Is there a switch to turn off the sun at night? And if a bear can climb a tree, can it swim across the sea?
These are just a couple of the curious and fascinating questions kids can come up with—questions now explored in a new book from a pair of Pemberton moms.
Best friends Johanna (Jay) Molloy and Natasha Louise pooled their creative talents together to pen Wonder, which allows readers to see the world through a child’s eye.
The pair are striving to self-publish their project, and have created a Kickstarter campaign to reach their goal of $5,350. As of Feb. 26, the project had topped $5,550.
Writer, Molloy, and artist, Louise, were both pregnant at the same time in Pemberton. They used that time to create a book that would inspire their children and others.
“Natasha and I were both pregnant at the exact same time. Our due dates were two weeks apart,” says Molloy, the book’s author. “We were walking around One Mile Lake when we decided to create a children’s book together.”
The inspiration for the book came after babies Fionn and Luisa arrived into the world.
“The idea for the book came when we had delivered our babies,” says Molloy. “We were talking about my niece. My dad has a water feature in the garden. He put up a light feature behind it and turned it on at night.
“My niece went to Powerscourt Waterfall [a waterfall in Ireland], and she asked where the light switch was to turn it off. That sparked the idea of all these genuinely interesting questions that kids ask. That’s their only interpretation of the world. We wanted to write a book around these questions.”
The creative project flowed and came together in no time at all, with Molloy writing the words and Louise providing the artwork.
“It was that first question that made me think about the world as well,” says Molloy. “I wrote it while my child was asleep on me in two hours.”
Louise also completed her stunning illustrations for Wonder while ‘Lu’ was asleep on her lap.
“I just started drawing on my iPad. Jay sent me some words and I just started drawing while my baby was sleeping on me,” she says.
The book allows kids and adults alike to think about the beautiful and mystifying world that surrounds us.
“It’s a great opportunity for the parents and child to bond because there are no real answers to these questions,” says Molloy.
Having full ownership of their art was incredibly important to the unstoppable duo.
“We knew we had something here. We had a cool creative project. I went to Whistler Writers Festival last year and attended a self-publishing talk,” says Molloy. “It’s really important to us to have the full copyright of this work. It’s such a personal work. When you’re an artist, it hurts for someone to come in and change your work. Self-publishing agencies told us how much it would cost. It’s been a six-month process. It’s the dream that friends and family will be inspired by it.”
The moms are blown away by the response so far in Pemberton and Whistler.
“We have been sharing it across social media,” says Molloy. “It has been amazing. Businesses like Whistler Real Estate have donated. It’s been awesome.”
You can help get Wonder onto bookshelves by pledging to its campaign here.
