A Soddy-Daisy mom has written a children’s book to help children come to terms with their feelings and lean on their friends.
Now she needs the help of the community to get her book published.
Brittany Fuquea has always had a love for books. Now as a mother of two, she was inspired to write a children’s book, Puffy the cloud that couldn’t cry.
“The main problem is that Puffy can’t cry, he’s really scared to show off, like he likes to be vibrant and happy, but he doesn’t want to show those negative feelings,” Fuquea explains.
The book follows Puffy’s journey as he learns to manage his feelings and lean on his friends. Fuquea says the story was inspired by her own battle with sanity.
“My son is really me, he has big emotions about everything all the time and so I started writing and where he navigated my emotions and tried to turn it into something to help him navigate in his.”
With the stigma surrounding mental health and vulnerability, Puffy is meant to help children come to terms with their emotions without any shame.
“I want to equip kids, so that at our age, they don’t have to unlearn shame to have a healthy relationship with their feelings,” Fuquea said.
After nearly three years of bringing Puffy to life, Fuquea said it was all done. Now she is looking to self-publish her book.
“I hope to work with a company that helps independent authors get started, they help with formatting, editing, licensing, there’s a lot of stuff to get a book into a store.”
Fuquea has opened a KickStarter account to raise funds for the project and needs the community’s help to get the prints inflated and into the hands of kids.
“I have a list of a few independent bookstores here locally and around that I’m looking to partner with and do readings and things like that.”
Fuquea said she was looking forward to posting Puffy the cloud that couldn’t cry and write more children’s books.
Fuquea also works with licensed counselors to provide a resource page at the back of the book along with questions that parents and teachers can use to talk with children as they read the book.
If you want to help get Puffy the cloud that couldn’t cry in bookstores, click here.