Like most moms of young children, Lindsay C. Barry knows the power of naptime. Those precious hours are how she became a children’s book author.
“I wrote it over a couple weeks while they were napping,” says Barry of her first book, Journey to Constellation Station (Thumbkin Prints).
Earlier this year, Barry, who lives in Fairfax City, released her second book, The Backpack, about a little girl who learns a lesson about materialism when shopping for a new backpack.
The story was inspired by her older son who was heading to kindergarten. A fellow parent recommended a specific, brand-name backpack. “I bought it, but then I got worried about the message that was sending him. ‘You need a brand name.’ And what would be the message for kids who can’t afford that?” says Barry. “I wrote The Backpack to reiterate the lesson that kindness matters. What’s inside is what matters.”
With her second book, Barry took the lesson beyond the page. For every book sold, she’s donating 25 cents to Blessings in a Backpack, a national nonprofit that sends elementary school-aged children home with backpacks full of food on the weekends who might otherwise go hungry.
Barry also takes her kid-friendly lessons into the classroom. She read Constellation Station in more than 100 classrooms throughout Northern Virginia since its release, and will be available for similar readings with her new book.
And for her next book, she’s looking to her two boys, 5 and 7. “Basically, the stages of my children have so far dictated what I’ve been writing.”
This post originally appeared in our May 2019 issue. Want more family content? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
