After 40 Years of Writing Books, She’s Learned to Listen to Her Gut

Children’s Book Author Lee Wardlaw Releases New Book, ‘My Book of Firsts’

Lee Wardlaw holds up a copy of her latest book, 'My Book of Firsts' | Photo: Courtesy

Children’s book author Lee Wardlaw prefers to do things her way — after 40 years of writing children’s books, she’s learned to listen to her gut. This proved especially true with her 2011 book Won Ton, a story about a shelter cat that gets adopted. Publishers liked the story but weren’t fond of the haiku format — they wanted her “to just write it straight.” Wardlaw said no.

“I really felt that if a cat was gonna speak in human, he was gonna speak in haiku,” she says sitting opposite me at Dune Coffee Roasters on State Street. “Because cats and haiku have a lot in common,” she continues, “You know, they will say a lot with very few words.” She stuck with her gut and it was her most successful book to date, winning almost 50 awards, including poetry ones like the 2012 Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Poetry, Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry in 2012, and the 2013 Beehive Poetry Book Award.

That same creative conviction carried her through the long journey of publishing her latest book, My Book of Firsts, a first-person account of a baby’s milestones told through a poem format, written by Wardlaw and illustrated by Bruno Brogna. On April 27, she’s hosting a book launch and signing at her house where 30 percent of all proceeds from book sales will be donated to Postpartum Education for Parents (PEP).

She says My Book of Firsts took 25 years to publish. Why it took her so long was a classic tale of “It’s just not the right time,” or “We already have something like this in the works.” Nonetheless, despite this initial response from editors, she remained persistent.

She dreamed up the concept a few years after she gave birth to her son Patterson (PJ), in 1996. She was searching for a children’s book that detailed the first moments of a baby’s life. Coming up empty-handed, she decided to write her own. She titled it First Steps, a story about a baby learning to walk for the first time. “So much occurs in that first year,” she ponders, “I mean, you figure they’re just this lump that just lays there, and then by a year, they’re walking; they’re talking; they’re exploring; they’re doing all sorts of fun things.”

She decided that instead of writing a series of separate books, she would combine each “first” into one book — hence, My Book of Firsts. When the time was right, she sent it off, finally receiving a yes, making this her 31st book.

Wardlaw has lived in Santa Barbara since 1960 but is originally from Kansas. She attended Santa Barbara High and went on to Cal Poly, where she studied teaching. She thought about becoming a journalist because of her love of writing, but knew that she wanted to write for kids. “I thought, well, maybe I should go into the field,” she says, “You know, working with kids so that I really get to know my audience.” After earning her degree, she taught elementary and preschool for around five years. She’s been an author ever since.

Her first published book was Corey’s Fire, a 1990 young adult novel about a 14-year-old girl who loses her home to a fire. The story is based on her family’s experience when their home burned down in the 1977 Sycamore Fire. Wardlaw focused the book on Corey and her family’s effort to rebuild their lives after the catastrophic event. “She starts out being kind of a baby, kind of whiny,” says Wardlaw. “And she ends up being a lot more self-assured, self-confident, more independent. It was kind of my way of dealing with the traumatic experience.”

Her writing career can be traced back to when she was just 7 years old. She remembers quite clearly her first piece. When the film adaptation of Peter Pan had just come out, she was “enamored” by the story and unable to decide if she wanted to be Peter Pan or Tinker Bell. Naturally, she combined the two and wrote a story about a character named Tina Bell, who runs away from home and goes on a series of adventures.

Lee Wardlaw as a baby. | Photo: Courtesy

Growing up, she continued to write stories, jotting down the worlds that existed in her mind. While she started writing at 7, she didn’t formally declare her career as a children’s book writer until 6th grade. That childlike daydreaming never really left her, nor did her dreams of wanting to write for children. “I think adults tend to get grumpy and jaded; they’re just no fun,” she admits. “Kids are like kittens; they’re just so curious, and the world is so new and exciting.”

Wardlaw writes for all ages and genres from board books for babies and toddlers up to novels for teenagers. Although, she says, her past teenage novels “would probably be considered more for middle-schoolers now, because the genres have changed over the years.”

I asked her, what’s next? She’s working on a Civil War book for middle-schoolers. The inspiration? Her great-grandfathers — all four of them — fought in the war, two for the Union and two for the Confederacy. She’s deep into research and doesn’t take the responsibility lightly. To fully immerse herself in the era, she even started making Hardtack — the famously unperishable cracker soldiers ate during the war. “I think it’s going to be my best book ever,” she says smiling. “But it’s taking some time to get it done.”

Lee Wardlaw’s book signing for My Book of Firsts, with a portion of the proceeds going to PEF, takes place on Sunday, April 27, from 2-5 p.m. at a private residence. Please RSVP to author@leewardlaw.com or (805) 452-9924 for location.