I have been a writer for a very long time, and my illustrations began to take shape long before my stories were complete. As a child, I wrote and illustrated many children’s books that went unpublished. I had and still have an avid imagination, and my work has always been childlike.
I have devoted my life to the telling of fairy tales made true by the human connections I experience in my life. My stories come to life like Margery Williams’ “Velveteen Rabbit;” I love the words, change the words, and finally make them real.
Starting at a very young age, I have focused on quite a number of topics close to my heart. For example, the environment.
As a small child, my parents and I went camping frequently. I fell in love with animals in their natural habitats. I grew accustomed to rain and discovered the delights of mud. Above all else, I befriended the forest, and the trees therein. They were for climbing and hugging. They brought fresh oxygen to my lungs; shaded me from too much sun, wind, and snowfall.
The trees protected me. So unlike the “taking boy,” in the story of “The Giving Tree,” by Shel Silverstein, I never imagined hurting trees or taking advantage of them. I also didn’t realize that not everyone held trees in such high regard. They are sacred to me.
Many people haven’t realized that cutting down trees and planting new ones does not mean a forest will grow overnight. Trees take years to grow into adults. Understandably, there has been a shortage of Christmas trees for the last three years at least.
Riding in my car seat–only two years old–I watched a truck drive by with more than a handful of felled trees. I experienced a feeling something like hate for the first time. Around my pacifier, I angrily said, “Put those trees back right now!”
Even now, it upsets me to see those trucks drive by carrying dear friends. Sometimes it brings tears to my eyes, though I am no longer two years old.
I grew up with the knowledge that reducing, reusing, and recycling were of utmost importance.
I thought of many ways to reuse resources. For instance, instead of buying bottled water, everyone in my family used a thermos and refilled it. No need to waste more plastic than necessary. I was aware of the landfills and humans using the ocean like a public dumping ground. I wanted no part in that destruction.
I cut through the plastic holes that previously held soda cans, so that no sea creature would struggle with a small trap around her snout. I knew without a doubt that if not recycled, the plastic would find its way to the ocean. When we don’t recycle, there is a terrible price.
Not long ago, a quote found me. It read, “Don’t throw anything away. There is no away.” There is no away. We have been given the earth as a gift, and we have exploited her.
I won a poster contest depicting on one side the world as it is, with animals fighting to survive human waste. On the other portion of the poster, I illustrated a world in which we could live peacefully together without pollution.
When I saw litter on the ground I picked it up. Once, at a pond near my grandmother’s house, I climbed down into the water to dig out visible garbage so that the ducks would not mistake it for food–especially the ducklings, which were young and vulnerable.
Reducing waste is one of the biggest changes we could make at the time, and the situation hasn’t changed. The human race is wasteful. If we conserve the resources the earth has given us, she could heal and grow and produce more of what we need. Instead, we are depleting them. Even as a small child I understood this more than some adults. This is even more important now as it was then.
I wrote an article in the local newspaper when I was in the second grade about reducing, reusing, and recycling; imploring the town and the world to hear my words and take action.
The Mayor sent me a t-shirt.
—SJB