Local Author Holds Book Signing at The Healing Space

Empowering Children Through Literature, Nature, and Spirituality

By Shannon Taylor

Editor

A local author out of Jackson, Wendy L. Googe, visited Martin’s The Healing Space to drop off signed copies of her newly published children’s book, Raspberry Maude.

Published in December 2023, Raspberry Maude is a joyful fairy with iridescent purple wings and hair spotlighting a crown of raspberries. Maude loves to entertain and always has a bag of tricks up her sleeve. Delighting in entertainment, she brings joy to everyone she meets and has a boisterous personality, encouraging readers to take joy in their own unique personality.

Incorporating watercolors, personality and rhyming, Raspberry Maude in the first installment in a series titled, Tales from the Fairy Realm. The illustrations by Wanda Stanfill are beautifully rich in color.

Meet the Author

Googe has lived in Jackson her entire life. She has two children, one of them a special needs child named Liam, who is nine years old and a daughter, Ella, who is almost five years old, and they are a big part of the reasoning behind the creation of her book.

“I love children’s literature and I’ve got a very active inner child, and I’ve always seen the beauty in the earth and so I just wanted to bring something out that would reawaken the inner child of other people,” Googe stated.

Children’s Literacy

Googe is passionate about children's literature, particularly creating books that help increase children's vocabulary and literacy and incorporate positive mental health themes.

“I always had a large vocabulary as a child, and I know not everyone has access to young children’s books that are of that caliber, so I wanted to bring something different out like that,” Googe explained.

Emotional Expression

Googe also incorporated a lot of “feel-good” things into the book because she wanted children to understand concepts like collaboration, loving, sharing, good behavior, and helping one another,” Googe said.

In her book, Wendy introduces characters like Puddles, a water fairy, to teach children about the importance of expressing emotions rather than bottling them up.

“He's very emotional and he lets out his emotions when things happen to him, which is really good because a lot of people tend to bottle up their emotions. And so, in the book I say that you don't want to allow your emotions to blow up like a water balloon and explode everywhere. So that's something that we all need to remember, especially as adults, because we tend to really stifle things. We need to let it out and learn how to regulate that and process those emotions,” Googe said.

Connection to Nature

Wendy's love for fairies and nature is a significant inspiration for her writing, aiming to bring back a sense of magic and beauty to the readers.

“I have always felt connected to the fairies. I feel like I can see them around. They're very grounded in the natural world, which is a huge part of my life. I love being out in nature and that sort of thing and just picking up on the magic, I wanted to bring back the magic because there is so much ugliness that is going around in the world right now and so I really wanted to bring something that was beautiful and pure and lighthearted to people,” Googe said.

Besides being an author, Wendy is an intuitive and channels messages from the divine, aiming to help people connect with God and find guidance in their lives.

Healing & Spirituality

“I'm also a Christian, Anglican, so I'm kind of a dichotomy, but it's a gift that I've had since I was a child and I want to help people connect with God and what they need to know for their lives and help get them back on track with their paths,” Googe said.

Parent-Child Bond

The books are designed to be read by adults to children, with the intention of strengthening the bond between them through shared reading experiences.

“I wanted them to be kind of ageless because I wanted to bring kids and parents together, too, with reading,” Googe said.

The book is intended to be adult-directed due to the advanced vocabulary. Googe explained that she was intentional with the illustrations in the book and worked very closely with her illustrator, Wanda Stanfill, also a Jackson native, to make sure the illustrations and the action in them matched the text.

Musically Inspired

The book also incorporates lyrical music and rhyme flow for kids to react to.

“Aesthetics and music are huge for me. I love things that sound pleasing to the ear and that are going to, from a sound perspective, make you feel good. It's kind of like bouncy and bubbly and flowing. That's kind of the vibe that I was going for,” Googe said.

Googe wants people to still be able to see the purity and good that in the world and that there are good people out there and they can keep going and relight that spark within them.

Grab Your Copy Today

Googe’s book has received 5-star reviews and is currently available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and Walmart. An eBook version is on the way and signed copies are available on request via private message through Facebook. Googe’s Facebook page is titled Wendy L Googe Lit. A second book to the series, Bath Time Fairies, is planned to come out closer to Easter. Googe is also planning to write a separate series for older children aged 7-12 title The Boat Traveler Fairy which will be in story form as opposed to lyrical rhyme. Wendy Googe's book not only enhances children's vocabulary and literacy but also promotes emotional expression, nature connection, and spiritual growth, fostering strong parent-child bonds.