by: Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD
Genre: Children’s
THE STORIES
Tales from Cloud Canyon is a series of character driven, topical short stories celebrating the everyday child, doing everyday things, with their everyday abilities designed for children aged 3+. Developed by a research psychologist and mom of 3, these stories were developed to be entertaining, educational, and celebrate the power of the everyday within our the beautiful, diverse world.
This Kickstarter collection features three topical short stories from the Cloud Canyon Universe: Here, There, and Everywhere, The Secret to Success, and Invisible Friends. Each of these titles are fully illustrated from artist Randall Hampton and are about 25 pages long.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE WRITING The fictional characters in childhood stories are some of our earliest teachers. We learn a range of things through the observation of these symbolic models, such as what is right and wrong, a desirable and undesirable behavior, gender roles, norms, stereotypes, and more. The role of models is particularly influential in childhood as it can have a long lasting impact on development.
Each story in this collection was developed to not only be entertaining but educational as well, with the stories' characters modeling a range of age-appropriate skills spanning four areas of human development: intellectual, social, emotional, and moral. The skills that are modeled within any particular story are displayed on the back cover of each book and explained in more detail on the last page of the book.
DIVERSITY, REPRESENTATION and INCLUSION Tales from Cloud Canyon changes the narrative by reflecting and celebrating the beautiful and diverse reality of our world. The characters within the Cloud Canyon Universe were developed to represent a range of shapes, sizes, abilities and disabilities, and traditional and non-traditional families.
In the Cloud Canyon universe: -More than half the characters are female -More than half the characters come from an ethnic-minority background -1 in 10 characters have a visible disability -Characters come from traditional and non-traditional families -Different body shapes are represented -she/her, he/him, and they/them pronouns are represented
It was also equally important that these details were not the central theme of the stories themselves as our shape, level of ability, and what our family unit looks like are just some of the many parts of who we are and not necessarily the defining feature of our stories.
PRODUCTION AND RELEASE All of the stories have been written and are currently being brought to life through the illustrative magic of Randall Hampton. The physical production of the books is expected to start in June 2022. Time from production to shipping is about 6 - 8 weeks (+/- 2-4 additional weeks due to COVID delays). Once Rachel receives the books, they will be shipped to backers. There is an expected arrival date of the books no later than November 2022.
The Characters of Cloud Canyon
Cloud Canyon is a place where the everyday child is celebrated for doing everyday things, with their everyday abilities. It is a world where mistakes are learned from, diversity is celebrated, and every child gets to be the hero of their own story.
Tales from Cloud Canyon is a storybook collection that features a series of male and female centered stories as well as topical short stories. The first book in the collection, Pragmatic Princess: 26 Superb Stories of Self-Sufficiency was successfully kickstarted in 2019. This project raised more than $25,000 in 30 days and earned an INDIES award for educational children’s picture books. Over the last few years, I have continued to write and expand the Cloud Canyon universe and am excited to announce that I am launching a second Kickstarter June 4 for a BRAND NEW collection of three topical short stories: Here, There, & Everywhere, Invisible Friends, and The Secret to Success.
I often get questions about how I develop my characters - how the names and adjectives come to be chosen and how I went about creating them. For Pragmatic Princess, all of my primary characters were female and more than half of them were modeled and are named after people I know or admire. For instance, Valerie is named after my mother, Gina is named after one of my dear friends, and Xena is named in honor of Xena the Warrior princess (one of the very first strong and powerful women in the media that I was exposed to as a child).
For these new short stories, I knew I wanted to introduce some male characters into the Cloud Canyon universe: Eli, Yanni, and as a bonus add-on item, Geralt.
The first one I developed was Eli, named after my newborn son. My older two children have characters within the series, so it only seemed fair that my youngest have his namesake as well. Fun fact: I have also written a standalone story for Eli (Eli the Enthusiastic) which may make its debut as a stretch goal during the Kickstarter! Why enthusiastic? I knew that I wanted to have a story in the collection that centered around a character who was hyperactive (despite the fact that Eli’s appearance in Here, There, & Everywhere is more subdued).
Yanni the Yokelish was the second male character I created for this new collection. I knew I needed a counterpart to Quinn in The Secret to Success who would be less adept at skiing (if you’ve read Pragmatic Princess, you’ll know Quinn the Quick is a quick study at everything she tries). Yokelish was already the adjective that was going to be tied to the “Y” character because, let’s be honest, there aren’t too many “Y” adjectives to go around so I knew the “Y” character would be the perfect counterpart for this story. I chose the name Yanni because of my mom’s love for the contemporary composer, Yanni.
Last, but certainly not least, there is Geralt the Grumbly. If you know me, you know I am a huge fan of The Witcher (the books, the video games, the popular Nextflix series). Geralt is the name of the main character in The Witcher and he is very, very grumbly. Sometimes his grumbles get mistaken for grumpiness, but that isn’t always necessarily true. The dynamic of Geralt being misunderstood due to his natural demeanor is a universal experience I think a lot of us have: people misunderstanding or not accepting us for who we are but rather only if we are the versions that they expect us to be. This was the inspiration and story behind Geralt the Grumbly. Also, it was only natural that my love for the Witcher universe eventually branched out into fan fiction.
Creating the characters of Cloud Canyon is perhaps the most fun part of the process. Being able to draw on real people from my life (Eli), talented and famous individuals who have made a lasting impression on me and those I love (Yanni), and pop culture icons of adoration (Geralt) and bring them to live in my own universe has been very fulfilling and full circle moment for me. It is also an extra special treat when other readers notice my “secret” references and geek out with them alongside me (I know there are other Witcher fans reading this!).
Here, There, & Everywhere Is the story of Eli and Ophelia. Ophelia notices Eli isn’t at school one day only to find he is at home mourning the loss of his grandmother. This is a story about death, dying, and grief told in a child appropriate way from a faith-agnostic perspective. Meaning, it would be just as appropriate in a religious home as it would be in a non religious home.
Excerpt:
“First we are kids, then grown ups, then wrinkly and old,
And life is a cycle that way, so I’ve been told.”
Eli paused and looked back up at his friend,
“But what about after? What happens in the end?”
“Well, that is a really big, difficult question,
There are a lot of ideas, superstition.
Some say you go up in to Heaven in the sky,
And reunite with everyone who passed you by.
Others say you come back here as something different,
A bird or butterfly, something significant.”
“But whatever happens, a part of them stays here,
Inside of all the people they’ve met and held dear.
We hold pieces of everyone we’ve loved, embraced,
Those who are still here and those in a different place.”
“Though she’s not here, your grandma is a part of you,
Who you are and the things that you think, say, and do.
The way your hair springs up, your encouraging gaze.
Those are just two of the many possible ways.
So really you two will always be together,
In your heart and your mind, today and forever.”
Excerpt:
“First we are kids, then grown ups, then wrinkly and old,
And life is a cycle that way, so I’ve been told.”
Eli paused and looked back up at his friend,
“But what about after? What happens in the end?”
“Well, that is a really big, difficult question,
There are a lot of ideas, superstition.
Some say you go up in to Heaven in the sky,
And reunite with everyone who passed you by.
Others say you come back here as something different,
A bird or butterfly, something significant.”
“But whatever happens, a part of them stays here,
Inside of all the people they’ve met and held dear.
We hold pieces of everyone we’ve loved, embraced,
Those who are still here and those in a different place.”
“Though she’s not here, your grandma is a part of you,
Who you are and the things that you think, say, and do.
The way your hair springs up, your encouraging gaze.
Those are just two of the many possible ways.
So really you two will always be together,
In your heart and your mind, today and forever.”
Kickstart Campaign:
Book video link:
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Randall Hampton is an author, illustrator, husband and father of 3. He is the Creator of "The Little Game Master" series of books and considers himself a story teller above all else. When he is not spending time with family and friends, Randall enjoys reading, video games, music, and table top games of all sorts.
Places to find Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD:
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the guest post and the excerpt, Tales from Cloud Canyon sounds like a great children's book! Thanks for sharing it with me!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your guest post and book details, I am looking forward to introducing my grandchildren to all of the characters from Cloud Canyon
ReplyDeleteI like the cover and think the book look interesting.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read your book and I love your cover.
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