShareYourStories.online
The Brave Little Puffer Fish — What's It About?
You know the parts of ourselves that we discarded, or the dreams we let go, because someone whose opinion “mattered” didn't see the value in them? I hope this book gets those sparks started again, for you and your little ones. And that, this time, the value of those dreams and attributes are so deeply and intrinsically rooted, that nothing outside of yourself is allowed to affect their worth.
Our little puffer fish is in a quandary, wanting so much to be like other puffer fish, but not finding a way to get there. This goes on, until an opportunity to leverage this unique quality arises.
How will our little puffer fish handle it?
Who is it for? What ages?
"The Brave Little Puffer Fish —Authenticity for Children" was written for children from birth to five (0-5) years old, and the parents and caregivers who value self-acceptance, at any age and stage. Even when you're a Puffer Fish!
The Illustrations?
Yip. I did all of my illustrations by hand first, using crayons for the background, then used my laptop for the puffer fish family’s colours.
I’ve always loved drawing, but early critique combined with a “wee bit of” perfectionism on my part stopped it early. Being mom to a toddler who asks often for me to “draw a horse” or something far more “difficult”, melted those obstacles, and this book gave me the space to do something concrete with that.
It took a while but, as with all aspects of business and motherhood (for me), the process healed that perfectionism in new ways and expanded me as a person, significantly. Even in writing, I somehow released perfectionism around grammar and my English language obsession, to just get it done. I hired an awesome editor, though, and I'm still a bit happy that she didn't find a lot of errors.
Why Write This Book?
Honestly, this began as a story I made up for my own toddler, and repeated to her over and over at bedtime. Eventually, I started seeing the images in my head, as I read. I finally wrote the story down, so I’d stop changing bits of it, and simply began drawing it. It’s not the first children's book I've written, but it is the first one I've published. I'm still working on the illustrations for the second one. This one simply came together first, and I love the way it was born.
What about you? What do you find yourself reading to your children? Some classics I thought I’d loved, turned out to be planting seeds I didn't want. The Tortoise and the Hare and The Ant and the Grasshopper preach “work, work, work”, which as a recovered workaholic, I'm not teaching my family. Then, and this wasn't a favourite but a gift, The Princess and the Pea advocates all kinds of abuse, namely deferring to the abusive mother of your suitor. So many of the classics teach lessons through fear, manipulation and worse, which goes against the very values I hope to instill in my still-young little one. I'm taking steps to really make sure what she experiences most encourages her innocence to last a while, her spirited voice to grow, her boundaries to be clear and her perspective to always be important to her. I hope my book, and others like it, help.
A fellow parent explained that I simply ‘didn't understand the history' that created the nursery rhyme, “The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe”, when, coming from a British colony in the Caribbean, I know all too well the history, and feel very strongly about it. I simply totally blocked from my memory, it seems, that “she whipped them all soundly and put them to bed”. I truly believe that being aware of history should make sure we don't repeat it — not make us excuse it.
What helps you choose what you read to your little ones?
A Few Surprises
I left a few fun discussions for you and your little readers to enjoy at the end. Hopefully they serve to help you foster that sense of unshakeable confidence and self-acceptance in who they are — exactly as they are — in any given moment. And that's just one of the fun discussions at the end!
My goal with future books
You can sense some levity in this book, and my future books will explore stories that look at the positives more, too. They will:
start with "thankful for the miracles that got me here",
a look at “the outcomes of those amazing experiences”, and
take us through / end with, "imagine what's possible, now, if I could receive those miracles".
This story path, at a time in our world focused on so many negatives, as opposed to the usual path of:
Something's wrong / Here's my life
Watch it get worse
See me bring it back to status quo / survival / thriving.
Self-acceptance, individual sovereignty, self-love and self-care speak to me as an introvert, and direct my approach to writing and story-telling. I truly believe that self-love overflows, and self-care overflows, and that if we want a better world, it starts with—and focuses on—self, so that you’re not trying to direct or control others, but simply inspire them to be more fully themselves, as you are more fully yourself.
Where can we find it?
So far, it's available as a paperback and an e-book at Amazon, across the many countries it's in, including Canada (of course), Japan, Brazil and Scotland! I also have 10 copies I'm ready to personalize for you, arriving at my door on December 17!
I do hope to work with independent platforms that offer publishing solutions similar to Amazon's in the future, if possible, and I hope to get into more bookstores with a board book version, soon.
Can't find it near you? Let me know!
Join Me
Does this sound like a good one for your little ones or the little ones you get gifts for? Perhaps this might be a great fit for your favourite bookstore that appreciates children's books with heart. Maybe you just want to support small business owners during these unusual times? If you do get your copy, and genuinely love it, I hope you write a review and spread the word as widely as you can.
Thank You for giving it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Added as an update to this blog, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who's read or written a review. Thank you!
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About Crystal-Marie, Author
Crystal-Marie Sealy, MBA, is a dedicated mom, keynote speaker, two-time best-selling author and mindful entrepreneurship strategy consultant. In August 2015, Crystal-Marie first became a #1 Amazon bestseller with her chapter in “DYNAMO Diaries Volume 1: Success Secrets of 21 Shining Stars”. In May 2020, she became a #1 best-selling author for the second time with her chapter in the Women Speakers Association's "Voices of the 21st Century: Powerful, Passionate Women Who Make a Difference". "The Brave Little Puffer Fish" is her first published children's story. She genuinely hopes that all who read her books will be inspired to always honour their true voices, embracing what resonates and releasing in peace, all that does not.
Crystal-Marie is also a dancer (albeit not since she's become a mom), and lives with her precious daughter in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Follow her on Amazon at www.amazon.com/author/crystalmariesealy. For more about Crystal-Marie, as author, keynote or consultant, visit www.crystalmariesealy.com
