With about 10,000 books at the Campo library, internationally known authors, all-time favorites, and timeless classics line the bookshelves. However, there are only a few books on Campo shelves which are written by student authors.
Seniors Bella Stratford and Kylie Wang have both published books in recent years. Respectively, Sundays with Grandpa: Learning about Alzheimer’s with Little Missy Elephant and Stuck in Her Head, are two books that have been well received by the Lamorinda Community.
Stuck in Her Head
A book about relationships, mental illness, and the teenage experience, Wang’s book is currently available in the library with many copies checked out to the Campo book club for their current reading. “We bought 13 copies to have it for the book club,” said librarian Liz Herring. “I’m more than happy to support our students and put the books on display,” she added.
“…A lot of us are seniors so we wanted to support her and her book,” said senior Book Club Co-President Katelyn Shipman, when asked why the book club chose Stuck in Her Head. “It’s pretty crazy how she was able to write that. It’s really impressive.”
In writing the book, Wang expressed several challenges she came across. “There were a lot of challenges. Staying committed to [the project] and finishing it was a huge challenge because it takes a lot of time.”
Wang also mentioned the struggles that she and her co-author, Liana Tang, came across in the publishing process. “We wanted to get it traditionally published so that it could get distributed in Hong Kong. We had to inquire a bunch of agents and publishers.”
Wang stressed that finding a publisher was no easy task. Facing many rejections, Wang advises aspiring writers to “not take rejection personally. [Authors] are going to get a lot of rejections no matter what because that’s just how the industry works,” Wang said. “Learn to take those in stride and brush them off because they don’t really define your worth as a writer.”
Stuck in Her Head is available on many platforms including Barnes and Nobles, Amazon and Target.
Sundays with Grandpa: Learning About Alzheimer’s with Little Missy Elephant
In her book, Stratford explains Alzheimer’s in simple terms for people of all ages to understand. Her book follows the story of main character Little Missy Elephant and the days she spends with her grandpa. However, when Missy Elephant starts to notice that something might be different with her grandpa, the elephant receives information about what’s happening from a dog named Poppy.
Stratford states that her book’s mission is to educate children on a complicated topic like Alzheimer’s– a resource that she didn’t have as a young child when her grandfather was diagnosed with it. “I realized that there weren’t that many resources for younger kids to become educated on [Alzheimer’s], so I decided to make a difference.”
Self-published and crafted, Stratford’s book started from scratch. “I went out one day and decided to get an Ipad and an Apple pencil…I kind of had to work through drawing as well as how I wanted to approach teaching Alzheimers.” Stratford stated that in developing the project she reached out to many Alzheimer’s foundations for her research as well as reaching out to different parties for additional advice.
In promoting her book, Stratford discusses the importance that social media played in promoting her book and the importance of spreading her book to different audiences. “I had an Instagram account that I was running called @littlemissyelephant…Obviously it’s a children’s book so one might go ‘Oh that’s kid stuff,’ but I also know that not a lot of my peers know about Alzheimers,” she added that she feels Alzheimers is often joked about. “…It’s important to find humor in something so devastating but it’s also important to be educational.”
Stratford’s book is available for purchase on Amazon.
