When I brought “Glubbery Gray” (Pelican Publishing, 2010, $16.99) home, my 8-year-old son, Mateo, couldn’t wait to take a look. If it’s a story about space, superheroes or knights, he’s all over it. “That was a really funny book,” he concluded, after we’d read it together.
“Glubbery Gray” is a children’s book filled with colorful, vivid drawings and clever rhyming about eight knights who’ve just captured the Knight-Eating Beast.
I asked co-author Bret Kenyon, a frequent freelancer for the Jackson Free Press, how this all came to be. It all started with Jesse Labbe’s art, he said.
“(Labbe) had several sketches of knights that he wanted to build a story around,” Kenyon said. “We decided on a counting book that was loosely based on the ‘monkeys jumping on the bed’ nursery rhyme.”
Beth Kander, who is friends with Kenyon and has acted with him in local theater, came on board while the book was in production.
“Beth and I both worked at Mad Genius Inc. … I wrote the first draft, then quickly realized that poetry is not my strong suit. Beth handled the following drafts and rewrote the poetry,” Kenyon said.
Kenyon and Kander sign “Glubbery Gray” at Lemuria Books (202 Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., 601-366-7619) Oct. 16 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.