By Macey Wurm
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
What started out as a sweet story-time surprise for her son and his class at Edugether Child Development Center has blossomed into something bigger for a West Seattle mom – she’s become an author.
Back in October, Whitney Weigum signed up for a slot to read a story to her 3-year-old son Bennett’s class, but put her own twist on it. Drawing from the games she played with her son when teaching him the alphabet, she decided to draw up her own book for story time featuring her son as the main character.
The book, titled “Bennett’s Alphabet Adventures,” first took the form of printed sheets of paper in a binder, before one of the day-care teachers suggested that Weigum consider getting it published. The completed project finally came to fruition in early March, after some months of revision and refining illustrations, which Weigum also did herself.
“I spent several months redoing a lot of the line art and making sure that the print quality was there. And then it was my New Year’s Resolution to publish,” Weigum said.
While authoring and illustrating children’s books is not Weigum’s main domain, an array of professional experiences equipped her to navigate the writing and publishing process, as well as the more visually creative side. Before holding her current position as a project manager at Amazon, she worked as an art director for Alaska Airlines Magazine, and was an Art major at the University of Washington. She is also well versed in technical writing, producing customer support content at Amazon. Weigum regarded the production of the book as, “Every world combined that I have experience with.”
After exploring her options and coming to face some barriers in the publishing world, Weigum ultimately decided to self-publish her book. “It was hard to find when I already specifically knew what I wanted the book to be about,” she said. It was then picked up by a distributor, and is currently available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Walmart among other sites. She said “Bennett’s Alphabet Adventures” even hit the Amazon top-ten list in the New Releases in Children’s Books category. “It was really nice because within the first week I had so much support from friends and word of mouth and family that the book hit. It was really validating, and just kind of mind-blowing.”
“Bennett’s Alphabet Adventures” is targeted toward kids aged between 2 and 6 who are developing their familiarity with the alphabet. It is designed to be very interactive, and includes prompts for teachers or caregivers on every single page to engage with their young learner. Weigum added that she thinks the book could be a “really great tool, not only for preschools, but for homeschooling or other educators.”
As for the future, Weigum mentioned she has another book in the works that will act as a dual-language, English-Spanish learning tool. She has finished writing, but is still working on the illustrations, which are done by hand. Her second book will likely be published in August but in the meantime, Weigum is enjoying introducing her debut book to the community and interacting with the age group of its potential readers. You can meet her during this Thursday’s West Seattle Art Walk, 5-8 pm at Snip-its in The Junction (4506 California SW) – she’ll have books, plus coloring pages and stickers for kids, based on the illustrations in “Bennett’s Alphabet Adventures.”