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Profile - The Snowman in the Moon
by Lucie Bouchard Antoniazzi

The recipient of the Fall 2005 Mom’s Choice Award^TM in the category of Creative Children’s Picture Book is The Snowman in the Moon (KRBY Creations, LLC), written and illustrated by Stephen Heigh. Find out more about the book and its creators by visiting www.krbycreations.com.

Just For Mom recently had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Heigh to find out just how this wonderful book came about and what Stephen has planned for the future.

JFM: What inspired you to write this book?

SH: The Snowman in the Moon is a special book, and I was inspired many years ago as a child. I loved being outdoors and lived in a heavily wooded community with rolling hills. There were pine forests and streams. This environment as a child was really neat, and I was always looking to discover new things in nature. I would often sit on the hill behind my house, look at the night sky, and imagine seeing things and distant landscapes in the night sky’s clouds. Winter is always such a magical time for a child, and a snowfall brings out the child in all of us. It brings us to remember simple and happy times when we were children. I wanted to share my love for these things with others. The story that I had in my mind since I was young is now a book and that’s amazing.

JFM: Briefly explain your experience with the elaboration of your book, working with your team (illustrators, designers, publishers, etc.)

SH: The book is very well crafted. The layout gives the best possible telling of the story with it’s landscape panoramic format. It allows the reader to enter into the landscape. My publisher wants to create classic books – books that can be shared for generations and a be timeless treasures. I could not ask for more than that. To have such a fine book made available is very rewarding and the response from children has been overwhelmingly positive. I enjoy sharing the book. We looked creatively as a team for the best possible page format and did several variations. As with most things involved with books, it becomes clear when you hit upon the desired look. That’s exciting and fun.

JFM: What goal did you have in mind when developing this book? Do you feel that you have achieved that goal?

SH: My goal with The Snowman in the Moon was the idea about using your imagination and believing in wonderful things and yourself. I also love the idea of community and sharing moments. It’s always great when people can come together and share in a common goal and enjoy the reward of simple joy of working together to accomplish things. In the book the snowman reappears in the moon and smiles on what the community created together. That’s fun and they all get to feel proud.

Believing in yourself and others, that’s what it’s all about. It’s a good message for children and the goal of the book is realized. I want to create books about goodness.

JFM: What is in store for the future?

SH: I have many ideas that are different and unique. I have a new book idea in the works which explores children crafting something and then the journey of what was made. This is a learning process for me as well. I’m learning as I go what it is that I do best. The children at the schools that I visit actually inspire me when they talk about my stories. It’s going to be great to share nice stories with them in the future. I definitely see my books going into animation and many people have told me "That would make a great film." I’m very visual and see my stories unfold almost like a movie. When I write, I see clear images. I have been an illustrator for over 25 years and so that explains that. Many illustration assignments are just one image to tell a story. The great thing about books is that you can travel through many images and open the imagination for the reader.

Look for The Snowman in the Moon at www.krbycreations.com.