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Mr. Snail and Other Tales is a collection of five short stories for young children, starring Mr. Snail and his friends' trials, tribulations, and travails. The stories are about persistence, resilience, and the importance of friends. The stories' themes closely reflect my motivation for writing them.
This book is a happy accident, 22 years in the making. It was a mommy's way to help her child.
Zach was a sweet, hefty baby, who took his time crawling, walking, and talking. But seemingly overnight he lost his ability to speak. And I panicked. We took him to every doctor and specialist under the sun to no avail.
What was going on? Why wasn't my baby like other babies? I was frozen with fear. Fearful of what his future will be. Fearful of him being teased. Fearful of the limits the world would place on him. Fearful of being judged by other moms. I cried. All the time. Did I do this to him? Was this it? Was this his capacity? What if it was? But more importantly, what if it wasn't?
I had to put my anxieties aside to help my son. After a litany of attempts to teach him - a menu for his meals, sing-alongs on his Fisher Price tape recorder, and sign language - we started writing a series of stories together. I'd say a sentence and he'd fill in the last word (with occasional edits). Week after week, sentence after sentence, until Mr. Snail and Other Tales was created. I illustrated the book. Zach picked out and named all the colors for all the illustrations. We read the book every night, and every night Zach was able to fill in more and more of the words. Until one night, he read the entire book to me. My heart nearly gave out.
I hope reading Mr. Snail and Other Tales to your favorite littles brings you at least a fraction of the joy it brought to me and mine.
