I lived in Brockton, MA, for many years, and long before the internet was available I would visit the library to do research for my illustrations. This past week I gave a presentation at the Brockton Public Library, and children's librarian Sharon Quint and I reminisced over a serendipitous moment from my past.
The year was 2005 and I was researching snakes for Snakes: Long, Longer, Longest, written by Jerry Pallotta and Van Wallach, Scholastic, in the children's room. Sandwiched between the aisles I was hidden as I poured over the difference between a pit viper and a boa. The library being quiet, I easily overheard a young mother speaking to her toddler. "Which book would you like me to read to you, the icky bug one or the race car?"
My antenna clicked in. Which book would the child choose? Which icky bug book was she referring to? Jerry had written numerous icky bug books - one of which, Icky Bug Shapes, Scholastic, was illustrated by me. Of course, the Children's Room is filled with thousands of books, the chances of the mother referring to my book were what, well….. pretty slim.
"ICKY BUG SHAPES! I want you to read ICKY BUG SHAPES!" I heard from across the room. What? What were the chances???? Heart thumping, I went over to the pair and introduced myself, asking if I could do the honor of reading my book to the child.
I have had a Serendipitous Career as a children's book illustrator and now author. My story has been included in a new book of serendipitous stories gathered together by author Madonna Dries Christensen titled simply
SERENDIPITY. I hope you will consider buying a copy, 100% of the royalties go to the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virgina.
The anthology has 45 contributors and /71 stories/poems. Here is my contribution:
A Serendipitous Career
Shennen Bersani
I was illustrating a Second Grade reader, Androcles and the Lion, for McGraw-Hill. My son, Ryan, was a senior at Boston College High School, studying Latin and Ancient Greek—the perfect model for my Androcles.
One day when I picked him up at the train station after school, he hopped into the car and exclaimed that he had gotten me a job. He told me that BC High alumnus and children’s book author, Jerry Pallotta, had visited school that day and spoken about his career. During his talk, Jerry mentioned that he was looking for an illustrator who could draw a lion.
Unbeknownst to me, Ryan was so proud of my work that he had taken my full-color brochures to school and used them as bookmarks in his textbooks.
After Pallotta finished speaking, Ryan approached the author and handed him one of my brochures, adding, “You should hire my mother.”
Jerry looked over my work and asked if I was busy. Ryan said, “Not after she finishes illustrating Androcles and the Lion,” with emphasis on the word lion.
Two weeks later, I was illustrating my first trade book, Icky Bug Shapes, written by Jerry Pallotta.
Always wanting to be an author and not just an illustrator, a couple of years later I submitted a manuscript with accompanying illustrations to a South Carolina publisher. The editor responded that the manuscript wasn’t a good fit for her publishing house, but she loved my illustration style. Could I mail out my portfolio? Eager to connect, I packaged my artwork and drove to the post office.
I had no sooner pulled into the parking lot when my cell phone rang. The caller introduced herself as an editor of a newly-formed publishing house, Pleasant St. Press. She explained she had found my work on a British website, but wasn’t it coincidental that we happened to be located only a few towns apart in Massachusetts! As we chatted, it got weirder—we had both grown up in Weymouth and attended the same high school, Weymouth North. I was a few years older than Jean and had graduated before she entered. Two ships passing in the dark.
“I love your art on the website!” she said. “Especially your rendition of children. The little girl in the green dress is precious! I feel you would be the perfect fit for a book I'm publishing. Let me tell you about the book. The author is Writer’s Digest’s Contest Grand Prize winner, Nancy Tupper Ling. The book is based on an actual family, about two sisters, from the perspective of the older one, on what it is like to be the big sister of a girl with Down syndrome.”
I stopped breathing. I became dizzy. Memories of my lifetime flashed instantly though my mind. Hyperventilating, I dropped my phone on my lap. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
“Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?” the phone voice asked.
Shaking and gasping, I managed, “You couldn't have known. I have one younger sister, and she has Down syndrome!”
The editor expressed shock at still another coincidence. She couldn't wait to tell the book’s author of the coincidence.
I said that I would want to meet the actual girls, and I would need to think about the assignment. I knew it would be an emotionally challenging book to illustrate. Shaken, I neglected to write down the caller’s contact information.
A few weeks passed and Mother’s Day came along. Ryan came home to visit, and as he always does, asked what I was working on. I was illustrating a new Scholastic book for Jerry Pallotta, and as I showed Ryan my illustrations I related the phone conversation I’d had with a new editor.
Visibly excited, Ryan said, “This book was made for you to illustrate! You’ve got to illustrate it Mom! And just think, since they’re the same age, Aunt Holly would have attended Weymouth North with the editor!”
That realization caught my breath. My sister has my maiden name; no one would necessarily connect us. I told Ryan that I didn’t have the editor’s contact information—so many calls had come in on my cell the past few weeks my phone no longer showed it. But Ryan was completely confident this was going to happen.
Amazingly, within days the editor called me. “Do you remember, we spoke on the phone a few weeks ago about your illustrating a book?"
Did I remember? “Yes,” I stammered, and explained that I’d lost her phone number. We caught up; I explained that I’m my sister’s legal guardian. I love her to pieces. I grew up babysitting her every day after school while my parents worked. The two of us are yin and yang. We then arranged for me to meet Alicia and Rachel, the subjects of the book I was to illustrate.
When I met Alicia and Rachel, I saw Holly and my relationship mirrored in theirs. I was twelve again. I fell in love with the two of them. When I saw their mother, I saw Mom, when she was alive, giving her all to her girls. The whole scene, the memory, gave me goosebumps.
While I illustrated the pages of My Sister, Alicia May, the author’s words echoed my memories of growing up with Holly. Tears ran down my cheeks and fell on the artwork. The day I finished illustrating the book I added the cover image to the British website where I had been discovered by the publisher of this book.
Within an hour my phone rang. The caller said, “I'm publishing a series of books on a sensitive topic and I love what you’ve done with the girl with Down syndrome. Would you be interested in illustrating books for the American Cancer Society?”
Cancer hadn’t touched my family or my life, but I felt sympathetic with the people it had, I felt I could bring emotion to the subject. The first book I worked on for the Cancer Society, Let My Colors Out, written by Courtney Filigenzi, was a board book for young children. The protagonist’s mother was being treated for cancer and he showed his changing emotions with different colors. He had “blue” sad days, or “yellow” happy days. Each color of the rainbow was significant to the child.
Shortly after I signed onto the project, a delivery truck rear ended me at a red light. The accident injured both my hands, stopping my work while I recovered. Every day, I cursed that accident.
However, initially, the hospital performed an MRI to check for neck and spine damage. The report came back, “We see a large nodule on your thyroid.”
With research, I found that approximately 1.1 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer at some point during their lifetime. The odds were in my favor the nodule would be benign.
But while I illustrated Let My Colors Out, I learned that mine was malignant. I watched as my four children’s emotions mirrored the book’s protagonist’s to a tee. I had a thyroidectomy and have become a survivor.
Remarkably, my next book was Nana, What’s Cancer?, written by cancer survivor, Beverlye Hyman Fead with her granddaughter, Tessa Mae Hamermesh. I flew to Los Angeles to meet the two. Beverlye’s tenacity for life was contagious. Every day I thank God for the car accident that saved my life! I had noticed no sign of having cancer, but without that MRI it most likely wouldn’t have been found in time.
A year after my surgery, I posted on my blog that it was my one year anniversary of being cancer free. The editor from South Carolina, to whom I had sent my artwork portfolio two years earlier—the same day the other book editor had called me, read the post and e-mailed me congratulations on my health. She asked if I was interested in illustrating a book about a dog with cancer. I didn’t illustrate that book, but eventually illustrated many books for Arbordale Publishing, as well as more for Scholastic, Charlesbridge, and others.
Last year I submitted a manuscript to Arbordale, which they loved; a perfect fit. Now I’m the author and illustrator of Achoo! Why Pollen Counts, a book about pollen, pollen allergies, and pollination, with Baby Bear and his forest friends and a caring Mother explaining why pollen is critical to us all.
A serendipitous chain of events changed the course of my life.
LINKS:
SERENDIPITY
ICKY BUG SHAPES
SNAKES: LONG, LONGER, LONGEST
MY SISTER, ALICIA MAY
LET MY COLORS OUT
NANA, WHAT'S CANCER?
ACHOO! WHY POLLEN COUNTS
link to Shennen's other books on Amazon
A children's author and illustrator, I am currently illustrating my 26th children's picture book, while doing research for number 27. Most, but not all of the titles, can be purchased on Amazon. My books have sold over two million copies world-wide and have won many awards along the way. Passionate about our environment, please visit www.achoowhypollencounts.com to learn more about the importance of pollen, pollinators, bees, and more.
