#1,310 I Live in Laurel.

On our last trip to Massachusetts, I spotted a little children’s book in the gift shop of The Red Lion Inn. It was a children’s history of the town called I Live in Stockbridge. I thought it was adorable, the idea of having a little book about their town that all the children who’ve ever lived there would be given by their parents or grandparents for generations.

At the time, I forgot about it. Once we got back home I was hanging out with our friend Adam, an illustrator. He’s done beautiful illustrated prints from classic children’s literature (Peter Pan, The Hobbit, and Alice in Wonderland), and it made me think about that book again. About how he and my mama (a writer) should write a children’s book for Laurel. And he told me about how his mother, Cyndi, one of the most beloved teachers to ever work in Laurel, wrote a children’s history of the city years ago.

It felt sort of like we were all meant to work on this together. So we’ve decided to make a book, and call it I Live in Laurel. We met today to work out the basic storyline and deadlines.

It will be the story of all the special and wonderful things about our town through the eyes of a little girl named Anne. Adam’s niece, a creative and darling loft-dwelling girl with a wild imagination. I’m not really doing much in the project, just editing and helping get it printed, but it’s incredible to know that Cyndi’s legacy will carry on in the history she wrote along with her son’s illustration and my mama’s sweet storytelling. Can’t explain how excited I am to see what they come up with!