The Shower Gift That Became a Calling
I was invited to a baby shower recently and the invitation said, “One small request, we hope it’s not too hard. Please bring a book instead of a card.” This immediately took me back to the fall of 2018 when the same request was made of guests invited to my daughter’s baby shower. As a very excited grandma-to-be, I enthusiastically set out to buy the cutest little bedtime story I could find - as long as it featured a car seat. This self-imposed prerequisite was because by that time, I had co-founded and managed the non-profit Car Seats for Christy and raised awareness about child passenger safety for 14 years. It was a natural progression for me to continuously weave car seat messaging into as many areas as possible. Besides that, a cute little car seat-themed book would pair perfectly with the gift from me and Papa: an infant car seat that was carefully researched and approved by grandma-the-car-seat-tech.
I set out on my mission to find the perfect book, physically visiting major bookstores and retailers (my generation’s preferred method of shopping) but had zero luck. It was as if there weren’t any books on the market promoting child passenger safety. Disappointed, I surrendered to online shopping (the Gen Z way), and a quick Google search led me to, My Trusty Car Seat, Buckling Up for Safety! I was so relieved. I would be able to “bring a book instead of a card!” Clicking around some more, I realized I hadn’t struck gold at all. The book had been published almost 20 years earlier and was outdated. I spied with my little eyes lots of room for improvement, starting with the cover artwork whose seat belts reminded me of dental floss.
With my heart still set on finding the perfect book, I decided to just write my own. Why not? While some of the timeline is fuzzy, knowing what I know now about the process of self-publishing, I’m amazed that in a matter of weeks I was able to:
Formulate and execute this new plan.
Find inspiration in Margaret Wise Brown’s classic, Good Night Moon.
Write, revise, edit, re-edit and proofread Good Night Car Seat.
Recruit my wonderfully talented teenaged niece to illustrate it.
Print one copy (bulk printing would have to wait).
Bind it by hand with a hole punch and laces (like a baseball mitt).
Wrap it and give it to her at the shower.
It was a priceless gift, a new family tradition, and the overall experience was solely responsible for launching my journey as a children’s book author. Eight years and five books later, I’m proud to continue writing car seat-themed kids’ books that I believe fill a critical subject matter gap in children’s literature and safety education. And that new grandbaby? She quickly stole my heart, is beautiful inside and out, an avid reader, and Good Night Car Seat’s biggest fan. One small request, I hope it’s not too hard. Please bring Books by Jo instead of a card.