“At the edge of the forest,
In a nest in a tree,
Lived the sweetest little jaybird,
You’d ever want to see!”
And so starts Jayde The Jaybird, a delightful children’s book out this week by Coquitlam author Brandee Bublé.
Jayde The Jaybird is the second title for Bublé in her One of A Kind rhyming picture series published by Simply Read Books, a Vancouver-based house that specializes in kids literature.
It’s also the second work she has penned for one of her own.
Her début, O’Shae the Octopus, came out last summer for her son O’Shae, now 13. Jayde The Jaybird is for her daughter, Jayde, nine.
Bublé had promised to write them each a story book when they were toddlers. Now, with the sophomore publication hitting the Chapters’ shelves on Friday, her gift is complete.
Bublé is thrilled with the results and plans to write two more.
All will have a common theme, she said: Being proud of who you are, no matter what your challenge.
In O’Shae the Octopus, the mollusk has eight arms instead of 10.
Jayde, however, has a short left wing but was born with a special talent: She has a singing voice is so powerful it saves the forest creatures from Hank the Hawk.
The subject of rising above your difficulties is something Bublé knows too well.
Growing up, she was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disorder that affected her reading and math skills (as an employee, she struggled to give the correct change to customers).
Later, Bublé taught kids with special needs in the Vancouver and Burnaby school districts.
“I would always tell them, ‘We might not be good at everything but we’re good at something— all of us,’” Bublé said during a telephone interview with The Tri-City News last Friday. “I teach that to my kids all the time. We all have a gift so find out what it is and shine. Don’t look at what you can’t do.”
To create her series, Bublé drew inspiration from books she poured over as a child. Dr. Seuss was a favourite for his simple stories, perfect rhymes and alliteration and fanciful characters. “When I read it to the kids today, it still makes me smile,” said the stay-at-home mom.
Bublé wanted to reproduce that playful aspect, keeping the images bright, colourful and even “retro.”
Luckily, Bublé said the drawings of Victoria illustrator Eliska Liska captured what she had in mind. When she worked on O’Shae the Octopus, Bublé said she was nervous to see what Liska had offered because she had no contact with her directly.
“I bawled when I saw them,” she remembered. “They were just so awesome. She just nailed it and that’s scary because you have your images in your head for your words and to have someone else do it for you, without any communication with her, you worry.”
As for the language in Jayde The Jaybird, Bublé said the narrative came easily; however, it took her a few months to fine-tune the rhyming patterns. She used O’Shae and Jayde as her critics to smooth out the flow.
“I’m lucky. They’re very open to telling me what they like and what they don’t and that’s great because honesty is awesome,” she laughed.
• Jayde The Jaybird is now available at Chapters bookstore (38-2991 Lougheed Hwy., Coquitlam) and online at Amazon.ca.
jwarren@tricitynews.com
