Gilltown mum pens children's book
"Ping tires of eating bamboo and takes a stroll to the man village to his friend Po-Li” said Gilltown based author Audrey Moore. “Together they embark on a food adventure through the Asian Rainforest in search of tasty treats. They have great fun discovering what other animals eat and meet some very interesting new friends along the way, including a coconut crab and a vulture named Vicky. All the animals featured in the book are endangered."
There is a ‘Did you Know’ section at the back of the book with fun facts. Also, there is a fun map to follow the trail of Ping and Po-Li through the Asian Rainforest.
The idea for the book came to Audrey one night as she was trying to get her daughter Elinor to sleep. "I started the habit of holding her hand when she was a baby, and three years later there I was still holding her hand. Some nights it could take a few minutes, if I was lucky — but other nights, it could hours. As I was waiting for Elinor to fall asleep, I started thinking of silly stuff, and a children’s story popped into my head. I then started typing the story on my laptop, and fleshing out the characters, that was just over two years ago."
Audrey could have left the story and the project there but she was determined to show her daughters that if you set your mind to something, you can make it happen. "I have always loved pandas and find them so interesting, but they only eat bamboo, which has no nutritional value and an adult panda has to eat up to 30-40 pounds of it a day. They find it hard to reproduce because of this and have very little energy which affects their behaviour.
"Hopefully, through this book, people will become aware not only of the endangered animals but about healthy eating and varying your diet."
What a lovely idea, please do join in for the launch of the book at Kildare Town Library on October 22nd — lots of treats and freebies for the children. You can purchase the book on Amazon and on Audrey’s website, in hardback, e-book and paperback.
Audrey is a journalist who gained work experience in RTÉ, Today FM and INN. She also studied Law and worked as a legal secretary for ten years. She has worked in marketing and publicity, is currently on maternity leave, after having a little boy five weeks ago. She lives outside Kilcullen, with her husband Ray, and three children Jessica, Elinor and Jamie.
