Growing up, David Janveaux always had fond memories of Haliburton County. Now, he\u2019s hoping to inspire similar feelings among younger generations for years to come. <\/p>\n
The Toronto-based man recently published his first book Babe and Pep\u00e9 Bluebird\u2019s Big Flight, a story about having the courage to try something new. Set in Haliburton County, the children\u2019s tale is inspired by Janveaux\u2019s visits to his grandmother, Kathleen Janveaux, who was known to all as Babe. <\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up spending many summers in Haliburton and Gooderham \u2013 Babe had a cottage in the Highlands before eventually moving to a house off Maple Avenue in Haliburton village, so I spent a lot of time there creating the best memories,\u201d Janveaux told The Highlander.<\/p>\n
Whether they were enjoying late afternoon strolls down to Head Lake, concerts at the Haliburton Legion, once-popular events like the annual Highland Games and Midnight Madness, or taking in a movie at the Molou, Janveaux said he and Babe made the time they had together count. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese smalltown memories really left a lasting impression on me and kind of planted a lot of the seeds for this book,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about believing in yourself even if others doubt you, being the kind of person who lifts others up when they need it. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a line in the story that is a direct quote from Babe, and that\u2019s \u2018the only way forward is trying it out\u2019,\u201d Janveaux added, saying he\u2019s adopted that as his life\u2019s mantra. <\/p>\n
He spent seven months writing and illustrating the book before publishing May 4. While a human resources professional in the city, Janveaux said the kid within him has always clamoured for a life in the arts. He completed a visual arts program in Oshawa while in high school, then studied architectural science at Ryerson University, now Toronto Metropolitan University. <\/p>\n
In his second year of post-secondary, he took a creative writing elective that changed him. He fell in love with the process of merging fantasy and history together, transitioning to an English major. <\/p>\n
While he\u2019s forged a successful career in HR, Janveaux said he routinely harked back to memories shared with Babe and her little black poodle, recreated in the book through Pep\u00e9. She passed more than a decade ago, but still that lesson of \u201cjust try\u201d rang true. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe always encouraged me to draw and doodle, and we would spend so much time talking and sharing funny stories \u2013 she liked to spin imaginative tales that I could never get enough of\u2026 for a long time I wanted to do something for myself, in terms of writing and publishing a book, but also something for Babe, to honour the connection we had,\u201d Janveaux said. <\/p>\n
Reading the book back \u2013 it\u2019s stanzas rhyme, bringing a poetic feel \u2013 he feels it\u2019s a fitting tribute to the woman who has a bench dedicated in her memory on the walking path on the south side of Head Lake. <\/p>\n
Janveaux still gets up to Haliburton semi-regularly, his aunt and uncle live in town, and said he could see this first book inspiring future stories \u2013 pulling from memories created with Babe and more recent ones. Babe and Pep\u00e9 Bluebird\u2019s Big Flight is available to purchase online through Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up, David Janveaux always had fond memories of Haliburton County. Now, he\u2019s hoping to inspire similar feelings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-38385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}