Written by: Bobbi Brandt. Original illustrations by: Dani Jo Brandt, Demetri, Eisley, and Kaeden Rodriguez. Edited and Produced by Kasey Rodriguez.
I am from Midwestern Wisconsin. I have 4 children. The oldest and youngest are separated by 23 years. This means, my oldest daughter has children the same age as her younger sister. we try to spend summers together since our kids are so close. I come from a relatively small family and have lived in Wisconsin all of my life, except a brief stay in South Dakota for a few months.
My two brothers and I were very close in age. I was the middle child. My older brother was always adamant that I not cry or show my feelings, especially when playing with his friends. While we were playing football in the yard with his friends I got hurt. He pulled me aside and told me that if I cried over every little thing, I would never be able to play in the NFL. (I was very small for my age and a girl) It never dawned on me when watching football to ask why there were no women on the field. I just assumed girls cried too much to play. But I would be different. (we can laugh at it now)
That one sentence he said to me on a fall afternoon stuck with me. It’s been something that has repeated in my head in every instance when I’ve almost cried.
When our children started assigning feelings to pictures they were drawing it occurred to me that other kids could benefit from this as well. My oldest daughter and I started this series to help kids understand that feelings are okay and we all have them.
Mostly we hope everyone enjoys the books and the evolution of the characters as we add more books to the series.
From left to right – Demitri, Kaeden, Dani, Eisley, Kasey, and Bobbi.
Read Me Books 