Children\u2019s book author and illustrator Sophie Blackall was working on the drawings for her new book, \u201cStella & Marigold: Mermaids and Mix-Ups,\u201d when she had an idea.<\/p>\n
Her collaborator, Annie Barrows, had written a scene involving dozens of stuffed animals being tossed into the air as the two main characters \u2013 a pair of sisters, ages 4 and 7 \u2013 play \u201ccatch-the-stuffie-with-your-feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I realized I had the opportunity to draw a hundred stuffed animals, I thought, I could invent them,\u201d Blackall said. But, \u201cit would be so much more fun to engage people.\u201d<\/p>\n
So she posted on Instagram asking her readers and fans to submit pictures of their beloved stuffed friends. She got more than 500 responses in a matter of days, with most photos including a backstory. Some were hilarious, some were tender. But many were deeply moving tales about children trying to makes sense of their world.<\/p>\n
A common theme was that the soft toys were particularly good for absorbing tears. There was a blue bunny a girl gave her little brother while he was in the hospital. And a hermit crab that was a replacement for a beloved real hermit crab pet-for-a-day that \u201cdevastatingly\u201d had to be returned to the ocean. She got a photo of an octopus that can change feelings.<\/p>\n
There was a hippo that a girl received when she was 3, and still sleeps with every night eight years later. The parent wrote, \u201cHe holds her tears and carries her worries.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hippo, Blackall said, looked exceedingly well loved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat this lump of corduroy is imbued with all of these highs and lows and cares and concerns and secrets and heartaches of this particular child,\u201d Blackall said. \u201cI think that\u2019s such a universal thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackall \u2013 award-winning author and illustrator of dozens of children\u2019s books, including the Ivy and Bean series \u2013 said one of the stories that landed in her inbox stood out as particularly powerful and heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
A 4-year-old\u2019s identical twin, Parker, died soon after birth. Before the baby died, the hospital recorded his heartbeat and placed it inside a stuffed lion. The family calls him Parker Lion, and Blackall included a drawing of him in the new book.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s meaningful because it\u2019s one little opportunity for our Parker to be remembered,\u201d said his mom, Juliette Hunsicker. \u201cWe felt so honored.\u201d Her two other children love Blackall\u2019s books.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Blackall has asked her young readers to become her collaborators. For one book called Negative Cat she asked for name suggestions for cats at an animal shelter: Archie, Margaret, Custard, Lieutenant Gibson, Tan Handsome. For another book, \u201cIf You Come To Earth,\u201d she solicited names for colors: Unicorn\u2019s Tail, Squeaky Marker, Gramma\u2019s Lipstick, Chewed Gum.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach time I\u2019m unprepared for the response. I think, oh I might get a dozen answers. And I remember with the color names, I got 1,500 responses,\u201d Blackall said laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels to me like one of the most positive aspects of social media,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s a way of reminding people that we are all human beings and that this creative process can be a collaborative one.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she loves getting letters and snail mail, too, Blackall said parents can send her a message saying, \u201cWe read this book tonight and my child had a question,\u201d and she can respond immediately.<\/p>\n
Her readers are delighted by it, too.<\/p>\n
Sydna Kennedy, 22, sent Blackall a photo of \u201cSad Bear,\u201d who was a gift from her grandmother and has been her loyal companion ever since. Kennedy wrote that he\u2019s carried her through \u201ccountless airports and hotel rooms, sleepovers and summer camps, terrible heartbreaks, three different colleges (including a study abroad semester in London), and even an emergency gallbladder surgery when I was 9. (They gave him scrubs and a Band-Aid on his stomach, just like I had.)\u201d<\/p>\n
Another reader, Heather Needham, shared a picture of her father\u2019s stuffed doll that is now nearly 100 years old but still squeaks when squeezed.<\/p>\n
Needham\u2019s father, Phillip Billings, died in 2020 at age 87. When she and her siblings were cleaning out his house she knew she wanted this particular doll, which her father received as a baby. There\u2019s a photo of him with the doll from when he was 3.<\/p>\n
Billings always wanted to recreate the picture with his own grandchildren at the same age, but he could never get any of them to sit still. Finally he tried with Needham\u2019s son Joe, now 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a really active little kid,\u201d Needham said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, dad, Joe is never going to sit still for you. And sure enough, we have darling pictures of Joe sitting there with the doll.\u201d<\/p>\n
Needham loves Blackall\u2019s books, which she has read to her own children and grandchildren. When asked what her dad would think of his doll potentially being included in this new book, Needham got emotional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he would just be really tickled that I was passing on just a little part o him,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so hard to keep people\u2019s memories alive and their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily Sasser saw Blackall\u2019s post on her Instagram and knew her daughters Greta, 10, and Sloane, 6, would want to participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ran to get their favorite stuffies,\u201d Sasser said. Greta brought Funny Bunny and Sloane showed off Piggie.<\/p>\n
Part of why Blackall thinks parents are so delighted to share their children\u2019s stuffed animal stories is that having a preference for a certain toy is often one of the first acts of individuality from a young child.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very first things that they do that signal they\u2019re making a choice, or doing something with intent,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re beginning to assert themselves and their personality, and so I think that\u2019s why we are so thrilled when they form a connection with a particular toy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that it\u2019s sometimes unpredictable and it\u2019s not the most obvious or the cutest or the softest. It can be a lump of corduroy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s book author and illustrator Sophie Blackall was working on the drawings for her new book, \u201cStella &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-34129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}