A bed overflowing with stuffed toys and naptime inspire Waterloo author’s new book

As any parent knows, nap time can be a struggle, especially when your little ones want to do something fun instead of snoozing. 

That eternal struggle and a whole pile of stuffed toys was the inspiration for the latest book from Waterloo author Carolyn Huizinga Mills called I Drove My Bed to Grandma’s House.

She joined CBC K-W’s The Morning Edition to speak to Craig Norris about the book.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Audio of the interview is below.

Craig Norris: Tell us about I Drove My Bed to Grandma’s House. Who do we meet in this and what happens? 

Carolyn Huizinga Mills: This is my newest picture book and it’s about a boy named Lexington Samuel Forster who doesn’t want to have a nap, so he drives his bed to his grandma’s house instead, along with a crew of fuzzy forest creatures, and they end up having a whole bunch of zany adventures on the way.

A lot of my stories are based on just my own experience as a parent. So this story in particular was my experiences with naptime and kids who didn’t want to nap maybe, but also with beds that are over full of stuffed animals, which my children’s beds seem to be. 

I also love leaning into the the wild and playful side of kids imaginations, and I think this story really allowed me to do that. 

Craig Norris: I speak with many authors of picture books and they tell me authors generally don’t get to talk to the actual illustrator. So when you saw what the illustrator Jan Dolby did with your story, what was your reaction?

Carolyn Huizinga Mills: I was actually so delighted. It’s true that you don’t have a lot of input into the illustration process and you have to give up a lot of creative control that way, cause you might be picturing the story a certain way in your mind and they interpret it completely different. 

But when I saw the first sketches that she’d done, I knew I was going to love the end product. And so yeah, the end result is just so playful and colourful and she really captured the essence of what I was trying to do with the story. So I love what she’s done with it. 

Craig Norris: When you’re writing books for kids, I mean, especially in this case, what is your goal?

Carolyn Huizinga Mills: I read children’s books, but I also write fiction for adults. So I have two sort of distinct goals.

I think one common goal is I’m always trying to find more readers. Like I just want the books or the stories to reach an audience. So just trying to write something that other people can enjoy, just like I always do when I’m reading a book, I always think back to somebody wrote this and had no idea that one day I’d be sitting here reading it and reliving the whole story in my head. 

So that’s my goal, just to get the stories out there and to know that other people are experiencing them. 

Craig Norris: This is, of course, a book for children, but what tidbits do you think adults will find in this book as they read it?

Carolyn Huizinga Mills: I’m hoping they can relate to the struggles of the parents around nap time. But also just everything about raising children.

Like I was mentioning earlier, all the beds on the stuffed animals and things that we think are silly or I don’t even know how to word this, just that for us, part of the experience of having a kid with them for the kid that they’re having a whole different experience of that. 

So we feel the stuffed animals on the bed and think, oh, there’s no room for you. Like we need to get some of those off the bed from the kids experience, this is a world for them.

Craig Norris: You’ve written other books, fiction titles, The Good Son, Sins of the Daughter, obviously not picture books. When do you know it’s time to take a departure from adult storytelling and do a children’s book?

Carolyn Huizinga Mills: It’s not really like that conscious choice to take a departure so much as an idea will pop into my head and it’s almost just like a little reprieve from one to the other. 

But I’m often working on both at the same time. So I’ll be editing an adult novel and I’ll also be working on a children’s book on the side. And because they’re so different, it’s easier for me, I think to flip flop between the two because I go into such a different headspace for each one. 

Craig Norris: I realize this book is new, but are you working on anything else right now?

Carolyn Huizinga Mills: I am. I’m actually working on another novel at the moment and part of it is set in K-W. So that’s one that I’m really hopeful we’ll see the light of day one day.

LISTEN | Waterloo author Carolyn Huizinga Mills talks about the inspiration behind her new children’s book: