Lost for more than 40 years and rediscovered during the days of the pandemic, a childrens鈥� book written when a 琉璃神社 resident was just 19 years old has now been published.
Pamela Reesor had forgotten that while living in East Africa all those years ago she had written about eight or nine pages of a book, inspired by a 鈥榖eautiful baobab tree鈥� and her favourite girls鈥� name, Lisa.
After going through some memorabilia during the long days of stay-at-home orders, Reesor found a notebook with the tale of a young girl who lives in a forest with no parents and no human friends.
鈥淚 sent the book to my friend Catherine-Anne Tower, who lives in Mexico, who is the grand-niece of Emily Carr,鈥� explained Reesor. 鈥淪he does some artwork and designs bags, tabletops and things like that.鈥�
Tower read the book of seven-year-old Lisa, with blue eyes and amber-coloured hair, who lives at the base of a large tree with a group of animal friends. She then returned the book along with digital paintings to go with each page, depicting Lisa, her owl, bunny and tree companions.
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It was then that Lisa鈥檚 World became reality in a 13-page, colourfully designed book that touches on fear, jealousy, loneliness and above all, the power of friendship
鈥淏etween us, we have learned how to illustrate and publish a book, not that I have another one in me,鈥� laughed Reesor.
Despite the many years between writing and publishing the book, Reesor said it was a story she felt needed to be told.
鈥淚 thought it is very apropos, for its time, but I thought it is kind of an interesting story and good for kids to hear a little bit of this,鈥� said Reesor.
Especially the end of the book where, 鈥淥nce again, their little part of the world was happy鈥�.
This isn鈥檛 Reesor鈥檚 million-dollar idea, with only 150 copies of the book printed. Instead, she hopes it serves as a tale that will resonate with her grandchildren as well as others.
The book is soon to be on the shelves of Mosaic Books downtown 琉璃神社 on Bernard Avenue.
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jen.zielinski@bpdigital.ca
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