BookWorthy Chats with Laura Sassi

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Valerie - Welcome to Bookworthy. Today, we're talking with children's author Laura Sasse. Laura was featured in Bookworthy's launch episodes back in season one, and I'm excited to have her back to talk about her latest picture book, Faithful Feet. This lighthearted picture book tours through the Bibles where young readers can be introduced to the silly feet of

beloved Bible characters, from Noah's hairy feet to David's brave feet as he stood in front of Goliath to the joyful feet of the women who hear of the gospel message and learn about faithfully, our kids can learn about faithfully walking with Jesus. Welcome back to Bookworthy Laura.

Laura - Thanks so much for having me.

Valerie - It is a pleasure. So, I must say our random question is not quite so random since your book is about faithful feet. I thought we'd stay on the feet theme and find out what your favorite type of shoe is. A boot, sandals, tennis shoes. Let us know.

Laura - Alrighty, well, my favorite shoe is a cowboy boot. I've always loved them. And I visited some dear friends in Oklahoma last October. So, I decided that was the place to buy a pair, but they were so big I had to wear them home on the airplane. And they were kind of hard to take off when they're new when I went through security, but I did it.

Valerie -Too fun. What is it? Not too many cowboy boots up there in New Jersey, right? I don't know. I'm in Texas, so cowboy boots are kind of a thing, but it's funny how certain types of shoes can make you feel a certain way. And there is something about a cowboy boot that just makes you stand a little taller. Almost literally and figuratively.

Laura- That's right. Exactly. Literally, yes.

Valerie -All right, Laura, tell us a little bit about Faithful Feet. Why feet?

Laura - Alright. My goodness. So Faithful Feet is inspired by a couple of things. So one, like feet. Feet is just funny. When my kids were little, they just loved, I loved tickling their feet. There's just something funny. They look a little funny. They can be stinky. There's just like a fun connection kids have with feet. So I kind of had that percolating in my mind. And then I also have a favorite Bible verse from Isaiah that says how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who spread good news. And so that verse paired with knowing that kids love feet, I just thought, gosh, could I use feet as the lens to introduce kids to God's grand story as presented in the Bible through the lens of feet? So that's what faithful feet is. So, walk through the Bible with your feet.

Valerie -I love it. Literal walk through the Bible. One of those verses in Isaiah is, is interesting because feet typically aren't considered beautiful. You know, there are very few foot models out there, probably. Well, it was fun. Now, with kind of what are the characters that you have used in the story to kind of communicate just the faithful consistency of not just God, but that we as faithful followers can have with God. I think that makes sense.

Laura - Well, I wanted to pick some feet, some faithful followers from the Old Testament and the New Testament, and I wanted to have some male and some female. So, from the Old Testament, I picked Noah because, of course, it means he's he, and in the story, he uses his feet to go and gather wood to build the ark. And wow, he was faithful to God when everyone else was laughing at him. And I also chose Daniel because Daniel stood strong in the lion's lair, and boy, was he a witness to all those around him when he followed God's way. And then, of course, kids love, and I've already done several school visits with this, and I have a whole season of school visits lined up. Some kids love the story of David and Goliath standing so strong with his feet. And then in the New Testament, of course, Mary, Mary on dusty feet running to tell Elizabeth the news that she's having Jesus. And then Jesus, I have Jesus's feet doing different, walking and sharing, and then going on the cross, and then the women finding the good news that he's alive on Easter Sunday and running on feet to tell, to spread the good news. And then I bring it to us and kids today and their feet. So some of my favorite spreads in the book show all sorts of different kinds of kids' feet just to inspire kids and kids at heart that, yes, now we can share God's story and God's grace on using our faithful feet and what an offering that is to the Lord.

Valerie - I love that. And I love how kids just gravitate to unique and funny ways of looking at faith. And I think that helps them to relate to these stories that they've heard many times to find a way to make it funny and different and engaging. That's, but I have a question. So you have brave feet, strong feet, joyful feet. Why are Noah's feet hairy?

Laura - I just thought that was funny. There's no biblical reason, and it does not say in the Bible that he had hairy feet. I just imagine, gosh, I bet he had hairy feet.

Valerie -Well, he was 600 years old. You'd had some time to grow some, But I thought that was a great way to just kind of jump in there of, know, feet are just weird. It made me think of hobbit feet and just, I don't know, it was just fun. And I think, you know, my boys walked away with saying all kinds of funny things about feet. Now, I'm kind of what it is. Were you always really good at rhymes and such when you grew up, or did poetry come easily to you?

Laura - Well, I think that some people have a natural disposition towards rhyme. And so I think I have an ear for it. But I've also then had to, I've cultivated and honed that over the years. But, yes, I've loved writing. , my mom saved some of my writing from when I was a kid, and I have a couple of poems that she saved. The meter's not exactly great, but yeah, I've honed it over the years. I also speak French, and I think in French, almost everything rhymes in French because you don't have the ending sounds. So, it's easy to rhyme in French. But I think that ear and that love of rhyme is at the root of my rhyming. I love it.

Valerie - It's fun to see how rhyme just kind of flows into almost parents' language. It's because we're reading rhyme all the time to our kids and just kind of, at least I know, I find myself, you, what is it? Get ready for the day before we play. You, we just kind of start rhyming everything to make it stick into our kids' minds. And I love that about rhyme.

 Laura - In fact, my children have had somewhat what they would call mortifying moments over the years when I rhyme in front of their friends, you know, if we're talking about something and that's, that's mortifying.

Valerie - I could see how that would be mortifying to some preteens and teenagers for sure. Too fun. Now, how did this love of rhyme turn into wanting to write for children?

Laura - All right, well, that's a great question. So I have always loved rhyming, I've always loved reading, and my first career was as a teacher. So, I taught elementary school, primarily fourth grade. And so that connection of teaching and loving literature and then loving the Lord and then wanting to convey that to kids. So when my kids were born, I stepped away, when my son was born, I stepped away from the classroom, and that's when I started writing, and I just started writing crafts and poems, and many of them were faith-based and so it was that sort of combination of I realize I love to rhyme and I think I've got a gift for it I want to teach and so putting the two together it was sort of natural over time to write books.

Valerie - It's neat to see how God gears us and equips us to what he wants to call us to. Even like back in the books your mom collected, it is just like you're doing it from the start. I think that's something fun that I like to communicate to my kids: there are natural gifts that God has given you. It's like, sure, you could be this, that, or the other, but look at the gifts God's given you and be faithful to those.

Laura - That's right. And be attuned to them. And then, you know, sometimes it's not till hindsight, not till you look back and you see how God was placing these different things sort of on your heart over time and giving you these gifts. And you might not realize until you're all grown up. But if you're thinking about what it is that I love to do and what God has gifted me, what comes easily and well to me and where I feel, you kind of feel the joy of the Lord when you're doing it, those might be little indicators that that's something to pursue.

Valerie - Very true. Now, with this book Faithful Feet, what are you kind of hoping kids walk away with other than a few giggles?

Laura - All right, well, I hope they walk away with just an understanding of how much God loves them and that the Bible is God's story and that it is a story of redemption. It's a story of grace. It's a story of; it's not just his faithful followers as the examples but God's faithfulness to us and how he loves it when we share that with others once we understand it. I mean, we can't help but overflow with it and use our feet. And now, feet are just a metaphor. It's really about walking spiritually with God, walking just like giving our all to him. So I like to let kids know that, too. It's not really about your feet. Feet is a fun way to think about it, but it's about following God and trusting in him and his faithful care throughout your life.

Valerie - It's, it's a great metaphor just to kind of communicate that Christian walk, that steadiness. Cause what is it? I think I've had seasons where I've hurt a foot. Think it was on a water slide. Went down the water slide wrong and hit my foot, and it didn't get broken, but it was painful for a long time. And we just, they're what underrated body parts. Think we don't. And so just to look at.

Laura -Absolutely. We take them for granted until something happens.

Valerie - And we could do the same with God, too. He'd kind of take advantage of that like faithfulness and, you know, and kind of forget to dive into God's word and forget to communicate with him through prayer. And I think it's that picture of just steadiness and standing and, you know, being firm in your foundation are just really great concepts to teach our kids as they start facing hard things in our world and facing school and facing different kids who believe different things. Just knowing that you know, what is it with both Noah and Daniel and even David, you know, nobody believed David, anyone could take down Goliath. David was like, yes, we can. And just to be able to stand up and say, I am going to stand for the Lord, kids have to make that stand earlier and earlier in our ever-changing culture.

Laura -Absolutely. And it reminded me of another thing that I hope that kids will take away from the book that you know, the Bible can just seem like this is a big book and it doesn't have pictures in it, but it's full of amazing stories of God's love for his people over generations and generations. And I hope that the book is also just a nice introduction to a little tease so they want to dig in a little bit more. So, the illustrations that Emanuella de Dona has done all connect to different stories. So a fun thing to do with the book after you've read it the first time would be to go back and see if you can figure out what those stories are and then maybe

be a detective and go and look in your Bible to see if you can find those stories. And there's an activity kit that goes with the book. It's free; it's a free download. And it has some cards that have pictures of the different, some of the stories.

And then, at the bottom, there's a Bible verse. So they could try to figure it out. And then, if they need a little help, they can use those cards, but just to go and dig into their Bibles. So these are in all these Christian resources and books; those are introductions, but what we want, we want to be getting into the Bible too. So.

Valerie - Very true. We want to, like, just engage their curiosity and to make them want to learn a little bit more about Noah's hairy feet. And I was like, did he have hairy feet? I'm like, who knows? Okay. It might be one of the questions you ask when you get to have it. Like, okay, Lord, how did I do? No, is it?

Laura -That's right. Exactly. Right.

Valerie -Too fun. Now, you told us a little bit about your author's story and kind of how you moved from teaching to writing. How have you seen God be faithful in that journey?

Laura -My goodness, he's been faithful in so many ways, even in leading me to which places to go and seek publication and opening doors. And I can just see his faithfulness in planting ideas. I like to begin my writing time with some prayer time, and wow, I keep a journal, and sometimes in the journal, I'm not even thinking about a story, but when I go back and see, wow, God used that situation to plant a seed for this idea. And I see it also just in the opportunities I've had with the books to go and connect with families, things that I would never have imagined. So, yeah, God is definitely, can see his leading me along the path.

Valerie -It's fun to watch and to see how busy you are in school visits and engaging with local bookstores in your area. And it's fun to see how God has placed a lot of opportunities in front of you to communicate just sweet, fun truths with your tender heart devotions and take it back to Good Night Manger, just really sweet books that have an engaged people in just loving God's Word all the more. It's been fun to watch your journey, too. Now, with all that you do with your books, what does a typical writing day look like for you?

Laura - Okay, well I try to write for a couple of hours. Morning is my best time. I like to have a cup of some kind of beverage, and my preferred beverage is decaf, tea, or coffee. I'm off caffeine. I'm so much more awake without caffeine. For all of you out there who are having a cup of coffee, switch to decaf. I can't believe how much more energy I have. When I begin with Every morning, even though I don't count this as my writing time, I have a prayer journal for my quiet time in the morning, but it helps to set the course of the day. And then I, like, I'm always working on multiple projects because I like to set things aside. So, for any picture book or anything that's made it to publication, just know that I wrote, I then set it aside. I didn't look at it for maybe weeks or months, and then I'd come back. Often, I set it aside if there's a problem or I can't quite get something just right. So, it goes through that time filter. So, by the time you read Faithful Feet, for example, it's been through a lot of revisions and several years, several years worth. But that's my process. That's why I have more than one project going. Yeah, so that's my typical writing day. And then I go about and do other things, but I sometimes, if really in a groove, I'll keep that notebook open, and You probably do the same thing too, Valerie. I came back, and I just got this. I'll write it down. Sometimes, I wake up in the night, and I'll have an idea. So I keep a notebook next to me so I can write. I once had a great third verse I needed for something in the middle of the night, and I wrote it all down. But when I woke up, I had forgotten to take the cap off the pen.

Valerie -No.

Laura -So, but I was able to still retrieve it. It might not have been quite as, in my mind, wasn't as perfect as it had been at three in the morning.

Valerie -My husband gifted me this writing pad for like in the shower. And like, because you always, I was always writing on the, what is it? The condensation on the shower door. And my husband's like, do you remember all the stuff you write on there? Like, so he finally got me a piece of paper that works in the showers like, yay. It's funny when those inspirations hit; they can come from anywhere.

Laura - You have to capture them. Yep, you have to capture them. So, and then the other thing that I hadn't really thought of as a pre-published author is that I also have to spend, so I try to chunk it out. I have to spend some time sort of on the business end of things, like setting up school visits and doing those kinds of things. So I have a thing where I try to do two little actionable steps, I call them a day. So today, I had to reach out with an invoice for someone, and then I reached out to schedule something with a bookstore. Those are my two things for today. But it, so I, and I have a notebook where I keep track of when I do the initial. So there's sort of that, that side of things, too.

Valerie - Yeah, what is it? You know, writing a book is always considered hard, but then you think about the marketing side of writing. It's like, oh, I did not sign up for this. I signed up for writing.

Laura - Yes, yeah. No, yeah, right. It's not quite as much fun. So that's why it's always important to have that creative part each day as well.

Valerie - Very true. Now, what is your favorite children's book other than your own?

Laura - My favorite children's book other than my own. So it's not a picture book, but my favorite all-time are the Little House on the Prairie books. Those are the books that connected me. Those were foundational to my love of reading. And I'm going to add some other, but so those, and I love, I just have always loved the little house books that she was telling her story. She was telling her story. And so there was heart in his story. And so I've just always

connected to that. I had whole play worlds based on Little House. I had my little dollhouse. I had a parallel family to their family, all different names, but they were out on the prairie. And then, can I add a second one? Okay, so AA Milne, he's a well-known poet, best known probably for Winnie the Pooh. But what I liked, my favorite poetry book, was AA Milne, Now we are six and then, and when we were very young. So, and I remember this kind of gets back to earlier in our chat, my mother reading those to me as I sat in her lap, and I very soon had them memorized. So I think that maybe some of my love of rhyme also has roots in that very early listening to her read and then reciting myself A. A. Milne. So I just love it, and his poems were also just about everyday little things that a young child experiences and classics. If you haven't read any of his poetry, I highly recommend it.

Valerie- Winning the Pooh is kind of a big part of my childhood growing up with visiting my grandmother. It was just kind of part of going to see Grandma. I was just watching Winnie the

Pooh. And it's been fun to see, like as I am raising my kids and like to see little nuggets of those rhymes come out to be like, what is it when Winnie the Pooh is trying to get into the beehive, and he pretends to be a rain cloud. We would just sing that little bit when we would water the flowers. We don't want to douse the flowers. It's like, let's be a little, little rain cloud.

Laura - Aww, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Listen, all those things do, they do get woven into your childhood. Yep. Our dog we have a dog, and our stairs from our first floor to our second floor have a landing. So you're halfway up, and you're halfway down. There's, and A.A. Milne has a poem about being at that halfway stop. You're neither up, or you're neither down. So I always think of him when she, cause Sophie likes to just, that's where she likes to hang out many times. She's not up, and she's not down. It's like in A.A. Milne's poem.

Valerie - Yep. Too fun. I have a dog that does the same thing on our switchback stairs. She likes that spot, neither up nor down. Too fun. Well, that's something we can expect next from you, Laura.

Laura - Well, I'm excited. I have another book, a new book, releasing in July. It's a, it's an autumn book. So it's coming out just in time, so you can read it in the pumpkin patch. It's called Pumpkin Day for Boo and Belle. It's about a little bunny and a chipmunk who have an annual Pumpkin Day tea, and something goes wrong with this tea. And it involves some

missing mail and a lot of misunderstanding. So are they going to be able to work through their friendship, or is it what's going to happen? That's and the ill, I've just, it, they sent the final lasers. It's all, it's all, it's going to be on shelves July 15th. So I'm excited about that one.

Valerie -Too fun. Is it similar to your Easter book or Bunny Finds Easter?

Laura - No, this one is just very story-rich. It rhymes, but I would say it would be more along the lines of it's very plot-driven. So, it is character-driven. So, Bunny Finds Easter is just a very, very simple board book for the littlest ones. And this has a little more complicated plot. I would say. It includes a map at the beginning, which is fun. A map of their world. So. Pumpkin Patch Map. Yes.

Valerie - Very cool, those are always fun. That sounds like a great read for when we want fall to come and join us, right? Not yet. Right. Laura, tell us a little bit about where people can find out more about you and your books.

Laura - All right, so I would invite your listeners to visit me on my website, which is laurassassitails.wordpress.com. You can learn about all my books there. You can also follow me there. I send out a newsletter slash post, like a blog post, once or twice a week. And I would love to have you follow me there and subscribe to that for the latest and inspirational.

I share ideas for activities, interviews, book news, and all that stuff. You can find all that on my website.

Valerie - That's always been a fun email that I get just when your newsletter comes through. There's always something fun to look at in there, for sure. Well, thank you, Laura, for joining us today.

Laura - Thank you. It's always a pleasure.

Valerie - Always fun. And thank you for joining Laura and me on this episode of the Bookworthy podcast. Check the show notes for any books or links that we discussed, and let us know in the comments what types of shoes you prefer. Or do you have a pair of cowboy boots in your closet, too? Don't forget to log your books in the Bookworthy Summer Reading Challenge. Summer might be almost over, but the joy of reading never stops. See more at www.valeriefentress.com, and be sure to like and subscribe to discover more great books together.

Happy reading.