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Singer, songwriter, mother, and “lunatic nation music particular person” Maren Morris has added one other title to her resume: youngsters’s e-book writer. On April 9, 2024, Chronicle Chroma launched Addie Ant Goes on an Journey, the primary e-book from Morris and her best-friend-slash-writing-partner Karina Argow.
Illustrated by Kelly Anne Dalton, the debut image e-book follows the eponymous insect, Addie Ant, as she ventures from one backyard mattress to a different on her first solo journey. Alongside the way in which, she learns classes about being courageous, practising independence, and realizing when to ask for assist.
Along with these timeless themes for younger readers, the e-book displays the values Morris’ platform has develop into synonymous with: range, friendship, love, and connection.
Argow brings to the combo her background as an educator (she’s a former highschool instructor and division chairperson) and spectacular inexperienced thumb. In actual fact, it was Argow’s avid gardening, partly, that impressed the buddies to write down the e-book.
As Morris defined in an interview with Scary Mommy, the 2 began discussing the concept throughout the tour for her Humble Quest album two years in the past. Morris had toyed with the concept of writing a youngsters’s e-book since she reads so many to her 4-year-old son, Hayes.
“That’s form of how the concept was hatched,” she explains, including, “Then Karina was like, ‘Oh, by the way in which, I’ve all these characters that I’ve give you in my backyard.’ And I used to be like, ‘Properly, that’s half the work.’”
Throughout our interview, we identified how a lot the Scary Mommy staff loves Lewis Ladybug, one of many characters who made it into the e-book.
“Lewis was definitely one of many frontrunners for e-book one, and I like them a lot,” Morris gushes. “They’ve such nice recommendation, and the outfits and the bed room alone are simply eye sweet. However we actually had enjoyable hammering out completely different popular culture references for every character. Lewis could be very…”
“Iris Apfel,” Argow says, ending Morris’ sentence, as finest mates do. “After we have been interested by it, we have been like, OK, we want the glasses. We want the jewellery, we want the fabulousness.”
For Beatrix Butterfly, the ladies drew inspiration from one other popular culture icon: “Jane Fonda, aerobics period.” (These legwarmers! That leotard!)
After all, after studying Addie Ant, youngsters might very properly be begging dad and mom for their very own backyard. So, we requested Argow, what’s an awesome place for rookies to begin?
“I believe my finest recommendation is to do a pizza backyard and do oregano, basil, tomatoes,” she shares. “These are the simplest. After which you possibly can have a giant pizza evening on the finish of the summer season!”
Morris’ son Hayes is “obsessed” with Argow’s backyard, the singer reveals. “The map of Gemma’s Backyard in Addie Ant is form of a mirrored image of Karina’s backyard,” she says.
On a latest go to to Argow’s backyard, Hayes even received to do one thing additional particular.
“As quickly because it will get chilly within the fall, the bumblebees freeze in a single day. Then you possibly can wake them up within the morning by petting them and warming them up. Hayes was over one morning, and we have been waking up all of the bumblebees,” shares Argow. “Afterwards, I used to be like, Possibly it wasn’t an awesome thought to have him taking part in with the bees (laughs). However he nonetheless comes over, and he is like, ‘Bumblebees, the place are the bumblebees? Let’s go get up the bumblebees.’”
Which, let’s be trustworthy, sounds fairly magical.
Thankfully for all of the little budding gardeners on the market, this isn’t the final we’ll see of Addie Ant and mates.
“We already completed e-book two,” Morris tells us. “And Karina has this whole PDF record of characters that we have now not met but. All of them have already got backstories and context and personalities in her head, so I simply love that we have now this deep properly to return to.”
The perfect mates admittedly might even be getting forward of themselves out of pleasure, rattling off future prospects — an album paired with the e-book collection, a musical for Lewis, an animated collection, branded seed packets, and even a mom-and-kids’ clothes line (“I desperately need a little bit bandana like Cleo has,” gushes Argow).
On the finish of the day, although, the friends-turned-collaborators simply hope followers love the world they’ve created.
“I’m trying ahead to this being the beginning of many adventures for Addie Ant, who I do know will develop into a beloved youngsters’s character,” says Morris.
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