I recently opened my mail to find my first copy of “Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse!” This definitely wasn’t the first time I’ve seen the book. I’ve been looking at Corinna Luyken’s wonderful art at various points in her illustration process, and I’ve seen the book in electronic form and then a couple months ago, I received a paper, folded copy of the complete book (called an F&G, which stands for Folded & Gathered), but seeing the actual book that will be on bookstore and library shelves was an entirely different experience. There’s something really satisfying about that hard cover, so satisfying that I found myself walking around the house knocking on it, just so I could hear the sound.
My daughter opened the package with me, and pointed to the cover, to the “Marcy Campbell.” She yelled, “That’s your name!” Then, she opened to the dedication page to find her own name, along with her brother’s and her dad’s. I never would have written a picture book if I hadn’t become a parent. I had very few books myself as a kid, but didn’t want my own children to have that same fate, so we shower them with books, constantly adding more bookshelves to the house rather than part with anything. And I read to them, especially my daughter (who got to be an only child for a couple years) for hours and hours each day. With them, I fell in love with picture books, and kept adding to a page of ideas until one rainy afternoon when I decided I knew just how to tell this story about a boy and his horse.
It’s so exciting to share this dream-come-true with kids everywhere, but especially with my own.