July 2, 2025 • 59 mins
What happens when a devastating brain injury leads to an unexpected creative breakthrough? For Sarah Sparks, it meant birthing the "Monsters on Mill Street" series – vibrant, heartfelt stories that are transforming how children handle big emotions and life's challenges.
Sarah's journey began with a Thanksgiving fall that resulted in a traumatic brain injury, leaving her unable to perform everyday tasks. During recovery, these monster characters emerged as her "life raft," helping her process family challenges while healing. Today, these stories have become powerful tools helping children navigate everything from explosive anger and ADHD to social anxiety and resilience.
The genius of Sarah's approach lies in how her monsters connect with children on their level. Rather than telling kids what to feel or how to behave, each character faces relatable challenges while discovering practical solutions. Albie in "The Angriest Monster" teaches grounding techniques using the five senses. Max shows how satisfying organization can be. Becks helps high-energy kids recognize appropriate times and places for movement. Sky tackles the painful reality of "masking" to fit in, while Drake demonstrates finding joy in small moments during overwhelming times.
Parents and educators share remarkable success stories – like the little girl going through her parents' divorce who adopted Albie's calming techniques independently after repeated bedtime readings. This transformative power comes through stories children genuinely enjoy, allowing them to internalize emotional tools through repetition and engagement.
Beyond creating meaningful books, Sarah partners with Love Smiles to bring comfort through stories to children battling cancer. She understands firsthand how books can provide normalcy during life's hardest moments, recalling how her own mother helped her find joy during homeless periods in her youth.
Discover how these lovable monsters are changing lives at MonstersOnMillStreet.com, where you can explore the books, donate to pediatric cancer patients, and find educational resources to help the children in your life build emotional resilience – one monster at a time.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Real Talk with Tina and Anne.
I am Anne.
Today we're welcoming thecompassionate Sarah Sparks
award-winning children's author,mom of three and the heart
behind the Monsters on MillStreet series.
These aren't just bedtimestories.
They're lifelines for kidsnavigating big emotions, tough
(00:28):
changes and the chaos of growingup.
Rooted in Sarah's own journeythrough trauma and healing,
including a life-changing braininjury, her books help children
name their feelings, face theirfears and build resilience with
heart and imagination.
Recognized by the Choice Awards, her stories tackle real-life
(00:49):
challenges like anger, adhd,anxiety and fear, reminding kids
and grown-ups, by the way, thatcalm and courage is the way to
go.
Sarah also donates her books tothe Love Smiles program, which
helps pediatric cancer patients,proving that stories can
provide comfort andentertainment as children heal.
(01:12):
Today we're going to talk alittle bit about all of her
books, including her two newestreleases, and we will talk why
self-confidence matters and howone book can change everything.
Sarah, I'm so glad to have youhere.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And, by the way, I did read all your books.
I got them all on Amazon and Ilove the illustrations.
They are all unique monsters.
By the way, what inspired youto create your stories around
monsters?
What inspired you to createyour stories around monsters?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh, my goodness, I'm so glad you love them.
They are definitely fun andsilly.
You know it's interesting.
I didn't set out to create achildren's book series.
I didn't set out to create abook about monsters at all.
You know, what ended uphappening is one day it was
(02:10):
Thanksgiving a few years backand I slipped and fell and I
fell in one of the worst roomsin the house you could fall in.
I fell in the bathroom andthere's a lot of hard surfaces
there and I hit my head off of Idon't know how many quite a few
(02:30):
.
But what ended up happening isI ended up being taken to the ER
.
I had a traumatic brain injury.
Yeah, it was the start ofsomething that I really wasn't
prepared for.
I wasn't expecting, becausewhat ended up happening after
that is you know, there's somany things that we take for
granted when it comes to ourbrain, everyday tasks like
(02:53):
reading a grocery list, playingwith our kids, driving.
There's just so many thingsthat we do, unconsciously, I
think.
And after that head injury, Icouldn't do those things.
I run a small business and Iwas struggling with that because
I couldn't read emails.
Even the words just wouldn'tstay on the page.
They kept floating around a lot.
(03:14):
I couldn't retain them.
Like I said, I couldn't evenshop at a grocery store.
So all of these things had justsort of upended my life and I
was feeling like I couldn'ttouch anything or do anything
without it breaking.
It was a very, very strange,strange feeling to have where
you couldn't think throughthings.
But amidst all that, for somereason these stories I could see
(03:40):
these monsters so clearly and Iknew they were monsters and I
started writing and it was alifeline for me.
You know, when you feel likethe world is falling apart
around you, you kind of cling towhat you can do still and what
you can do well and where thathope is, you cling to it like a
life raft, and so these monsterswere my life raft.
(04:02):
What I realize now, I thinklooking back on it, you know I
mentioned little things likeplaying with my kids was even
hard Because when you have atraumatic brain injury, there's
challenge that you have withoutside stimulus.
It can be very hard to processnoise and movement and things of
that nature, and kids are noisyand they move around a lot and
so I had to work extra hard atthose relationships at the time
(04:25):
and what was interesting is, asI look back on it now, I see
these monsters and I realize,you know, I was writing our life
, I was writing what we wereliving, I was taking the
challenges that my kids werefacing and that we were working
through as a family, and I wascapturing them and I was writing
them down and it was my way ofholding on to them, I think, and
holding on to those moments andthose memories, before my brain
(04:47):
forgot them and let them slipaway, and really it was my way
of working through, I think, allof the challenges that we were
facing in that time because ofmy brain injury as a family, and
so that's how they came toexistence.
It's a really long-winded wayof saying they were just always
monsters and they were my kids.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
They were a part of you.
You can feel that you were ableto put them on the page.
What a gift.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It was therapeutic.
I've always been a storytellerbut I've always told other
people's stories and this wasthe very first time when I
paused and stopped and I told myown stories.
And, yeah, I was telling ourlives.
I was telling what we wereliving, Like I said, the
challenges that my kids werefacing when they were dealing
with big emotions and didn'tknow how to cope with them, when
(05:38):
they were dealing with anxietyand we were talking through that
.
How do we overcome thoseanxious feelings?
Or my favorite one, themessiest monster?
You know what family doesn'thave a moment where their kids
are going from activity toactivity and toys are getting
left about or the art project isstill on the dining table?
So these were the littlemoments where they were the
(05:59):
teachable moments, when we weretrying to encourage my kids to
grow and learn these sort ofsoft skills and how we were
teaching them those soft skills.
That's really where these booksare coming in.
That's how I was teaching mykids these soft skills.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I truly appreciate this series on so many levels.
You know, our children's mentalhealth has never been more
important, especially in theworld that we live in right now
and there's so much coming atour kids.
And what we need, now more thanever, are resources like
Monsters on Mill Street, booksthat are positive, uplifting and
(06:37):
filled with hope.
You know, because there's somuch negative out there, we need
stories that say you can dothis, you know we're here for
you.
Come talk to us, let's figurethis out together.
What I love most, and I love somuch about your books but is
how your books open the door forparents to sit down and talk
(06:58):
with their kids like what youkind of just touched on about
hard topics in a fun, engaging,meaningful way, and you've said,
I hope, to give kids thelanguage, courage and
imagination to understandthemselves, and that mission
shines through on every singlepage.
I just wanted to let you knowthat.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
That is so good to hear because it means that I'm
doing something right.
That's that is so good to hear,um, because it means that that
I'm doing something right.
You know, when people say that,um, when we hear that from from
you, from parents, fromteachers, um, when folks come up
to me and they say this bookmade a difference, um, in my
child's life, and I I hear thatso many times, um, you know, I,
(07:43):
I recall a story that a mom hadtold me once the family was
going through a very difficultdivorce, and you know, divorces,
it's never easy on anyoneinvolved.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And it was especially difficult on her little one.
And the little girl was goingfrom house to house, you know,
back and forth from one parentto the next, and you know the
mom was saying how she could see.
It was so very hard for her toreally even understand what was
happening and how that wasmanifesting in her little self
(08:19):
was she was getting angry andfrustrated, she couldn't control
this.
Sure, she was getting angry andfrustrated, she couldn't
control this, sure.
And so you know the mom wouldexpect it, you know her little
girl would walk through the doorand she knew that that day,
when she walked through the doorand she was coming from the
other parent's house, she wasgoing to be this big bundle of
emotion, a tornado, and the momhad to, she was planning for
(08:41):
that, she, just she expected it.
But one day the little girlcame home and she, she was very
quiet and she sat on the couchand she just started, you know,
playing with her toys andfeeling her blanket.
She had a very soft, fluffypink blanket and the mom thought
, you know, this is, this is alittle weird.
You know, this is abnormal,what's, what's going on?
Yeah, and you know the littlegirl said I just I need a moment
(09:07):
.
I need a moment and my blanketjust feels so soft and I just
wanted to feel it and I justneeded a moment.
At the mom, we had exchangedinformation when she had bought
my books as we had met at aconference.
And she texted me immediatelyafter and she said you will
never believe what happened.
We have been reading thesebooks together every night at
(09:30):
bedtime.
She was gravitating toward theangriest monster on Mill Street.
This is a monster that hasexplosive, big emotions in the
book and she wanted to read thatover and over.
And what this little girl hadactually done through this book
is she had taught herselfgrounding techniques, so she was
using her five senses to calmher anger and frustration in
(09:55):
that moment.
And the mom said this isamazing.
She's taught herself thisbecause she's identified with
the character in the book,because she's loved the story so
much and we've read it over andover that she's actually
internalized that, learned that,and it's stories like those you
(10:16):
know when you hear them.
I'm doing my job right as anauthor, as a children's book
author, if that's how childrenare receiving and families are
receiving these stories, andit's an amazing feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
It's a beautiful story and when I read the
Angriest Monster, it was thesame thing.
You know, when I saw thosegrounding techniques in there,
it was so beautifully donebecause I have three autistic
children and those are the kindsof things that you know.
It's so visual, they canactually look at it and see and
(10:51):
that you can do those things see, hear, taste, all those
different things to bring youback to center and I thought
that that was so beautifullydone in your book.
What you're doing is helpingparents have these honest
conversations beautifully donein your book.
What you're doing is helpingparents have these honest
conversations.
You know you're creating a safespace where children feel seen
and where they are supported.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And the amazing thing is, what I really love about
the creation of these storiesand how they come together and
the way they come together, isthat never in any of these
stories do we ever tell a childwhat to do or how to feel.
Or you know, you don't know.
Like you said, the angriestmonster.
You don't actually know why theangriest monster is angry.
But through the lens of this,monster.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's a good point.
That's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Right, I mean, you know, there are so many reasons
why we can feel anger in thisworld.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know, when you're little somebody could have
drawn on your paper, or youdidn't get to go, and you know
go to the activity you wanted.
Or you know your motherwouldn't buy you the candy bar
at the checkout aisle in thegrocery store.
It could be any number ofreasons or it could be a very
serious reason on the grocerystore.
It could be any number ofreasons or it could be a very
serious reason.
You know, like the little girlwhose parents were going through
the divorce, they may not evenbe able to articulate why
(12:11):
they're feeling angry, what thatsituation is, but they feel it
and it feels like your fur is onfire and you could huff and
puff tornadoes and you wantstomp earthquakes and you just
feel like you're going toexplode.
And that feeling is how we'reconnecting with the kids.
We're trying to give them acharacter they can really relate
(12:34):
to and then through thatcharacter's eyes, through those
stories, the kids themselves arecoming up with the solutions to
those challenges.
They're identifying with themonster and they're identifying
with the solution becausethey're feeling it and they're
coming to those realizationsthemselves.
It's never an adult or grown-upsaying this is how you handle a
(12:55):
situation when you're angry,because I think when we're
dictating to children, itdoesn't.
You know, they may learnsomething from it, but does it
really stick the first time orthe second time or the third
time?
When they feel it themselvesand it's experienced, then it's
more likely to stick.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And if they love the story and are reading it again
and again.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They're getting that message you know over and over
again.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, exactly, and I think that they can really
connect with these monsters.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And hopefully, like you said, with it being so
visual and colorful and fun thatthey're connecting.
And you know, I remember when Iwas little I always wanted my
mom to read the same books overand over again.
Yes, yes, I had them memorizedand she was probably sick of
reading them.
But hopefully, you know, that'swhat I want with these books.
I want kids to want to readthem and then get those
(13:46):
underlying messages.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Another great aspect of the book the Angriest Monster
was when we're upset, we reallycan't see the solution, or
anything for that matter.
And what I loved about it ishow he calmed down and he saw
(14:09):
the beauty around him.
And how true is that when we'rein the thick of things and we
don't notice that the solution,we don't see the beauty right in
front of us.
So if you could talk more aboutthat and what Albie learned in
your book.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, so Albie is our angriest monster, and what we
see him go through is thistransformation.
Again, we don't know what he'smad at, but we know he's mad at
something.
And he's so mad that his sizegrows to the size of his anger.
His physical body grows so he'sup past the rooftops and up
toward the stars, and so we seethat unfold in that feeling of
(14:43):
anger unfold.
But then we see this momentwhere he is just so overwhelmed
and he says you know, this isnot what I want.
There has to be something thatcan help me put this all right.
And so he takes a deep breathand he thinks you know what can
I hear, smell, taste and see?
And he starts to pay attentionto those little things around
(15:05):
him.
You know, the cool breeze, hecan taste the salty tears that
are rolling down his cheek.
And eventually he sees thisrainbow.
You know he can see a rainbowand he watches the colors of the
rainbow fall and bounce off therain.
The rain is symbolic of histears.
You know, he floods Mill Streetwith his, with his tears, and
(15:26):
causes chaos.
And so there's a lot of thingsthere.
There's, there's deep breathing, so so calming techniques
through through breath.
There's grounding techniquesthrough the senses, finding the
five things.
What can you, you know, see,smell, taste, hear, feel.
And then there's also this idea, which is really cool.
You know, a lot of folks useglitter jars or those calming.
(15:50):
You know they'll shake it upand they'll look at the glitter
and they'll watch the glitterfall.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
My daughter does that .
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I think it's a great tool.
It's so, so calming, in thesense that the glitter is almost
like the storm you're feelingand as you're watching it you
know your heart rate is goingdown.
You're actually it's almostsymbolic of your mind calming
and clearing and that stormclearing through this glitter
jar, and so that's also what wekind of see through this rainbow
(16:17):
at the end and the colors thatare falling and bouncing off the
raindrops in the rain.
And the really neat thing is is, I think, especially with
Albie's story is when you get tothe very end.
Yes, his tempers calm down, butthere's still this huge mess
that he's left in his wake.
And when we throw a tantrumsometimes our anger.
It leaves scars and he rolls uphis sleeves and he starts
(16:42):
getting to work fixing all thatchaos he caused and so there's
that sense of responsibility andownership at the end too, that
we try to bring out through this.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I loved that because in the book you know you're
showing that anger itself isn'tbad, but simply a feeling that
needs to be understood andexpressed in a safe, healthy way
, without hurting themselves,others or anything around them.
I think that that was a reallyimportant message in the book.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
And hopefully that again, as kids read this over
and over, it becomes a part ofthem and they begin to practice
those tools and techniques overtime.
I think that's you know.
I was thinking about this theother day, not just with the
Angriest Monster, but also withsome of the newer books that we
have coming out too with theAwesomest Monster on Mill Street
, with the Strongest Monster on.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Mill Street.
Yeah, we'll talk about themyeah.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I'm excited.
I mean, I'm excited about them.
I think they're my newestfavorites.
But I think with all of theseyou know the tools and
techniques as kids practice themover and over and they become a
part of us.
Then when we need to fall backon those things, when things go
terribly wrong in our lives,which sometimes they do.
(17:57):
Life is not perfect.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
They do that's life.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Hopefully these are so ingrained in us that they
become our habits, because wetend to fall back on our habits
when things go topsy-turvy.
And if this is habit for us andif we're familiar with it and
this is our safe zone, thenthese are good skills to be
building up in that safe zone.
Sure, habit-forming skills,habit-forming toolbox that we
have.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Right, absolutely.
I do want to touch on themessiest monster, because I
loved Max.
He is so cute.
There is a part in the bookwhere he's cleaning and
organizing and like what youwere just talking about with the
glitter, it was satisfying.
It brought like this satisfyingfeeling in me, as also an
(18:41):
autistic individual, an adultthat organizing and looking at
those couple pages where he'sputting everything in its place,
I was like, oh, that it evenbrought in an emotion within
myself.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And I have to tell you it's.
You know, cleaning can be hard.
Some people love to clean, somepeople really like things nice
and orderly, sure, and that'sgreat.
I am not one of those peoplewho falls back onto that
naturally.
My kids are not those types ofpeople who fall back onto that
naturally.
I think it's the ADHD in us.
(19:16):
Honestly, I have it and I'vepassed it along to my kids with
flair.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
They've got the best of me.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's so funny.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
It's a little more challenging for them because
their brains are moving soquickly.
They want to do an art projectand they get so excited and they
break out all the markers andthe glitter and the glue and the
paper and the whatever elsethey can get their hands on, we
have a whole cupboard of craftystuff that they'll just open and
empty and then they'll want torun outside and play.
Oh, let's go play soccer.
Oh, you're putting the swimmingpool out for later.
(19:50):
I want to do that now, andthey'll leave it all behind.
There'll be puzzle pieces onthe ground or there'll be
something that they've worked on, and it's not like they were
intending to leave it all behind.
They just got so caught up inthe moment and they had to do
the next thing, the next funthing, and so, with Max, I think
, bringing that out that they'renot, they're definitely not
(20:15):
being naughty, you know what Imean.
It's not a bad thing.
They're being kids, they'reenjoying life, they're having
fun, they're learning and inthat process.
sometimes we get a little messyand so it's, you know, it's just
reminding them that, okay,let's put this away, let's,
let's.
What is that memory triggerthat we need to remind them, as
parents, to tidy up their things?
And so that's what you'll.
You'll hear me saying in ourhouse, a lot is what would Max
(20:35):
do?
You know you're going out toplay.
Let's look at the living roomfloor.
You guys just did puzzles.
What would Max do?
And so it's a trigger in ourhouse now to oh yes, I have to
put this away before startingthe next fun thing.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, I loved that because you know it really does
help parents use Max toencourage responsibility.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We have classroom posters as well that we actually
we put on our website andteachers can use too, and Max is
one of them and the big bannerover it is what would Max do,
and so it's a way of of helpingto teach to classroom
organization, especially at thebeginning of the year when kids
are trying to get those, youknow, systems in place and
processes in place in a newclass and so, yeah, it's what
(21:18):
would Max do, and it's a niceway of making cleaning and
making organizing fun, I hope.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And Bex in the Bounciest Monster.
She had a little bit of ADHD, Iwould say a lot of energy
needed, help withself-regulation, for sure, you
know, bex is the definition Iwould say of high energy.
And for families navigatingADHD or sensory needs, how can
(21:45):
this book help them?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Oh my gosh, You've hit the nail on the head with
that book.
I mean all the books.
Like I said, they're based onmy children and they're based
off of, in particular, adhdchallenges that we've had to
figure out and come up with newways of communicating.
And high energy is so prevalentin my household, my middle
(22:10):
daughter.
She was actually the one whofirst inspired Bex's story in
the Bounciest Monster on MillStreet.
I used to say her default statewas upside down.
She would watch TV upside down.
During the wintertime.
We had to put one of those minitrampolines in our sitting room
because she had so much energy.
We'd have to say go bounce onthe trampoline, just go count,
(22:32):
see how many times you canbounce on that little trampoline
.
And she'd get up to like 400times and she still wasn't tired
.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So it's, you know, high energy for them is normal.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
They're just bursting .
They're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
That's their baseline , yeah it's their baseline,
their baseline, and as parents,it can be tiring sometimes.
If I'm honest, I want to keepup with them, but we have so
many other things that our mindsare focusing on, you know, and
we don't always have that samelevel of energy at the same time
(23:12):
that our kids might.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
And why not?
Why doesn't that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I wish, I wish, if we could bottle it, if we could
just bottle that energy andshare it, that would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Take a drink of it, and so we can, you know, meet
them where they are.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yes, yes, and so you know, I think it's through Bex's
story.
It's a way of saying a fewthings.
One, you know, it's okay tohave energy Bouncing is fun,
being energetic is fun butthere's a few things that we
need to sort of think about.
You know, we need to thinkabout the space around us, the
people around us.
(23:48):
You cannot do a cartwheel ifyour grandmother is sitting on
the couch right there becauseyour feet are going to kick her.
Like let's not do that in thehouse right by a person who you
might hurt.
You know it's not the righttime or the right space.
Just like Bex, she bouncesthrough the playground, she
almost gets hit by the swings.
She bounces through a picnic.
(24:10):
She splashes mud all overeveryone.
Her bounce is just out ofcontrol.
The really cool thing is, youknow, I was talking with a
preschool teacher when thesebooks first came out and we were
really, you know, pulse,checking them and testing them
in classrooms to see what thereaction was.
And I had this preschoolteacher come up to me and she
said you know, I read this withour four-year-olds right,
(24:32):
they're little.
And she said I have never seena group of kids that were so
invested in the well-being of acharacter as they were the story
, and they would be raisingtheir hands and they'd be saying
does she know what she's doing?
She can't be doing that.
Look at the mess she's making.
Look at what she's doing, youknow.
They recognized that her energywas a little.
(24:55):
It wasn't necessarily alwaysagain the right time or the
right space.
She needed to be aware of thepeople around her.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You really hit on something else, because life can
take us through so manyspiraling pitfalls,
unfortunately, and I love howyou're going after the really
big emotions like we keeptalking about and you say that
with an estimated I mean thiswas really big one.
In 12 US, children ages 3 to 17are experiencing some form of
(25:25):
social anxiety, and an estimated5 million adolescents are
experiencing at least one majordepressive episode each year.
I mean, are those numberscorrect?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, those numbers are the latest numbers on those
stats.
Yeah, so anxiety is a hugeproblem among kids now and it's
a rising problem amongst kidsnow, the reason we could debate
and talk about what are thecauses, what are the reasons.
I think folks are really stilltrying to figure that out, but
(26:00):
the numbers hold true and Ithink that's hard to hear as a
parent, it's hard to hear as ateacher as well, and I think
what we find at least what Ifind in a lot of the
conversations I have withteachers is that folks
experiencing the kids,experiencing these anxious
feelings are experiencing themat younger and younger ages.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I know that for a fact because my three littles
their anxiety.
They're all on medicine foranxiety and they went on it very
young and I know that that'sand we try and that's one of the
things that I was thinking whenI was reading these books.
These are such great tools thatwouldn't it be great if we had
(26:43):
more of these types of thingswhere we didn't need more
medication?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We need these tools in our homes.
We need these tools in ourclassrooms.
We need whatever supportsystems that we can create and
muster, whatever supportresources that we can create and
muster to do a couple things.
One, to tell kids it's okay tofeel those feelings.
You're not alone.
Sometimes you feel veryisolated and alone and there are
(27:10):
ways to work through it.
You know, when it comes tosocial anxiety specifically,
sometimes it can feel like it'svery isolating.
Specifically, sometimes it canfeel like it's very isolating.
You know, my that particularbook was written.
It was inspired by my oldestdaughter and what she was going
through from from a socialperspective.
(27:31):
And and how, how did we handlethose conversations?
How are we?
We we talking about anxiety?
How are we talking about?
How are we talking aboutanxiety?
How are we talking about?
You know, you may see all yourflaws.
You see the bloopers real,right?
You know, in movies we alwayshave those bloopers where we see
the bloopers real, but thepeople around us only see the
highlights.
(27:51):
So it's like kids have almostthese little monsters on their
own shoulders telling them youknow all their faults.
They're picking up all thelittle tiny mistakes they make.
Oh, you didn't say their faults.
They're picking up all thelittle tiny mistakes they make.
Oh, you didn't say the rightthing there, and their minds are
moving so fast.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I know.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Especially, too, if you have ADHD.
You've probably already come upwith a million different
scenarios as to how a socialsituation can go in a split
second, and you've alreadyfigured out what the most
disastrous elements of thosesocial interactions would be.
And so you know, allowing folksthe time and space to one talk
(28:27):
about these things in a safe waywhere we can bring up that
message that you know, you areawesome, you have gifts, you are
wonderful just the way you are.
Yeah, right, and true friendsand the people that we build
relationships with in this world.
We build those strongrelationships because of our
(28:49):
gifts, but also because of ourflaws.
These folks take us for who weare.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, your newest books are spot on.
I mean they all are, but theyaddress social anxiety,
depression, sadness, and they dohelp provide the tools to grow
stronger through the process nottry to get around it, not try
to get away from it, but goingthrough, which is so important.
And the awesomeness monsterbeautifully tackles overcoming
(29:18):
social anxiety and buildingself-confidence.
Can you tell us more about Skye?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, so Skye is.
She's a wonderful monster sheis.
She has a really reallywonderful, rare gift she can
shapeshift.
She can change who she is tofit any situation.
So if she wants to reachsomething up on the shelf, she
can grow really, really longlegs.
If she wants to fly, she cansprout wings.
(29:45):
So she can change who she is tofit any situation.
But she is worried about whather friends will think of this
gift if they find out, and soshe hides herself, and we get
this situation where she hasthis amazing opportunity.
It's actually a talent show onMill Street and the Monster
Talent Show, where she has thisopportunity to show it off.
Show off your gift, show offyour skills, show off your
(30:07):
talents and she gets excited.
She thinks this might just bemy moment.
I can show off my skills,everyone will be so delighted,
it's going to be great.
And she practices really hard,she throws herself into it, and
what ends up happening, though,is when the big day comes and
(30:30):
her moment on stage comes.
She panics and she freezes, andshe quite literally has a
meltdown that you know.
She melts off the stage andends up going through the pipes
on Mill Street just to run awayand pipes aren't made for
monsters, and so they startblowing and there's water
fountains and the fire hydrantsand everything is just exploding
on Mill Street and she'scausing this chaos in her wake
(30:50):
and she thinks, oh my goodness,everybody saw that, everybody
saw my failure, everybody sawthat moment when I was at my
worst, and she's sad.
But what ends up happening isshe ends up actually getting new
friends because of it, friendswho think, actually that's
pretty cool, what you can do,your talents, your skills,
(31:13):
that's cool.
Okay, it may have gone a littlehaywire, but that's you and
that's special.
You know, through her story Ithink we encounter two things.
One is that understanding thatpeople love you for you, but
also this idea of masking.
You know, shape-shifting ofthis monster was a very
intentional superpower that Ichose, because I think,
(31:35):
especially with girls, we tendto mask.
When we're feeling anxious orscared or when we have a, you
know what we consider to be aflaw, we'll hide it.
And in a social situation, Iactually I watched my daughter
and her friends occasionally.
They would, they would all dothis.
They would ask, someone wouldask a question.
It could be as simple as oh, doyou like this movie?
(31:57):
What do you think of this movie?
And the other person answeringwould kind of pivot it back and
say, well, what do you think?
They'd want to know what theother person thought first
before they would stake a claimon how they felt they were
waiting to change yourself tofit that friend group or what
(32:22):
you think is acceptable.
I think that's a reallyimportant thing for us to flag
with kids, especially littlegirls, as they're growing.
It's important to be your trueself and it is okay to like the
things you like and to do thethings you do.
You may love robotics.
That's great.
Go and do that.
Celebrate that skill.
Robotics, that's great.
(32:44):
Go and do that, celebrate thatskill.
Or you might just, you know,you might be a helper.
You might be the first one tolend a helping hand when someone
needs it.
That's amazing, that'swonderful.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Own it you know, right right, yeah, don't be
ashamed.
Just don't be ashamed in whoyou are.
And you know, this is a greatmessage for adults too.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, I think, I think we all need this message.
I think we all need a lot ofthe monsters in those cheating
messages.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I agree 100%.
I mean I loved how brave Skyewas and how she takes a chance
even though she's scared, andthat's such a great message
because rarely, rarely, thingsgo as planned right.
I mean.
So this is something for all ofus, and I love how you show
that it's not the end and youcan circle back around and you
(33:29):
can recover, and those are suchgreat lessons.
And I love that this story alsohelps her with the friends.
Like you said, that's acompletely different message on
its own.
It's not about having thosesuperficial friends.
I mean, you have to find outwho your true friends are.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
The most meaningful relationships in life come when
you are just yourself, right.
You can't pretend to be someonejust to fit in.
It doesn't work.
It's not sustainable.
You have to be comfortable inyour skin in order to build
those meaningful relationships.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Yeah, embarrassing moments, honestly, are just a
part of growth, and I think thatyour book shows that it is
growth.
It's not failure.
Now you have another book, theStrongest Monster on Mill Street
, with the theme of resilienceand redefining strength, and it
is a really important book inthese times.
(34:26):
So tell us about Drake.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yes, so Drake is a dragon.
He is the biggest monster onMill Street.
He's super strong, supertalented.
He's the type of guy that doeseverything right.
You know things just kind of gohis way.
But you know, we know that justbecause you try your hardest,
(34:48):
you know, and put in that effort.
Sometimes challenges stillstrike and so and that's what
happens, strike.
You know he's carrying this bigload.
One of his gifts, of course, iscarrying things.
He can carry lots of loads,silly things back and forth
places.
But one day the weight of hisload is too heavy and he
(35:11):
encounters a storm.
That just it's a storm hecannot beat, he cannot fly
through.
It just hits him so hard, hardand it knocks him back and I
think you know as grownups,there's a lot of metaphors with
that.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I related.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
You know, we can carry great loads with us around
all the time and sometimes wecan carry them with ease, but
sometimes we're just going toencounter things that we can't
conquer on our own.
The challenge is too big and itknocks us down, and so he ends
up in this deep, dark woods.
He's lost, it's still rainingand pelting on him and he thinks
(35:51):
I'm going to hide away in thiscave and wait out the storm.
But even the cave is dark andscary and it's not comforting to
him at all.
And what we end what ends upunfolding is you know, drake
sees this little it's actually abug, it's a slug, and it's
(36:13):
glowing.
And it glows, this littlebright glow and it multiplies
and it lights up the whole cave.
And the dragon realizes, youknow, this one tiny little thing
has shone so bright that it'sable to light up the darkness.
And he starts to think what areall of the other tiny things in
life that maybe I haven'tappreciated before?
(36:35):
But now I'm going to hold on to.
I'm going to hold on tight tothem in this time of need, in
this time when I'm feeling sadand down and depressed and I'm
trapped in this cave and trappedin this darkness and he holds
on to them and it brings himhope and it gets him through the
storm and eventually the sundoes rise on the other side of
(36:56):
the day and the storm clears andhe can fly home.
But it's that process ofthinking what am I grateful for,
what brings me joy, what do Ilove in life?
And holding on to those momentsand those things when times are
tough.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
There's also.
You know, there's nothingscarier than the unknown, and if
someone asked me where is yourscariest place, I would say the
unknown.
Scariest place, I would say theunknown.
And I love how adaptability issuch a standout, you know, in
(37:33):
all of your books actually andit's such an amazing tool that
we need, as we need to adapt towhatever the situation is that's
going on in our life and toadulthood.
We all have to do that and weare learning all the time.
Did writing these books helpyou with your own emotional
healing?
Speaker 2 (37:49):
There was a lot of sort of reflection as I was
writing these books.
I think actually the mostpowerful reflection that I had
was when I was writing Drake'sstory.
This book is especially goodfor not just parents, but also
teachers, school librarians,because you never know what a
child is going to be carryingwith them when they walk through
(38:11):
your doors on any given day.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
There were so many instances when I was a child
where we went through thingsthat I never told my teachers
about.
I held them tight.
Nope, I didn't even tell myfriends about.
No one would have known.
One of the examples that I cangive is, you know, in high
school my mom and I we had toleave our home.
We weren't able to stay in ourhome anymore and we didn't have
(38:37):
a place to live.
We didn't have a place to go.
I think I spent my junior andsenior year of high school
bouncing from, you know,relative's house to relative's
house.
I think I spent my entiresenior year sleeping on my
aunt's couch in her living room,and so we were living out of
suitcases.
We didn't have anything to ournames and I didn't tell my
friends at school.
They had no idea.
I didn't tell my teachers.
(38:58):
Nobody would have known what wewere going through.
And you know my mom.
She's an amazing woman.
She went back to school, shegot her nursing degree.
She did everything in her powerthat she could do to make our
lives better.
But I remember sometimes duringthat, those moments we would
run away together.
(39:18):
We'd go to actually Dunkin'Donuts and we'd get these little
egg and cheese sandwiches.
They were like a dollar at thetime and we'd get them and we'd
get in the car and we'd drive tothe cemetery and we would park
in the cemetery by where mygrandma was buried.
She was buried under thisbeautiful tree and we'd just sit
under the tree and we'd have apicnic.
(39:39):
We'd talk about the things thatbrought us joy, We'd talk about
the things that were happeningin our lives and we'd laugh and
we'd have those little sillymoments.
I realized when I was writingDrake's story I was passing this
message on to my kids and Irealized that this message was
something my own mother hadgiven me and instilled in me in
those moments where we weretogether and talking about the
(40:01):
things we loved during what wasquite possibly one of the
hardest moments we had had inour lives at that time.
Think about it.
Why were we at the cemeteryhaving a picnic?
Probably because my mom neededa hug from her mom.
She wanted her mom to tell hereverything was going to be okay.
So it was our way of comingtogether as a family and
(40:21):
remembering joy and rememberinglove and holding on to those
moments.
And that's, I think, what Icaptured when I was writing
Drake's story.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
That's absolutely beautiful and I'm so sorry that
you went through that, but itsounds like it made you stronger
and I love that you turned yourpain into purpose.
It sounds like to me.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I think it made all of us stronger.
My mom is an amazing woman.
She is the strongest woman Iknow and I have to tell you you
know it was hard, but I rememberthe good things about that time
more than anything else.
Oh, and my hope is so.
I know I was in high schoolwhen all of that was going down.
(41:04):
But my hope is, you know, if weread stories like Drake's story
to kids when they're young, andif it's a book they love and
they want to read over and overagain and they're getting that
message of how do you getthrough the darkness, my hope is
it becomes a part of them.
It becomes a part of theircoping skills.
Because, again, when we gothrough these moments of
(41:27):
challenge in our lives, we tendto fall back on our safety zone.
What are our habits, that we'reused to?
Our habits are what gets usthrough the hard moments and the
challenges, and if we can helpchildren make these a part of
themselves and integrate it intotheir toolbox when they're
(41:47):
young, then whenever thatstrikes, whenever that moment,
whenever that need strikes,that's what they're going to
fall back on.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Right.
The younger the better.
You know you touched onsomething too that it's hard as
a parent, because we go throughthings too.
We're in pain too, and do youhave a message to other parents
who might be in that samebalancing act, trying to heal
ourselves like your mom did,like you did with your traumatic
(42:18):
brain injury, while we're alsotrying to parent?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
You know, I think the biggest message is simply you
are not alone.
With the rise of social mediaand everybody being on Facebook
and Instagram and everything, itcan feel like everybody else's
lives are perfect.
Everybody is managing perfectly.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
It does sometimes.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
It's overwhelming almost.
I look at other families and Ithink their kids are in all of
these club sports and all ofthese activities and they're
running from this activity tothat, and they're going on
holidays and I think I don'thave the money to go to Disney
this year, Same and so it's alot of I mean, it's a lot of
(43:01):
pressure, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (43:02):
It is.
It's a lot of pressure and likewe're touching on.
You know, I've got three kidswith autism and I do.
I go on other people's Facebookand things like that, and
sometimes I can't even look andI just and.
But then I have to be becauseI'm very thankful for what we
can do and what we do and theblessings that we do receive in
(43:25):
our own family, and so I meanthere's a takeaway from that,
you know, and there's nothing injealousy, there's nothing in
looking at other people's pagesand getting upset about it and
coming back to yourself andbeing grateful for our own, the
positives that are going on inour own lives.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Looking at what another person does and being
happy for them, applauding themand saying that's wonderful.
I'm so glad you got thatopportunity, that experience.
Isn't that a great thing thatyou got to do?
And so having that separationof we can appreciate what other
people are doing and isn't thatgreat.
But we're doing wonderfulthings too, and you know we all
(44:05):
have challenges and they mightlook a little different.
They've got their it's theresomewhere.
We just don't see it.
And so love them for who theyare and applaud them through
their wins.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah, I mean, jealousy is another one of those
really big emotions, and that'sinteresting because I always
try to turn it into being theircheerleader.
What you're touching on isbeing happy for them, you know,
and so if I feel even an inch ofit, I'm always like you know
what Great, I am so happy foryou and I really try hard to be
(44:37):
one of their biggestcheerleaders.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Maybe that will be the next one.
Maybe the next book will be theJealous Monster on Mill Street.
I don't know Well.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
I don't, I don't know .
I mean, maybe that's a reallybig emotion.
There are so many of them.
Why Mill Street?
Speaker 2 (44:51):
I've been asked this many times before.
There's even a Mill Streetschool where I live and folks
will say, do your kids go toMill Street school?
And I say no, they don't.
But it's so funny, it was just,it sounded wonderful, it
sounded like alliteration.
The Messiest Monster on MillStreet was the very first book
that was written in the seriesand was the very first book that
(45:13):
was written in the series, andso the messy, the monster in the
Mill Street, just kind offlowed off the tongue and it
stuck as this world that wecould build with these monsters.
So it was just fun to say Ilove words, I love playing with
words.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Me too, and I love that your book is in rhyme.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Yes, oh, my goodness, rhyme can be.
When it's done right and it hasthat great meter and that flow,
it can be just fun to read.
It's like a song.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
So I also wanted to talk to you about the
illustrations.
We touched on it a little bit,but talk about your illustrator
and the personalities of yourmonsters and the other
characters in the book, becausethere are so many that are just
kind of even like a sidecharacter, but they're so
beautifully drawn and they'rejust so fun.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Oh, my goodness, I love my illustrator.
She is amazing.
She's based in the UK and Ihave to tell you she is just an
(46:16):
amazing woman who has so muchfun doing what she does.
And when she started workingwith me on this book series, I
think she fell in love with themonsters just as much as I did,
because you could see throughher drawing and the way we were
working together, how thatsilliness and that fun and that
quirkiness they were coming outin the illustrations.
For sure.
It's just.
It's so amazing when you workwith someone that also loves
what they do.
There were times when themonsters didn't exactly like we
(46:38):
started and the early initialiterations of them didn't match
the vision I had.
Drake is a really great examplefor this.
He skewed a little young, itlooked like he could be a
vulnerable character, and so Isat down with my illustrator and
we had this conversation.
We said you know he needs to bestrong, because I want to
(47:00):
convey that no matter how strongyou are, challenges will still
hit, and so I want him to appearlike he's a force to be
reckoned with.
And so we had theseconversations and we saw the
character evolve and then we gotthe character that we got today
.
So it was really a back andforth conversation with her and
it was a joy.
It was an absolute joy to workwith her.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
There were times that I just stared at the page.
They conveyed so much.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, and there's silliness.
You know you look at a page andthis whole page could be
unfolding in some sort ofmonster catastrophe, whatever
the book might be presenting.
You know the street could beflooded or the pipes could be
exploding, or you know themonsters got eaten by his mess
and now he's stuck in this weirdnew world.
(47:48):
But the critters that she hason the page, the extra little
things, I love them.
It's fun and the kids pointthem out and they're like you've
got like 43 eyeballs on thatpage.
I'm like you've counted themall.
You know they're like yeah, wethink they're googly eyes from
the arts and crafts table andit's fun to hear what kids think
(48:09):
of all these extra bits andbobs that she's snuck in these
pages.
It's really great.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So I also want to talk about your partnership or
your dedication to Love Smiles,and what is Love Smiles and how
can listeners support thismission to get books into the
hands of children battlingcancer?
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Absolutely so.
Love Smiles is an amazingorganization.
It's an Illinois-basednonprofit that stretches across
the country.
What they do is well.
It was founded by an amazingwoman.
Her name is Jenna Kmitch.
She founded this organizationafter going through and
experiencing what a familyexperiences when their child is
(48:52):
diagnosed with pediatric cancer.
Her daughter was just a fewmonths old when this whole
journey started for her.
Oh wow, she was just so littleand she went through many, many
rounds of chemotherapy.
You're so focused on the taskat hand and all the medical
appointments and the tests andthe procedures and helping your
(49:16):
child through this that she saidsometimes we'd pack and go to
the hospital and I'd realize Inever even packed a book.
I didn't think about thosecomfort items that we sort of
take for granted when we're notin those situations.
And she said the one thing thatshe wished she had.
She wished she had a book soshe could cuddle with her
(49:36):
daughter and be in that moment.
That was normal for them, youknow, that's when they were
their best, when they weresitting and cuddling, and she
wanted those moments with herdaughter.
And when she forgot to bring abook, she didn't have them, and
so she knew that if she wasgoing to give back to other
parents.
She was going to help otherfamilies through these moments,
(49:59):
some of the hardest moments intheir lives.
She can't cure cancer, shecan't fix or stop what's
happening to them, but she couldgive them that moment of
comfort and normalcy, thatmoment of escape.
You know, when you're reading abook and you get absorbed and
you're giggling and laughing.
Her charity, it runs the gamutof age ranges in terms of
(50:24):
pediatric cancer and the goal isto bring moments of comfort to
the children and the familiesduring that hard time.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
There's nothing like laying down and reading a book
with your child.
I mean, I think that eventhough I have two olders and
three littles, I still rememberthat connection I had with my
two olders.
You know, for five years I hadthe privilege of being a
photographer at a camp for kidswith cancer and their siblings,
(50:53):
and it was truly one of the mostmoving experiences of my life.
The strength, the joy, theresilience of these children and
their children, you know that'sjust so important.
They're battling this horribledisease and they still.
We just want them to be a kidstill.
And you know this is a causethat remains incredibly close to
my heart.
(51:13):
I love that you not onlysupport it but actively bringing
awareness to it through yourbooks, and what a meaningful
gift to families navigating suchdifficult journeys.
That's so important.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
It is, and kids deserve a chance, like you said,
to just be kids.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
To be playful and joyful and happy, regardless of
what they're going through.
They deserve that.
She teams up with publishersand with authors to help fuel
this pipeline of books that goout to these children, and I
actually am honored.
It's a way of feeling like youreally are making a difference
(51:55):
in someone's life.
So that's what we're doing.
We're trying to encourage folksto go on Monsters on Mill
Street website, to go onMonstersOnMillStreetcom.
We have a section that'sdedicated to Love Smiles and to
consider donating a book.
We put them at a really great,wonderful discounted price so
(52:16):
that we can fuel this pipelineof stories going to these
children.
We need people.
We need people to step up andsay I want to help too.
Let's do this as a communitytogether and let's get these
books in the hands of the kidswho need them.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Before we know it, school's going to be back in
session, and so how can parentsor teachers use Monsters on Mill
Street as part of either asummer reading or a classroom
discussion on social-emotionalskills?
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Oh my goodness, there are so many ways.
So I love the idea of summerreading.
Number one this is the perfecttime to introduce Monsters on
Mill Street as a family, becauseI think you know, not only do
these summer reading lists helpwith that summer slide, we're
always looking for ways to stopthat slide back, and how do we
help our kids retain all thegrowth and the skills that they
(53:06):
learn during the year.
So it's great.
Summer reading is great forthat, but it also does two
really cool other importantthings.
One summer is a time when Ithink you almost when you're a
kid you have permission to havefun.
Summer is fun.
That's what it is when you're akid, right, and so reading
(53:28):
stories that are sort of thathelp with that fun.
Reading fun stories, storiesyou want to read stories for
enjoyment.
That makes books very closelytied to summer fun and it lays
that foundation, that reading isfun, so that's number one, that
reading is fun.
So that's number one.
(53:48):
And number two is, as parentsyou know, we're always looking
for, I think, moments oflearning or moments that we can
sort of instill wisdom into ourchild.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
You know you're never going to turn down a learning
moment, are you?
Speaker 1 (54:04):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Right.
And so I think that you know,when it comes to helping our
kids choose books, whether we'regoing to the library, to the
store, we're getting somethingon Amazon, whatever it might be.
Sometimes, as parents we canjust bring in and curate some of
those books that we want thosekids, our kids, to read, with
life lessons in them that wewant them to sort of take on and
learn from.
(54:27):
So that's the hope is that youknow we're introducing these
books to kids at a time whenit's fun and we're opening up
conversations.
Parents can use these books asa jumping off point.
They can say have you ever feltlike Elby?
Have you ever felt anger likethat?
Or what do you think Elbyshould do?
What would you do in thatsituation?
(54:48):
What do you think Bex would doin that situation?
Taking time to think Bex woulddo in that situation, taking
time to pause during the storiesand ask those questions oh,
what do you think that monsterneeds to do to fix that problem?
Do you think you can fix thatproblem?
Right?
Those are questions that getkids thinking.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
And so it's a fun way of sneaking in a little bit of
teaching in the summer.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Yeah, we need that.
Speaker 2 (55:15):
We need that, and then likewise for teachers, you
know, bringing those into yourcurriculum.
So many schools havecurriculums, whether it's an SEL
curriculum or they're callingit sometimes a life skills
curriculum.
Now, regardless of what youname it.
It's teaching those soft skillsthat are going to make kids
successful.
Help them be successful.
You know kids with soft skillsare more successful in school.
(55:37):
They can carry that through toadulthood.
So how do you teach those?
And a lot of schools are askingthat question.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
These books, help with that.
They can look at the poster andsay what would Max do, Right?
Speaker 2 (55:50):
You can look at the poster.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:52):
I know I mean educators, ptos, everybody.
People can buy a book for LoveSmiles and go to Monsters on
Millstreetcom which, by the way,when you click on it it brings
you this big monster.
Uh, he's alive yeah, he's alive.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
so we do.
We have an animated video onthe front page of our website
that cycles through our firstthree monsters that we did.
So you get helby, then you getx, then you get bex.
Um, and those animations,actually we we we've made some
interactive videos as well, um,which we have on our YouTube
page, and they're ways ofgetting kids up and wiggling and
(56:36):
they're like wiggle breaks, thebrain breaks, where kids
actually get thrown into thestory, and they're helping Max
escape the mess.
Or they're helping the monstersescape Albie's tantrum and
meltdowndown and they're helpingAlbie take deep breaths and
calm down.
So they're the monster in thevideo.
It's done from the child'sperspective and so that's also
(57:00):
what we've got going on theretoo.
So it's the whole point is tomake this fun.
Learning should be an adventure.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Absolutely yeah.
Yeah, because that's where kidsconnect in play.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
We learn through play .
Speaker 1 (57:15):
How can people get a hold of you?
I mean MonstersOnMillStreetcom.
What else do you do?
Speaker 2 (57:22):
Absolutely so, also on MonstersOnMillStreetcom.
So we've got a section forauthor visits as well.
So I do go out to a lot ofschools in the Illinois area but
also around the country, andwhat we do is we have several
different programs.
So we have a pre-K throughthird grade program, and then we
(57:44):
also have an older program forfourth through eighth graders.
And of course, for the olderkids we're focusing a lot on not
just stories of resilience andhelping them grow through the
monster stories, but alsowriters' workshops.
So we take them through thecharacter development, we give
them a behind-the-scenes of whatwent into making this book.
(58:06):
How do they craft their ownstories, what's sort of the
process that they can do toreally flesh out that plot?
And then for the younger kids,we do touch a little bit about
that fun storytelling because wewant them to start looking at
stories in a new way, createtheir own characters, be
creative, draw pictures, make upgames and stories of their own
(58:26):
Sure.
So there's something foreveryone across that whole age
range.
When we go out to schools it'sa lot of fun.
It is so much fun in schoolvisits.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
I'm homeschooling my eight-year-old and I can tell
you that I'm going to be usingthis.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
Well, we also have educator kits as well.
Brings in some of thosecreative writing prompts as well
.
Speaker 1 (58:48):
Oh yeah, I see so much opportunity here to help
teach him.
So today we've talked monsters,mayhem and some seriously
meaningful life lessons, andSarah Sparks proves that the
best stories don't justentertain, they empower.
If today's episode moved you,grab a copy of Monsters on Mill
(59:11):
Street, gift it to a familymember who needs it, give it to
a teacher, and remember one ofthe greatest superpowers that we
can give our kids is emotionalresilience, wrapped in a monster
costume.
So to our amazing listeners,thank you for being here.
We appreciate you more than youknow and always remember there
(59:32):
is purpose in the pain and thereis hope in the journey and
healing in the stories that weshare.
Until next time, keep showingup, keep talking and keep
believing.
We will see you next time.
Welcome to Real Talk with Tina and Anne.
I am Anne.
Today we're welcoming thecompassionate Sarah Sparks
award-winning children's author,mom of three and the heart
behind the Monsters on MillStreet series.
These aren't just bedtimestories.
They're lifelines for kidsnavigating big emotions, tough
(00:28):
changes and the chaos of growingup.
Rooted in Sarah's own journeythrough trauma and healing,
including a life-changing braininjury, her books help children
name their feelings, face theirfears and build resilience with
heart and imagination.
Recognized by the Choice Awards, her stories tackle real-life
(00:49):
challenges like anger, adhd,anxiety and fear, reminding kids
and grown-ups, by the way, thatcalm and courage is the way to
go.
Sarah also donates her books tothe Love Smiles program, which
helps pediatric cancer patients,proving that stories can
provide comfort andentertainment as children heal.
(01:12):
Today we're going to talk alittle bit about all of her
books, including her two newestreleases, and we will talk why
self-confidence matters and howone book can change everything.
Sarah, I'm so glad to have youhere.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And, by the way, I did read all your books.
I got them all on Amazon and Ilove the illustrations.
They are all unique monsters.
By the way, what inspired youto create your stories around
monsters?
What inspired you to createyour stories around monsters?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh, my goodness, I'm so glad you love them.
They are definitely fun andsilly.
You know it's interesting.
I didn't set out to create achildren's book series.
I didn't set out to create abook about monsters at all.
You know, what ended uphappening is one day it was
(02:10):
Thanksgiving a few years backand I slipped and fell and I
fell in one of the worst roomsin the house you could fall in.
I fell in the bathroom andthere's a lot of hard surfaces
there and I hit my head off of Idon't know how many quite a few
(02:30):
.
But what ended up happening isI ended up being taken to the ER
.
I had a traumatic brain injury.
Yeah, it was the start ofsomething that I really wasn't
prepared for.
I wasn't expecting, becausewhat ended up happening after
that is you know, there's somany things that we take for
granted when it comes to ourbrain, everyday tasks like
(02:53):
reading a grocery list, playingwith our kids, driving.
There's just so many thingsthat we do, unconsciously, I
think.
And after that head injury, Icouldn't do those things.
I run a small business and Iwas struggling with that because
I couldn't read emails.
Even the words just wouldn'tstay on the page.
They kept floating around a lot.
(03:14):
I couldn't retain them.
Like I said, I couldn't evenshop at a grocery store.
So all of these things had justsort of upended my life and I
was feeling like I couldn'ttouch anything or do anything
without it breaking.
It was a very, very strange,strange feeling to have where
you couldn't think throughthings.
But amidst all that, for somereason these stories I could see
(03:40):
these monsters so clearly and Iknew they were monsters and I
started writing and it was alifeline for me.
You know, when you feel likethe world is falling apart
around you, you kind of cling towhat you can do still and what
you can do well and where thathope is, you cling to it like a
life raft, and so these monsterswere my life raft.
(04:02):
What I realize now, I thinklooking back on it, you know I
mentioned little things likeplaying with my kids was even
hard Because when you have atraumatic brain injury, there's
challenge that you have withoutside stimulus.
It can be very hard to processnoise and movement and things of
that nature, and kids are noisyand they move around a lot and
so I had to work extra hard atthose relationships at the time
(04:25):
and what was interesting is, asI look back on it now, I see
these monsters and I realize,you know, I was writing our life
, I was writing what we wereliving, I was taking the
challenges that my kids werefacing and that we were working
through as a family, and I wascapturing them and I was writing
them down and it was my way ofholding on to them, I think, and
holding on to those moments andthose memories, before my brain
(04:47):
forgot them and let them slipaway, and really it was my way
of working through, I think, allof the challenges that we were
facing in that time because ofmy brain injury as a family, and
so that's how they came toexistence.
It's a really long-winded wayof saying they were just always
monsters and they were my kids.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
They were a part of you.
You can feel that you were ableto put them on the page.
What a gift.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It was therapeutic.
I've always been a storytellerbut I've always told other
people's stories and this wasthe very first time when I
paused and stopped and I told myown stories.
And, yeah, I was telling ourlives.
I was telling what we wereliving, Like I said, the
challenges that my kids werefacing when they were dealing
with big emotions and didn'tknow how to cope with them, when
(05:38):
they were dealing with anxietyand we were talking through that
.
How do we overcome thoseanxious feelings?
Or my favorite one, themessiest monster?
You know what family doesn'thave a moment where their kids
are going from activity toactivity and toys are getting
left about or the art project isstill on the dining table?
So these were the littlemoments where they were the
(05:59):
teachable moments, when we weretrying to encourage my kids to
grow and learn these sort ofsoft skills and how we were
teaching them those soft skills.
That's really where these booksare coming in.
That's how I was teaching mykids these soft skills.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I truly appreciate this series on so many levels.
You know, our children's mentalhealth has never been more
important, especially in theworld that we live in right now
and there's so much coming atour kids.
And what we need, now more thanever, are resources like
Monsters on Mill Street, booksthat are positive, uplifting and
(06:37):
filled with hope.
You know, because there's somuch negative out there, we need
stories that say you can dothis, you know we're here for
you.
Come talk to us, let's figurethis out together.
What I love most, and I love somuch about your books but is
how your books open the door forparents to sit down and talk
(06:58):
with their kids like what youkind of just touched on about
hard topics in a fun, engaging,meaningful way, and you've said,
I hope, to give kids thelanguage, courage and
imagination to understandthemselves, and that mission
shines through on every singlepage.
I just wanted to let you knowthat.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
That is so good to hear because it means that I'm
doing something right.
That's that is so good to hear,um, because it means that that
I'm doing something right.
You know, when people say that,um, when we hear that from from
you, from parents, fromteachers, um, when folks come up
to me and they say this bookmade a difference, um, in my
child's life, and I I hear thatso many times, um, you know, I,
(07:43):
I recall a story that a mom hadtold me once the family was
going through a very difficultdivorce, and you know, divorces,
it's never easy on anyoneinvolved.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And it was especially difficult on her little one.
And the little girl was goingfrom house to house, you know,
back and forth from one parentto the next, and you know the
mom was saying how she could see.
It was so very hard for her toreally even understand what was
happening and how that wasmanifesting in her little self
(08:19):
was she was getting angry andfrustrated, she couldn't control
this.
Sure, she was getting angry andfrustrated, she couldn't
control this, sure.
And so you know the mom wouldexpect it, you know her little
girl would walk through the doorand she knew that that day,
when she walked through the doorand she was coming from the
other parent's house, she wasgoing to be this big bundle of
emotion, a tornado, and the momhad to, she was planning for
(08:41):
that, she, just she expected it.
But one day the little girlcame home and she, she was very
quiet and she sat on the couchand she just started, you know,
playing with her toys andfeeling her blanket.
She had a very soft, fluffypink blanket and the mom thought
, you know, this is, this is alittle weird.
You know, this is abnormal,what's, what's going on?
Yeah, and you know the littlegirl said I just I need a moment
(09:07):
.
I need a moment and my blanketjust feels so soft and I just
wanted to feel it and I justneeded a moment.
At the mom, we had exchangedinformation when she had bought
my books as we had met at aconference.
And she texted me immediatelyafter and she said you will
never believe what happened.
We have been reading thesebooks together every night at
(09:30):
bedtime.
She was gravitating toward theangriest monster on Mill Street.
This is a monster that hasexplosive, big emotions in the
book and she wanted to read thatover and over.
And what this little girl hadactually done through this book
is she had taught herselfgrounding techniques, so she was
using her five senses to calmher anger and frustration in
(09:55):
that moment.
And the mom said this isamazing.
She's taught herself thisbecause she's identified with
the character in the book,because she's loved the story so
much and we've read it over andover that she's actually
internalized that, learned that,and it's stories like those you
(10:16):
know when you hear them.
I'm doing my job right as anauthor, as a children's book
author, if that's how childrenare receiving and families are
receiving these stories, andit's an amazing feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
It's a beautiful story and when I read the
Angriest Monster, it was thesame thing.
You know, when I saw thosegrounding techniques in there,
it was so beautifully donebecause I have three autistic
children and those are the kindsof things that you know.
It's so visual, they canactually look at it and see and
(10:51):
that you can do those things see, hear, taste, all those
different things to bring youback to center and I thought
that that was so beautifullydone in your book.
What you're doing is helpingparents have these honest
conversations beautifully donein your book.
What you're doing is helpingparents have these honest
conversations.
You know you're creating a safespace where children feel seen
and where they are supported.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And the amazing thing is, what I really love about
the creation of these storiesand how they come together and
the way they come together, isthat never in any of these
stories do we ever tell a childwhat to do or how to feel.
Or you know, you don't know.
Like you said, the angriestmonster.
You don't actually know why theangriest monster is angry.
But through the lens of this,monster.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's a good point.
That's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Right, I mean, you know, there are so many reasons
why we can feel anger in thisworld.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know, when you're little somebody could have
drawn on your paper, or youdidn't get to go, and you know
go to the activity you wanted.
Or you know your motherwouldn't buy you the candy bar
at the checkout aisle in thegrocery store.
It could be any number ofreasons or it could be a very
serious reason on the grocerystore.
It could be any number ofreasons or it could be a very
serious reason.
You know, like the little girlwhose parents were going through
the divorce, they may not evenbe able to articulate why
(12:11):
they're feeling angry, what thatsituation is, but they feel it
and it feels like your fur is onfire and you could huff and
puff tornadoes and you wantstomp earthquakes and you just
feel like you're going toexplode.
And that feeling is how we'reconnecting with the kids.
We're trying to give them acharacter they can really relate
(12:34):
to and then through thatcharacter's eyes, through those
stories, the kids themselves arecoming up with the solutions to
those challenges.
They're identifying with themonster and they're identifying
with the solution becausethey're feeling it and they're
coming to those realizationsthemselves.
It's never an adult or grown-upsaying this is how you handle a
(12:55):
situation when you're angry,because I think when we're
dictating to children, itdoesn't.
You know, they may learnsomething from it, but does it
really stick the first time orthe second time or the third
time?
When they feel it themselvesand it's experienced, then it's
more likely to stick.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And if they love the story and are reading it again
and again.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They're getting that message you know over and over
again.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, exactly, and I think that they can really
connect with these monsters.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And hopefully, like you said, with it being so
visual and colorful and fun thatthey're connecting.
And you know, I remember when Iwas little I always wanted my
mom to read the same books overand over again.
Yes, yes, I had them memorizedand she was probably sick of
reading them.
But hopefully, you know, that'swhat I want with these books.
I want kids to want to readthem and then get those
(13:46):
underlying messages.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Another great aspect of the book the Angriest Monster
was when we're upset, we reallycan't see the solution, or
anything for that matter.
And what I loved about it ishow he calmed down and he saw
(14:09):
the beauty around him.
And how true is that when we'rein the thick of things and we
don't notice that the solution,we don't see the beauty right in
front of us.
So if you could talk more aboutthat and what Albie learned in
your book.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, so Albie is our angriest monster, and what we
see him go through is thistransformation.
Again, we don't know what he'smad at, but we know he's mad at
something.
And he's so mad that his sizegrows to the size of his anger.
His physical body grows so he'sup past the rooftops and up
toward the stars, and so we seethat unfold in that feeling of
(14:43):
anger unfold.
But then we see this momentwhere he is just so overwhelmed
and he says you know, this isnot what I want.
There has to be something thatcan help me put this all right.
And so he takes a deep breathand he thinks you know what can
I hear, smell, taste and see?
And he starts to pay attentionto those little things around
(15:05):
him.
You know, the cool breeze, hecan taste the salty tears that
are rolling down his cheek.
And eventually he sees thisrainbow.
You know he can see a rainbowand he watches the colors of the
rainbow fall and bounce off therain.
The rain is symbolic of histears.
You know, he floods Mill Streetwith his, with his tears, and
(15:26):
causes chaos.
And so there's a lot of thingsthere.
There's, there's deep breathing, so so calming techniques
through through breath.
There's grounding techniquesthrough the senses, finding the
five things.
What can you, you know, see,smell, taste, hear, feel.
And then there's also this idea, which is really cool.
You know, a lot of folks useglitter jars or those calming.
(15:50):
You know they'll shake it upand they'll look at the glitter
and they'll watch the glitterfall.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
My daughter does that .
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I think it's a great tool.
It's so, so calming, in thesense that the glitter is almost
like the storm you're feelingand as you're watching it you
know your heart rate is goingdown.
You're actually it's almostsymbolic of your mind calming
and clearing and that stormclearing through this glitter
jar, and so that's also what wekind of see through this rainbow
(16:17):
at the end and the colors thatare falling and bouncing off the
raindrops in the rain.
And the really neat thing is is, I think, especially with
Albie's story is when you get tothe very end.
Yes, his tempers calm down, butthere's still this huge mess
that he's left in his wake.
And when we throw a tantrumsometimes our anger.
It leaves scars and he rolls uphis sleeves and he starts
(16:42):
getting to work fixing all thatchaos he caused and so there's
that sense of responsibility andownership at the end too, that
we try to bring out through this.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I loved that because in the book you know you're
showing that anger itself isn'tbad, but simply a feeling that
needs to be understood andexpressed in a safe, healthy way
, without hurting themselves,others or anything around them.
I think that that was a reallyimportant message in the book.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
And hopefully that again, as kids read this over
and over, it becomes a part ofthem and they begin to practice
those tools and techniques overtime.
I think that's you know.
I was thinking about this theother day, not just with the
Angriest Monster, but also withsome of the newer books that we
have coming out too with theAwesomest Monster on Mill Street
, with the Strongest Monster on.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Mill Street.
Yeah, we'll talk about themyeah.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I'm excited.
I mean, I'm excited about them.
I think they're my newestfavorites.
But I think with all of theseyou know the tools and
techniques as kids practice themover and over and they become a
part of us.
Then when we need to fall backon those things, when things go
terribly wrong in our lives,which sometimes they do.
(17:57):
Life is not perfect.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
They do that's life.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Hopefully these are so ingrained in us that they
become our habits, because wetend to fall back on our habits
when things go topsy-turvy.
And if this is habit for us andif we're familiar with it and
this is our safe zone, thenthese are good skills to be
building up in that safe zone.
Sure, habit-forming skills,habit-forming toolbox that we
have.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Right, absolutely.
I do want to touch on themessiest monster, because I
loved Max.
He is so cute.
There is a part in the bookwhere he's cleaning and
organizing and like what youwere just talking about with the
glitter, it was satisfying.
It brought like this satisfyingfeeling in me, as also an
(18:41):
autistic individual, an adultthat organizing and looking at
those couple pages where he'sputting everything in its place,
I was like, oh, that it evenbrought in an emotion within
myself.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And I have to tell you it's.
You know, cleaning can be hard.
Some people love to clean, somepeople really like things nice
and orderly, sure, and that'sgreat.
I am not one of those peoplewho falls back onto that
naturally.
My kids are not those types ofpeople who fall back onto that
naturally.
I think it's the ADHD in us.
(19:16):
Honestly, I have it and I'vepassed it along to my kids with
flair.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
They've got the best of me.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's so funny.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
It's a little more challenging for them because
their brains are moving soquickly.
They want to do an art projectand they get so excited and they
break out all the markers andthe glitter and the glue and the
paper and the whatever elsethey can get their hands on, we
have a whole cupboard of craftystuff that they'll just open and
empty and then they'll want torun outside and play.
Oh, let's go play soccer.
Oh, you're putting the swimmingpool out for later.
(19:50):
I want to do that now, andthey'll leave it all behind.
There'll be puzzle pieces onthe ground or there'll be
something that they've worked on, and it's not like they were
intending to leave it all behind.
They just got so caught up inthe moment and they had to do
the next thing, the next funthing, and so, with Max, I think
, bringing that out that they'renot, they're definitely not
(20:15):
being naughty, you know what Imean.
It's not a bad thing.
They're being kids, they'reenjoying life, they're having
fun, they're learning and inthat process.
sometimes we get a little messyand so it's, you know, it's just
reminding them that, okay,let's put this away, let's,
let's.
What is that memory triggerthat we need to remind them, as
parents, to tidy up their things?
And so that's what you'll.
You'll hear me saying in ourhouse, a lot is what would Max
(20:35):
do?
You know you're going out toplay.
Let's look at the living roomfloor.
You guys just did puzzles.
What would Max do?
And so it's a trigger in ourhouse now to oh yes, I have to
put this away before startingthe next fun thing.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, I loved that because you know it really does
help parents use Max toencourage responsibility.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We have classroom posters as well that we actually
we put on our website andteachers can use too, and Max is
one of them and the big bannerover it is what would Max do,
and so it's a way of of helpingto teach to classroom
organization, especially at thebeginning of the year when kids
are trying to get those, youknow, systems in place and
processes in place in a newclass and so, yeah, it's what
(21:18):
would Max do, and it's a niceway of making cleaning and
making organizing fun, I hope.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And Bex in the Bounciest Monster.
She had a little bit of ADHD, Iwould say a lot of energy
needed, help withself-regulation, for sure, you
know, bex is the definition Iwould say of high energy.
And for families navigatingADHD or sensory needs, how can
(21:45):
this book help them?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Oh my gosh, You've hit the nail on the head with
that book.
I mean all the books.
Like I said, they're based onmy children and they're based
off of, in particular, adhdchallenges that we've had to
figure out and come up with newways of communicating.
And high energy is so prevalentin my household, my middle
(22:10):
daughter.
She was actually the one whofirst inspired Bex's story in
the Bounciest Monster on MillStreet.
I used to say her default statewas upside down.
She would watch TV upside down.
During the wintertime.
We had to put one of those minitrampolines in our sitting room
because she had so much energy.
We'd have to say go bounce onthe trampoline, just go count,
(22:32):
see how many times you canbounce on that little trampoline
.
And she'd get up to like 400times and she still wasn't tired
.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So it's, you know, high energy for them is normal.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
They're just bursting .
They're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
That's their baseline , yeah it's their baseline,
their baseline, and as parents,it can be tiring sometimes.
If I'm honest, I want to keepup with them, but we have so
many other things that our mindsare focusing on, you know, and
we don't always have that samelevel of energy at the same time
(23:12):
that our kids might.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
And why not?
Why doesn't that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I wish, I wish, if we could bottle it, if we could
just bottle that energy andshare it, that would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Take a drink of it, and so we can, you know, meet
them where they are.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yes, yes, and so you know, I think it's through Bex's
story.
It's a way of saying a fewthings.
One, you know, it's okay tohave energy Bouncing is fun,
being energetic is fun butthere's a few things that we
need to sort of think about.
You know, we need to thinkabout the space around us, the
people around us.
(23:48):
You cannot do a cartwheel ifyour grandmother is sitting on
the couch right there becauseyour feet are going to kick her.
Like let's not do that in thehouse right by a person who you
might hurt.
You know it's not the righttime or the right space.
Just like Bex, she bouncesthrough the playground, she
almost gets hit by the swings.
She bounces through a picnic.
(24:10):
She splashes mud all overeveryone.
Her bounce is just out ofcontrol.
The really cool thing is, youknow, I was talking with a
preschool teacher when thesebooks first came out and we were
really, you know, pulse,checking them and testing them
in classrooms to see what thereaction was.
And I had this preschoolteacher come up to me and she
said you know, I read this withour four-year-olds right,
(24:32):
they're little.
And she said I have never seena group of kids that were so
invested in the well-being of acharacter as they were the story
, and they would be raisingtheir hands and they'd be saying
does she know what she's doing?
She can't be doing that.
Look at the mess she's making.
Look at what she's doing, youknow.
They recognized that her energywas a little.
(24:55):
It wasn't necessarily alwaysagain the right time or the
right space.
She needed to be aware of thepeople around her.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You really hit on something else, because life can
take us through so manyspiraling pitfalls,
unfortunately, and I love howyou're going after the really
big emotions like we keeptalking about and you say that
with an estimated I mean thiswas really big one.
In 12 US, children ages 3 to 17are experiencing some form of
(25:25):
social anxiety, and an estimated5 million adolescents are
experiencing at least one majordepressive episode each year.
I mean, are those numberscorrect?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, those numbers are the latest numbers on those
stats.
Yeah, so anxiety is a hugeproblem among kids now and it's
a rising problem amongst kidsnow, the reason we could debate
and talk about what are thecauses, what are the reasons.
I think folks are really stilltrying to figure that out, but
(26:00):
the numbers hold true and Ithink that's hard to hear as a
parent, it's hard to hear as ateacher as well, and I think
what we find at least what Ifind in a lot of the
conversations I have withteachers is that folks
experiencing the kids,experiencing these anxious
feelings are experiencing themat younger and younger ages.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I know that for a fact because my three littles
their anxiety.
They're all on medicine foranxiety and they went on it very
young and I know that that'sand we try and that's one of the
things that I was thinking whenI was reading these books.
These are such great tools thatwouldn't it be great if we had
(26:43):
more of these types of thingswhere we didn't need more
medication?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We need these tools in our homes.
We need these tools in ourclassrooms.
We need whatever supportsystems that we can create and
muster, whatever supportresources that we can create and
muster to do a couple things.
One, to tell kids it's okay tofeel those feelings.
You're not alone.
Sometimes you feel veryisolated and alone and there are
(27:10):
ways to work through it.
You know, when it comes tosocial anxiety specifically,
sometimes it can feel like it'svery isolating.
Specifically, sometimes it canfeel like it's very isolating.
You know, my that particularbook was written.
It was inspired by my oldestdaughter and what she was going
through from from a socialperspective.
(27:31):
And and how, how did we handlethose conversations?
How are we?
We we talking about anxiety?
How are we talking about?
How are we talking aboutanxiety?
How are we talking about?
You know, you may see all yourflaws.
You see the bloopers real,right?
You know, in movies we alwayshave those bloopers where we see
the bloopers real, but thepeople around us only see the
highlights.
(27:51):
So it's like kids have almostthese little monsters on their
own shoulders telling them youknow all their faults.
They're picking up all thelittle tiny mistakes they make.
Oh, you didn't say their faults.
They're picking up all thelittle tiny mistakes they make.
Oh, you didn't say the rightthing there, and their minds are
moving so fast.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I know.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Especially, too, if you have ADHD.
You've probably already come upwith a million different
scenarios as to how a socialsituation can go in a split
second, and you've alreadyfigured out what the most
disastrous elements of thosesocial interactions would be.
And so you know, allowing folksthe time and space to one talk
(28:27):
about these things in a safe waywhere we can bring up that
message that you know, you areawesome, you have gifts, you are
wonderful just the way you are.
Yeah, right, and true friendsand the people that we build
relationships with in this world.
We build those strongrelationships because of our
(28:49):
gifts, but also because of ourflaws.
These folks take us for who weare.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, your newest books are spot on.
I mean they all are, but theyaddress social anxiety,
depression, sadness, and they dohelp provide the tools to grow
stronger through the process nottry to get around it, not try
to get away from it, but goingthrough, which is so important.
And the awesomeness monsterbeautifully tackles overcoming
(29:18):
social anxiety and buildingself-confidence.
Can you tell us more about Skye?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, so Skye is.
She's a wonderful monster sheis.
She has a really reallywonderful, rare gift she can
shapeshift.
She can change who she is tofit any situation.
So if she wants to reachsomething up on the shelf, she
can grow really, really longlegs.
If she wants to fly, she cansprout wings.
(29:45):
So she can change who she is tofit any situation.
But she is worried about whather friends will think of this
gift if they find out, and soshe hides herself, and we get
this situation where she hasthis amazing opportunity.
It's actually a talent show onMill Street and the Monster
Talent Show, where she has thisopportunity to show it off.
Show off your gift, show offyour skills, show off your
(30:07):
talents and she gets excited.
She thinks this might just bemy moment.
I can show off my skills,everyone will be so delighted,
it's going to be great.
And she practices really hard,she throws herself into it, and
what ends up happening, though,is when the big day comes and
(30:30):
her moment on stage comes.
She panics and she freezes, andshe quite literally has a
meltdown that you know.
She melts off the stage andends up going through the pipes
on Mill Street just to run awayand pipes aren't made for
monsters, and so they startblowing and there's water
fountains and the fire hydrantsand everything is just exploding
on Mill Street and she'scausing this chaos in her wake
(30:50):
and she thinks, oh my goodness,everybody saw that, everybody
saw my failure, everybody sawthat moment when I was at my
worst, and she's sad.
But what ends up happening isshe ends up actually getting new
friends because of it, friendswho think, actually that's
pretty cool, what you can do,your talents, your skills,
(31:13):
that's cool.
Okay, it may have gone a littlehaywire, but that's you and
that's special.
You know, through her story Ithink we encounter two things.
One is that understanding thatpeople love you for you, but
also this idea of masking.
You know, shape-shifting ofthis monster was a very
intentional superpower that Ichose, because I think,
(31:35):
especially with girls, we tendto mask.
When we're feeling anxious orscared or when we have a, you
know what we consider to be aflaw, we'll hide it.
And in a social situation, Iactually I watched my daughter
and her friends occasionally.
They would, they would all dothis.
They would ask, someone wouldask a question.
It could be as simple as oh, doyou like this movie?
(31:57):
What do you think of this movie?
And the other person answeringwould kind of pivot it back and
say, well, what do you think?
They'd want to know what theother person thought first
before they would stake a claimon how they felt they were
waiting to change yourself tofit that friend group or what
(32:22):
you think is acceptable.
I think that's a reallyimportant thing for us to flag
with kids, especially littlegirls, as they're growing.
It's important to be your trueself and it is okay to like the
things you like and to do thethings you do.
You may love robotics.
That's great.
Go and do that.
Celebrate that skill.
Robotics, that's great.
(32:44):
Go and do that, celebrate thatskill.
Or you might just, you know,you might be a helper.
You might be the first one tolend a helping hand when someone
needs it.
That's amazing, that'swonderful.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Own it you know, right right, yeah, don't be
ashamed.
Just don't be ashamed in whoyou are.
And you know, this is a greatmessage for adults too.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, I think, I think we all need this message.
I think we all need a lot ofthe monsters in those cheating
messages.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I agree 100%.
I mean I loved how brave Skyewas and how she takes a chance
even though she's scared, andthat's such a great message
because rarely, rarely, thingsgo as planned right.
I mean.
So this is something for all ofus, and I love how you show
that it's not the end and youcan circle back around and you
(33:29):
can recover, and those are suchgreat lessons.
And I love that this story alsohelps her with the friends.
Like you said, that's acompletely different message on
its own.
It's not about having thosesuperficial friends.
I mean, you have to find outwho your true friends are.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
The most meaningful relationships in life come when
you are just yourself, right.
You can't pretend to be someonejust to fit in.
It doesn't work.
It's not sustainable.
You have to be comfortable inyour skin in order to build
those meaningful relationships.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Yeah, embarrassing moments, honestly, are just a
part of growth, and I think thatyour book shows that it is
growth.
It's not failure.
Now you have another book, theStrongest Monster on Mill Street
, with the theme of resilienceand redefining strength, and it
is a really important book inthese times.
(34:26):
So tell us about Drake.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yes, so Drake is a dragon.
He is the biggest monster onMill Street.
He's super strong, supertalented.
He's the type of guy that doeseverything right.
You know things just kind of gohis way.
But you know, we know that justbecause you try your hardest,
(34:48):
you know, and put in that effort.
Sometimes challenges stillstrike and so and that's what
happens, strike.
You know he's carrying this bigload.
One of his gifts, of course, iscarrying things.
He can carry lots of loads,silly things back and forth
places.
But one day the weight of hisload is too heavy and he
(35:11):
encounters a storm.
That just it's a storm hecannot beat, he cannot fly
through.
It just hits him so hard, hardand it knocks him back and I
think you know as grownups,there's a lot of metaphors with
that.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I related.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
You know, we can carry great loads with us around
all the time and sometimes wecan carry them with ease, but
sometimes we're just going toencounter things that we can't
conquer on our own.
The challenge is too big and itknocks us down, and so he ends
up in this deep, dark woods.
He's lost, it's still rainingand pelting on him and he thinks
(35:51):
I'm going to hide away in thiscave and wait out the storm.
But even the cave is dark andscary and it's not comforting to
him at all.
And what we end what ends upunfolding is you know, drake
sees this little it's actually abug, it's a slug, and it's
(36:13):
glowing.
And it glows, this littlebright glow and it multiplies
and it lights up the whole cave.
And the dragon realizes, youknow, this one tiny little thing
has shone so bright that it'sable to light up the darkness.
And he starts to think what areall of the other tiny things in
life that maybe I haven'tappreciated before?
(36:35):
But now I'm going to hold on to.
I'm going to hold on tight tothem in this time of need, in
this time when I'm feeling sadand down and depressed and I'm
trapped in this cave and trappedin this darkness and he holds
on to them and it brings himhope and it gets him through the
storm and eventually the sundoes rise on the other side of
(36:56):
the day and the storm clears andhe can fly home.
But it's that process ofthinking what am I grateful for,
what brings me joy, what do Ilove in life?
And holding on to those momentsand those things when times are
tough.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
There's also.
You know, there's nothingscarier than the unknown, and if
someone asked me where is yourscariest place, I would say the
unknown.
Scariest place, I would say theunknown.
And I love how adaptability issuch a standout, you know, in
(37:33):
all of your books actually andit's such an amazing tool that
we need, as we need to adapt towhatever the situation is that's
going on in our life and toadulthood.
We all have to do that and weare learning all the time.
Did writing these books helpyou with your own emotional
healing?
Speaker 2 (37:49):
There was a lot of sort of reflection as I was
writing these books.
I think actually the mostpowerful reflection that I had
was when I was writing Drake'sstory.
This book is especially goodfor not just parents, but also
teachers, school librarians,because you never know what a
child is going to be carryingwith them when they walk through
(38:11):
your doors on any given day.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
There were so many instances when I was a child
where we went through thingsthat I never told my teachers
about.
I held them tight.
Nope, I didn't even tell myfriends about.
No one would have known.
One of the examples that I cangive is, you know, in high
school my mom and I we had toleave our home.
We weren't able to stay in ourhome anymore and we didn't have
(38:37):
a place to live.
We didn't have a place to go.
I think I spent my junior andsenior year of high school
bouncing from, you know,relative's house to relative's
house.
I think I spent my entiresenior year sleeping on my
aunt's couch in her living room,and so we were living out of
suitcases.
We didn't have anything to ournames and I didn't tell my
friends at school.
They had no idea.
I didn't tell my teachers.
(38:58):
Nobody would have known what wewere going through.
And you know my mom.
She's an amazing woman.
She went back to school, shegot her nursing degree.
She did everything in her powerthat she could do to make our
lives better.
But I remember sometimes duringthat, those moments we would
run away together.
(39:18):
We'd go to actually Dunkin'Donuts and we'd get these little
egg and cheese sandwiches.
They were like a dollar at thetime and we'd get them and we'd
get in the car and we'd drive tothe cemetery and we would park
in the cemetery by where mygrandma was buried.
She was buried under thisbeautiful tree and we'd just sit
under the tree and we'd have apicnic.
(39:39):
We'd talk about the things thatbrought us joy, We'd talk about
the things that were happeningin our lives and we'd laugh and
we'd have those little sillymoments.
I realized when I was writingDrake's story I was passing this
message on to my kids and Irealized that this message was
something my own mother hadgiven me and instilled in me in
those moments where we weretogether and talking about the
(40:01):
things we loved during what wasquite possibly one of the
hardest moments we had had inour lives at that time.
Think about it.
Why were we at the cemeteryhaving a picnic?
Probably because my mom neededa hug from her mom.
She wanted her mom to tell hereverything was going to be okay.
So it was our way of comingtogether as a family and
(40:21):
remembering joy and rememberinglove and holding on to those
moments.
And that's, I think, what Icaptured when I was writing
Drake's story.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
That's absolutely beautiful and I'm so sorry that
you went through that, but itsounds like it made you stronger
and I love that you turned yourpain into purpose.
It sounds like to me.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I think it made all of us stronger.
My mom is an amazing woman.
She is the strongest woman Iknow and I have to tell you you
know it was hard, but I rememberthe good things about that time
more than anything else.
Oh, and my hope is so.
I know I was in high schoolwhen all of that was going down.
(41:04):
But my hope is, you know, if weread stories like Drake's story
to kids when they're young, andif it's a book they love and
they want to read over and overagain and they're getting that
message of how do you getthrough the darkness, my hope is
it becomes a part of them.
It becomes a part of theircoping skills.
Because, again, when we gothrough these moments of
(41:27):
challenge in our lives, we tendto fall back on our safety zone.
What are our habits, that we'reused to?
Our habits are what gets usthrough the hard moments and the
challenges, and if we can helpchildren make these a part of
themselves and integrate it intotheir toolbox when they're
(41:47):
young, then whenever thatstrikes, whenever that moment,
whenever that need strikes,that's what they're going to
fall back on.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Right.
The younger the better.
You know you touched onsomething too that it's hard as
a parent, because we go throughthings too.
We're in pain too, and do youhave a message to other parents
who might be in that samebalancing act, trying to heal
ourselves like your mom did,like you did with your traumatic
(42:18):
brain injury, while we're alsotrying to parent?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
You know, I think the biggest message is simply you
are not alone.
With the rise of social mediaand everybody being on Facebook
and Instagram and everything, itcan feel like everybody else's
lives are perfect.
Everybody is managing perfectly.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
It does sometimes.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
It's overwhelming almost.
I look at other families and Ithink their kids are in all of
these club sports and all ofthese activities and they're
running from this activity tothat, and they're going on
holidays and I think I don'thave the money to go to Disney
this year, Same and so it's alot of I mean, it's a lot of
(43:01):
pressure, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (43:02):
It is.
It's a lot of pressure and likewe're touching on.
You know, I've got three kidswith autism and I do.
I go on other people's Facebookand things like that, and
sometimes I can't even look andI just and.
But then I have to be becauseI'm very thankful for what we
can do and what we do and theblessings that we do receive in
(43:25):
our own family, and so I meanthere's a takeaway from that,
you know, and there's nothing injealousy, there's nothing in
looking at other people's pagesand getting upset about it and
coming back to yourself andbeing grateful for our own, the
positives that are going on inour own lives.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Looking at what another person does and being
happy for them, applauding themand saying that's wonderful.
I'm so glad you got thatopportunity, that experience.
Isn't that a great thing thatyou got to do?
And so having that separationof we can appreciate what other
people are doing and isn't thatgreat.
But we're doing wonderfulthings too, and you know we all
(44:05):
have challenges and they mightlook a little different.
They've got their it's theresomewhere.
We just don't see it.
And so love them for who theyare and applaud them through
their wins.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah, I mean, jealousy is another one of those
really big emotions, and that'sinteresting because I always
try to turn it into being theircheerleader.
What you're touching on isbeing happy for them, you know,
and so if I feel even an inch ofit, I'm always like you know
what Great, I am so happy foryou and I really try hard to be
(44:37):
one of their biggestcheerleaders.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Maybe that will be the next one.
Maybe the next book will be theJealous Monster on Mill Street.
I don't know Well.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
I don't, I don't know .
I mean, maybe that's a reallybig emotion.
There are so many of them.
Why Mill Street?
Speaker 2 (44:51):
I've been asked this many times before.
There's even a Mill Streetschool where I live and folks
will say, do your kids go toMill Street school?
And I say no, they don't.
But it's so funny, it was just,it sounded wonderful, it
sounded like alliteration.
The Messiest Monster on MillStreet was the very first book
that was written in the seriesand was the very first book that
(45:13):
was written in the series, andso the messy, the monster in the
Mill Street, just kind offlowed off the tongue and it
stuck as this world that wecould build with these monsters.
So it was just fun to say Ilove words, I love playing with
words.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Me too, and I love that your book is in rhyme.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Yes, oh, my goodness, rhyme can be.
When it's done right and it hasthat great meter and that flow,
it can be just fun to read.
It's like a song.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
So I also wanted to talk to you about the
illustrations.
We touched on it a little bit,but talk about your illustrator
and the personalities of yourmonsters and the other
characters in the book, becausethere are so many that are just
kind of even like a sidecharacter, but they're so
beautifully drawn and they'rejust so fun.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Oh, my goodness, I love my illustrator.
She is amazing.
She's based in the UK and Ihave to tell you she is just an
(46:16):
amazing woman who has so muchfun doing what she does.
And when she started workingwith me on this book series, I
think she fell in love with themonsters just as much as I did,
because you could see throughher drawing and the way we were
working together, how thatsilliness and that fun and that
quirkiness they were coming outin the illustrations.
For sure.
It's just.
It's so amazing when you workwith someone that also loves
what they do.
There were times when themonsters didn't exactly like we
(46:38):
started and the early initialiterations of them didn't match
the vision I had.
Drake is a really great examplefor this.
He skewed a little young, itlooked like he could be a
vulnerable character, and so Isat down with my illustrator and
we had this conversation.
We said you know he needs to bestrong, because I want to
(47:00):
convey that no matter how strongyou are, challenges will still
hit, and so I want him to appearlike he's a force to be
reckoned with.
And so we had theseconversations and we saw the
character evolve and then we gotthe character that we got today
.
So it was really a back andforth conversation with her and
it was a joy.
It was an absolute joy to workwith her.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
There were times that I just stared at the page.
They conveyed so much.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, and there's silliness.
You know you look at a page andthis whole page could be
unfolding in some sort ofmonster catastrophe, whatever
the book might be presenting.
You know the street could beflooded or the pipes could be
exploding, or you know themonsters got eaten by his mess
and now he's stuck in this weirdnew world.
(47:48):
But the critters that she hason the page, the extra little
things, I love them.
It's fun and the kids pointthem out and they're like you've
got like 43 eyeballs on thatpage.
I'm like you've counted themall.
You know they're like yeah, wethink they're googly eyes from
the arts and crafts table andit's fun to hear what kids think
(48:09):
of all these extra bits andbobs that she's snuck in these
pages.
It's really great.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So I also want to talk about your partnership or
your dedication to Love Smiles,and what is Love Smiles and how
can listeners support thismission to get books into the
hands of children battlingcancer?
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Absolutely so.
Love Smiles is an amazingorganization.
It's an Illinois-basednonprofit that stretches across
the country.
What they do is well.
It was founded by an amazingwoman.
Her name is Jenna Kmitch.
She founded this organizationafter going through and
experiencing what a familyexperiences when their child is
(48:52):
diagnosed with pediatric cancer.
Her daughter was just a fewmonths old when this whole
journey started for her.
Oh wow, she was just so littleand she went through many, many
rounds of chemotherapy.
You're so focused on the taskat hand and all the medical
appointments and the tests andthe procedures and helping your
(49:16):
child through this that she saidsometimes we'd pack and go to
the hospital and I'd realize Inever even packed a book.
I didn't think about thosecomfort items that we sort of
take for granted when we're notin those situations.
And she said the one thing thatshe wished she had.
She wished she had a book soshe could cuddle with her
(49:36):
daughter and be in that moment.
That was normal for them, youknow, that's when they were
their best, when they weresitting and cuddling, and she
wanted those moments with herdaughter.
And when she forgot to bring abook, she didn't have them, and
so she knew that if she wasgoing to give back to other
parents.
She was going to help otherfamilies through these moments,
(49:59):
some of the hardest moments intheir lives.
She can't cure cancer, shecan't fix or stop what's
happening to them, but she couldgive them that moment of
comfort and normalcy, thatmoment of escape.
You know, when you're reading abook and you get absorbed and
you're giggling and laughing.
Her charity, it runs the gamutof age ranges in terms of
(50:24):
pediatric cancer and the goal isto bring moments of comfort to
the children and the familiesduring that hard time.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
There's nothing like laying down and reading a book
with your child.
I mean, I think that eventhough I have two olders and
three littles, I still rememberthat connection I had with my
two olders.
You know, for five years I hadthe privilege of being a
photographer at a camp for kidswith cancer and their siblings,
(50:53):
and it was truly one of the mostmoving experiences of my life.
The strength, the joy, theresilience of these children and
their children, you know that'sjust so important.
They're battling this horribledisease and they still.
We just want them to be a kidstill.
And you know this is a causethat remains incredibly close to
my heart.
(51:13):
I love that you not onlysupport it but actively bringing
awareness to it through yourbooks, and what a meaningful
gift to families navigating suchdifficult journeys.
That's so important.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
It is, and kids deserve a chance, like you said,
to just be kids.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
To be playful and joyful and happy, regardless of
what they're going through.
They deserve that.
She teams up with publishersand with authors to help fuel
this pipeline of books that goout to these children, and I
actually am honored.
It's a way of feeling like youreally are making a difference
(51:55):
in someone's life.
So that's what we're doing.
We're trying to encourage folksto go on Monsters on Mill
Street website, to go onMonstersOnMillStreetcom.
We have a section that'sdedicated to Love Smiles and to
consider donating a book.
We put them at a really great,wonderful discounted price so
(52:16):
that we can fuel this pipelineof stories going to these
children.
We need people.
We need people to step up andsay I want to help too.
Let's do this as a communitytogether and let's get these
books in the hands of the kidswho need them.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Before we know it, school's going to be back in
session, and so how can parentsor teachers use Monsters on Mill
Street as part of either asummer reading or a classroom
discussion on social-emotionalskills?
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Oh my goodness, there are so many ways.
So I love the idea of summerreading.
Number one this is the perfecttime to introduce Monsters on
Mill Street as a family, becauseI think you know, not only do
these summer reading lists helpwith that summer slide, we're
always looking for ways to stopthat slide back, and how do we
help our kids retain all thegrowth and the skills that they
(53:06):
learn during the year.
So it's great.
Summer reading is great forthat, but it also does two
really cool other importantthings.
One summer is a time when Ithink you almost when you're a
kid you have permission to havefun.
Summer is fun.
That's what it is when you're akid, right, and so reading
(53:28):
stories that are sort of thathelp with that fun.
Reading fun stories, storiesyou want to read stories for
enjoyment.
That makes books very closelytied to summer fun and it lays
that foundation, that reading isfun, so that's number one, that
reading is fun.
So that's number one.
(53:48):
And number two is, as parentsyou know, we're always looking
for, I think, moments oflearning or moments that we can
sort of instill wisdom into ourchild.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
You know you're never going to turn down a learning
moment, are you?
Speaker 1 (54:04):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Right.
And so I think that you know,when it comes to helping our
kids choose books, whether we'regoing to the library, to the
store, we're getting somethingon Amazon, whatever it might be.
Sometimes, as parents we canjust bring in and curate some of
those books that we want thosekids, our kids, to read, with
life lessons in them that wewant them to sort of take on and
learn from.
(54:27):
So that's the hope is that youknow we're introducing these
books to kids at a time whenit's fun and we're opening up
conversations.
Parents can use these books asa jumping off point.
They can say have you ever feltlike Elby?
Have you ever felt anger likethat?
Or what do you think Elbyshould do?
What would you do in thatsituation?
(54:48):
What do you think Bex would doin that situation?
Taking time to think Bex woulddo in that situation, taking
time to pause during the storiesand ask those questions oh,
what do you think that monsterneeds to do to fix that problem?
Do you think you can fix thatproblem?
Right?
Those are questions that getkids thinking.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
And so it's a fun way of sneaking in a little bit of
teaching in the summer.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Yeah, we need that.
Speaker 2 (55:15):
We need that, and then likewise for teachers, you
know, bringing those into yourcurriculum.
So many schools havecurriculums, whether it's an SEL
curriculum or they're callingit sometimes a life skills
curriculum.
Now, regardless of what youname it.
It's teaching those soft skillsthat are going to make kids
successful.
Help them be successful.
You know kids with soft skillsare more successful in school.
(55:37):
They can carry that through toadulthood.
So how do you teach those?
And a lot of schools are askingthat question.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
These books, help with that.
They can look at the poster andsay what would Max do, Right?
Speaker 2 (55:50):
You can look at the poster.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:52):
I know I mean educators, ptos, everybody.
People can buy a book for LoveSmiles and go to Monsters on
Millstreetcom which, by the way,when you click on it it brings
you this big monster.
Uh, he's alive yeah, he's alive.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
so we do.
We have an animated video onthe front page of our website
that cycles through our firstthree monsters that we did.
So you get helby, then you getx, then you get bex.
Um, and those animations,actually we we we've made some
interactive videos as well, um,which we have on our YouTube
page, and they're ways ofgetting kids up and wiggling and
(56:36):
they're like wiggle breaks, thebrain breaks, where kids
actually get thrown into thestory, and they're helping Max
escape the mess.
Or they're helping the monstersescape Albie's tantrum and
meltdowndown and they're helpingAlbie take deep breaths and
calm down.
So they're the monster in thevideo.
It's done from the child'sperspective and so that's also
(57:00):
what we've got going on theretoo.
So it's the whole point is tomake this fun.
Learning should be an adventure.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Absolutely yeah.
Yeah, because that's where kidsconnect in play.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
We learn through play .
Speaker 1 (57:15):
How can people get a hold of you?
I mean MonstersOnMillStreetcom.
What else do you do?
Speaker 2 (57:22):
Absolutely so, also on MonstersOnMillStreetcom.
So we've got a section forauthor visits as well.
So I do go out to a lot ofschools in the Illinois area but
also around the country, andwhat we do is we have several
different programs.
So we have a pre-K throughthird grade program, and then we
(57:44):
also have an older program forfourth through eighth graders.
And of course, for the olderkids we're focusing a lot on not
just stories of resilience andhelping them grow through the
monster stories, but alsowriters' workshops.
So we take them through thecharacter development, we give
them a behind-the-scenes of whatwent into making this book.
(58:06):
How do they craft their ownstories, what's sort of the
process that they can do toreally flesh out that plot?
And then for the younger kids,we do touch a little bit about
that fun storytelling because wewant them to start looking at
stories in a new way, createtheir own characters, be
creative, draw pictures, make upgames and stories of their own
(58:26):
Sure.
So there's something foreveryone across that whole age
range.
When we go out to schools it'sa lot of fun.
It is so much fun in schoolvisits.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
I'm homeschooling my eight-year-old and I can tell
you that I'm going to be usingthis.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
Well, we also have educator kits as well.
Brings in some of thosecreative writing prompts as well
.
Speaker 1 (58:48):
Oh yeah, I see so much opportunity here to help
teach him.
So today we've talked monsters,mayhem and some seriously
meaningful life lessons, andSarah Sparks proves that the
best stories don't justentertain, they empower.
If today's episode moved you,grab a copy of Monsters on Mill
(59:11):
Street, gift it to a familymember who needs it, give it to
a teacher, and remember one ofthe greatest superpowers that we
can give our kids is emotionalresilience, wrapped in a monster
costume.
So to our amazing listeners,thank you for being here.
We appreciate you more than youknow and always remember there
(59:32):
is purpose in the pain and thereis hope in the journey and
healing in the stories that weshare.
Until next time, keep showingup, keep talking and keep
believing.
We will see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com