South Cariboo poet and author Brenda Cooper has published a new children’s book.
Earlier this year Cooper released Petals and Pals which follows the story of a spider named Luna and her insect friends who find a sunflower seed and plant it. With spring now in full swing it’s the perfect time to pick this book up for your kids.
“The book is all about planting, bugs finding the seed and helping it grow. It was fun to do,” Cooper said. “It’s all about the seed’s journey. (Petals) meets a worm and then grows and meets the sun and the rain. As Petals grows she meets a bumble bee, a ladybug and they tell her how they help the garden grow. It’s kind of a journey through the garden and how all the insects in the garden help it grow.”
To illustrate Petals and Pals Cooper once more made use of Midjourney AI, a software that creates artwork based off user-generated prompts. She explained she was messing around one day when she came across a sunflower and thought it would make a good cover for a book. From there she started writing the story while creating more images to go with her words.
Cooper said a big source of inspiration for the book came from her older sister Valerie Ferrar, an avid gardener who brings her vegetables throughout the summer. Using the knowledge and enthusiasm Ferrar has shared with her over the years, Cooper weaved it into the book, even dedicating it to her sister.
“She’s just so crazy about gardening and loves her garden. She has this big plot in a community garden down in Burnaby and grows amazing vegetables,” Cooper said. “I thought of how I got down and help her clean out in the fall and plant in the spring.”
In the end, Cooper said she had a lot of fun creating the book and enjoyed its vibrant colours. She made sure to hide a lot of easter eggs throughout the images for children to find all while educating them.
Petals and Pals is available online at amazon.ca though Cooper said she may start releasing her books on other platforms in the future. She’s still working on her horror poetry collection and is hoping to make it perfect before releasing it.
“I’m being a little bit of a perfectionist with it,” Cooper chuckled.