Love Mommy and Me Books? Add This Pair to Your Shelf
When looking for Mommy and Me books, typically people are talking about titles that can be shared aloud with children. But as a mom of four daughters and grandmother to two grandsons, award-winning author Kathy Izard had a different idea.
“I started thinking about how great it would be if families could be sharing books on the same topic by the same author, written for different age groups,” she said.
Her first pairing was her memoir about homelessness, The Hundred Story Home, along with an illustrated book for children, A Good Night for Mr. Coleman. The books were published three years apart, but families, schools and churches have used them to discuss homelessness and how one person can make a difference.
Mommy and Me Books Are Powerful Tools to Initiate Discussion
Over the last few years, Kathy has seen how the books used together can be powerful tools for discussion, so when she was writing the sequel to The Hundred Story Home, she wanted to be intentional about creating the next pair.
Trust the Whisper releases in June (Baker Books) and is written for adults, while Grace Heard a Whisper is an illustrated title for children. Both books share the theme of purpose in life and answering quiet callings.
Trust the Whisper offers over 20 true accounts of people who listened to their ”whisper” and details the remarkable stories that followed. In Grace Heard a Whisper, young Grace learns the concept of a soul and reminds people to listen for their whispers. even in a “loud, loud, busy, busy” world.
“My hope is that reading these books together can begin conversations at an early age about what we are meant to do in this world,” Kathy said. “Moms are often too busy to read a longer book for themselves, but if they can get this shorter message through the kids’ book, then maybe that starts to inspire them as well.”
A Search for Purpose
Kathy remembers being 44 years old and wanting to do something else with her career as she was raising her girls, but she didn’t know what that might be. “I had big dreams for my four daughters, but I had forgotten what my own were!” she said. Reinventing her second half of life began with listening to that whisper to build homes for the homeless, and that has turned into a path she never expected—author, coach, and retreat leader.
Through her writing and her personal story, Kathy likes to help women who are looking for next chapters, whether that is literally (writing books) or metaphorically (searching for their purpose). Kathy hopes this pair of Mommy and Me reads can prompt children to imagine how they can do good and provide direction to moms who might be searching for their purpose±.
“My real hope is that as a culture we can begin making a shift from listening to the loudest voices and instead value theses quiet callings as our best guides,” Kathy said. “I truly believe these whispers lead us to ourselves, to each other, to God and to our own truest story.”
Image courtesy of Kathy Izard. Learn more about Kathy https://www.kathyizard.com
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Have you been questioning your purpose? Get some clarity when you listen to this podcast episode: Do You Know Your Purpose? It May Surprise You! – 193
