Sisters publish children’s book decades in the making

Sisters Linda Wade and Leigh Ellen Stewart sat at the dining room table in their mother’s house. A book signing at a local coffee shop last month for their book, “Herby’s Friend”, had been a surprising success. Linda, the author, was more surprised than Leigh Ellen, who illustrated the book.

Their paths had diverged many years ago, after leaving home. Leigh Ellen studied Commercial Art and then Art Education at Western Kentucky University, while Linda was a stay-at-home mom living in Clarksville, Tennessee, with her military husband Stewart and two small children.

In the spring, black caterpillars would cover Linda’s patio in Clarksville, and her son Adam, just over one year old, loved those caterpillars. He liked to go out and walk around among them, picking them up and rolling them between the thumb and finger of both hands.

And so Herby the caterpillar and his friend Allen came together in Linda’s mind.

Linda wrote down the story in pencil on lined notebook paper and mailed it to Leigh Ellen, not even keeping a copy for herself. “I didn’t want to be able to change it,” she said. Leigh Ellen had agreed to illustrate it, although at that time she wasn’t doing illustration work. Over the years, a number of people asked her to illustrate projects for them, but she turned them down. “I knew Linda’s had to be my first,” she said.

Life was busy for both of them. Linda had three small children and a number of moves in her future as her husband was transferred with his military career. Leigh Ellen graduated from college and began her career as a visual arts instructor for grades 7-12 in the local school system. Leigh Ellen married and had two sons.

Linda later went back to school and began her career as a third grade teacher. But while Linda thought little about the book, Leigh Ellen continued to think about what Herby would look like, and how best to capture the story in illustration. She occasionally asked her students for ideas.

Finally Linda retired, and then Leigh Ellen, who then began working in earnest on the illustrations. She arranged the pages with the words of the story on one page and the illustration for each piece of the story on the adjacent page. She gave Linda the illustrations for her birthday in 2019 and they decided it was time to do something with it. They started thinking seriously about publishing the book.

An illustration from “Herby’s Friend” by Linda Wade and Leigh Ellen Stewart.

Linda didn’t do any editing, feeling like the story was done. Leigh Ellen had to make the decision that the illustrations were also complete. “I guess when I get to a point where the details are done, when I don’t think anything else can be added,” then it is finished. She added a little bee to each page, because kids notice little things like that. “You want the pages to be visually pleasing,” she added.

At this point Stewart joined the team. He scanned the illustrations and added the text of the story on the computer. He designed the front and back covers and formatted the pages and then sent the book to the publisher. They sent back a test copy and a few changes were made. “We tweaked it,” explained Leigh Ellen.

Then they were ready to order copies. Stewart sent the finished book to the publishers, and they printed and bound the books. It all came together in February of this year.

“I think it was all in the right time,” Linda said about the delay in finishing the book. “It just came about when it was supposed to.”

Leigh Ellen agreed, saying that they couldn’t have done then what they were able to do now. Her only regret is that Linda didn’t have the book when her kids and then her grandkids were small. Still, the grandkids have read the book and like it. And her granddaughter, Elli, has told her how proud she is of her “Yinna”.

When they decided to have a book signing, Stewart took the initiative and approached the owners of Sip&Spin Coffee and Records in Greenville. They were enthusiastic about the idea, but Linda was not. “I wasn’t going to. I never even thought about selling them,” she said. But it was a success.

Linda said she hasn’t been inclined to write another book, and if her son hadn’t been so cute with those black caterpillars, she probably wouldn’t have written this one. Leigh Ellen asked Linda if she had wished that Herbie had not been so colorful, but instead had been black like those that inspired the story. Lind gave a resounding no. “I think he’s perfect,” she said. His color and his size were for the children.

Linda felt that the words were not special, that the illustrations made the book, but her husband pointed out that without the words the illustrations wouldn’t exist. So the sisters both feel that they played equal parts in creating this book.

Linda now has the original copy of the story in her possession again, although it is so faded it’s hardly legible. According to Leigh Ellen, for all of those years she carried it with her in her book bag, back and forth to school.

The pages of the book are displayed on the Story Walk near the start of the Rails to Trails on the Greenville end. Sarah Cary and Janet Harris, both with Muhlenberg County Public Libraries, arranged for the display. Stewart printed each page on high quality photo paper, and Sarah placed them in the holders so that children passing by could read them.

The sisters will host a book signing from 10 a.m. until noon on May 13 at The Depot Gifts and Corner Fashions, at 123 East Broad Street in Central City.

“She’s very humble,” Leigh Ellen said about her sister. “She had no idea what it would do. She just doesn’t realize how cute it is. I knew that it would work.”