“One bounce, maybe twice, I’ll bounce it quite low, and not up too high. I’ll see what will hap­pen and give it a try. But some­how it went way up over his head, and right down the stairs where the hall­way had led.“
— Excerpt from Will and the Red Ball

This past week­end, two of the Pub­lish Green team mem­bers (myself — Emily — and Kyle, our fab­u­lous web devel­oper)  had the lovely priv­i­lege of meet­ing the author of one of the cutest kids’ books around, Will and the Red Ball. Glo­ria Dun­shee and her hus­band, Wayne, invited us Gloria’s sur­prise birth­day party. And, need­less to say, it was a blast.

If you don’t know what the book is about, here’s a brief overview: Will, a three-year-old boy, goes on a trip with his par­ents to New York City. While explor­ing the bor­ing muse­ums with Mom and Dad, Will decides to play with the red ball that he has brought with him. Well, one bounce leads to another, and, as you can imag­ine, poor lit­tle Will ends up chas­ing it around the city while Mom and Dad search fran­ti­cally for him. I won’t tell you how it ends — but just know that the book is heart­warm­ing, sweet, and will make an excel­lent bed­time read for any child. It also teaches chil­dren a valu­able les­son about stick­ing close to Mom and Dad when they’re in a strange place. This is def­i­nitely one that you’ll want to pur­chase for your own child, grand­child, niece or nephew…it’s a guar­an­teed hit with families.

Oh, and the great­est part? Gloria’s grand­son, Will, is the inspi­ra­tion for the lit­tle boy, Will, in the book!

Will and the Red Ball, by Glo­ria Dunshee

We entered a beau­ti­ful home in the north­east­ern sub­urbs of the Twin Cities, com­plete with tall, wood pan­eled glass doors and quaint woods dec­o­rat­ing the back­yard. Glo­ria, a pleas­ant and cheer­ful woman, met us at the front door and intro­duced her­self. Hav­ing never met her before, and cor­re­spond­ing pri­mar­ily with her her hus­band, Wayne, over email, it was a nice sur­prise to be able to meet the author herself!

We helped our­selves to some birth­day cake and min­gled with Glo­ria and her fam­ily. We got to meet Glo­ria and Wayne’s daugh­ter, Karne McGary (Will is her son), which was a good time. Karne is the illus­tra­tor for Will and the Red Ball — so the whole book is a fam­ily affair! And, we got to meet Will him­self! He had just turned three and, though he doesn’t yet under­stand that he’s the star of his grandmother’s book, he was cer­tainly a charmer. Like all lit­tle boys, he had devel­oped a love for trucks and was busy play­ing with his new red truck. (Luck­ily, that’s not some­thing that could eas­ily bounce away if ever in a New York City museum!)

I spent some time talk­ing with Glo­ria about the book and her future plans as an author of books for chil­dren. Will and the Red Ball is just one of an up-and-coming series of kids’ books, all fea­tur­ing — you guessed it — Will! The next book in the series, Will and the Magic Snow­man, will be released just in time for the hol­i­day sea­son. I won’t give away what the book is about, but it’s a def­i­nite must-have for winter.

Glo­ria plans on writ­ing many more books for this series. I was really happy to hear this. She’s such a good writer, Karne is an amaz­ing illus­tra­tor (all the images are done in water­color), and the ideas behind the books are just so great. They’ll make an excel­lent col­lec­tion once a few more titles have been added, and until then, read­ers can def­i­nitely enjoy each book on its own!

Kyle & Emily of Pub­lish Green with author Glo­ria Dun­shee, illus­tra­tor Karne McGary, and the inspi­ra­tion him­self, Will

Gloria’s web­site can cur­rently be found here, but the book’s site will soon be mov­ing. Fans can also read Gloria’s absolutely hilar­i­ous blog, which show­cases not only her funny style of writ­ing, but also reg­u­lar, ordi­nary events  and antics such as her cat own­ing her life, her steer­ing wheel catch­ing on fire, and tacos that serve beer — just to name a few. Not only is Glo­ria an excel­lent writer of books for kids, but she also has a humor­ous, mature writ­ing style that is bound to make any­one chuckle.

Thanks, Glo­ria (and fam­ily), for hav­ing Pub­lish Green over to your home! It was a true plea­sure to meet you and learn about what inspired your first children’s book. We really look for­ward to read­ing what­ever you write next!