Fitting springtime launch for children’s book
Th e timing fi nally seems right for the offi cial launch of Rev. Lynn McKinnon’s second children’s book.
The faith- based book, “The Tiny Brown Seed,” starts out with a seemingly insignifi cant and unnoticed apple seed that, once nurtured by the sun, wind and rain, gradually starts to grow. Years later, it becomes a tree and is sought after by birds for nesting, people and animals for shelter and for its delicious red apples. And in the centre of those apples are the tiny brown seeds that possess the potential of starting the process all over again.
McKinnon said she wrote the story about 13 years ago but needed an illustrator to package it all together. About this time last year, she reached out to a congregation member, Jesse Barbour, who digitally produced the drawings for the book.
Through a power- point presentation, Sunday School children became their test audience.
McKinnon said she’s been writing children’s stories “just when the mood strikes me” for 14 to 15 years.
So, just as new life is starting to sprout, the offi cial book launch of “The Tiny Brown Seed” will be held in the Gordon Memorial United Church hall in Alberton on Tuesday, May 22, at 7 p. m.
It would have been her fi rst self- published book had McKinnon not learned about a church in Loch Lomond, Cape Breton, that was closing. Th at discovery led to the publishing of her fi rst book, “A Bunny Lives in Loch Lomond.” Th at book, illustrated by Janelle Irving, was launched in April, 2016.
There were plans for more children’s books to be illustrated by Irving, but the Alberton area artist and author passed away in August, 2016. Although McKinnon says “The Tiny Brown Seed” is directed at an elementary school- age audience, she noted a friend suggested the story, with its message about patience, hanging in there and having faith in the process, is applicable to an older audience, too.