For as long as I can remember my Mom has wanted to write children's books. She has always loved teaching and always put a huge emphasis on reading and writing in her classrooms. In the summer of 2007, she came up with the idea for the Bellman Bear Series. She thought the books would provide a great way for parents and teachers to introduce their children to the United States and the world. Many children will never have the opportunity to visit places in their own state, much less overseas. She wanted to open their eyes to the rich history and cultures that make up our great nation and our world. These would be the books that she had always wanted to use in her classroom, but could never find. From the very beginning, we knew that each book would focus on geography, history, and social studies.
Having this vision and passion to develop the books was the first step. Then she had to talk me into helping her! That was probably the hardest part! After that it was truly a community effort....my friend Robin, a great graphic designer, guided us through the software selection process for the layout and answered early design questions; Mom bounced ideas off of the wonderful librarian at her school and other teachers....to see which skills/curriculum connections that we should focus on; other dear friends helped with editing text and providing encouragement; our husbands took and edited numerous photos; we created a rough draft of our idea on the website Shutterfly; we read everything we could find on the Internet and in bookstores...including The Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books. Ha, ha!
Finally, almost two years later, we have the books and are having a blast watching children's reactions to them. If you watched the news clip of Mom reading to the first grade class at Forest Lake, then you saw that the children are captivated and excited about what they are learning through the Bellman Books. Mom returned to that same class a week later, and the children shouted out "Bellman!" when she walked in the door. I must say, seeing the children's excitement about reading and learning, makes all the hard work and all the late nights worthwhile.
Brantley
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