By Max Davies
Beveridge author Chris Barber published his first book last month, with the children’s book exploring themes of independent decision making and sharing learnings that come as a parent.
Sparkle Light Lollipop Girl: The Royal Race began five years ago as a way for Mr Barber to spend time with his young daughter during visits, connecting and sharing their love for creative writing.
Mr Barber said the process of creating the book was challenging but rewarding.
“[The book] took quite a bit of time to complete as I balanced the responsibilities of a husband, father and working full-time,” he said.
“However I feel that the harder you work for something the more rewarding it becomes, and when it was finally published in mid-December I was both relieved and over the moon.”
The story was written as a non-traditional children’s book, featuring a princess who competes in a car race in a fairytale universe.
It also includes an unexpected light-hearted twist to keep both carers and children engaged with the journey.
Mr Barber wanted to be able to share the experience of reading to his children at bedtime with other families and caregivers as they are some of his favourite memories.
“In the book, I wanted to cover things that I was taught, I wanted to cover things about green choices and red choices and about emotions,” he said.
“I was also very careful because I didn’t want to have any adult influence for any of the characters, I really wanted to promote independent thinking.
“I really wanted to encourage that independent thought-process and an independent way of making decisions for young children.”
The book was illustrated by Anastasiia Hryvstova and Mr Barber hopes there will be more books to come in the Sparkle Light Lollipop Girl series.
Sparkle Light Lollipop Girl: The Royal Race is available electronically for Amazon Kindle and physical copies can be purchased on Amazon.
