You may know that I lost my mum during the lockdown years. You may also know that I don’t take sponsored posts, brand deals, or sell links on this site. You should know that my family doesn’t use Amazon, hasn’t for maybe 2 years now, and hasn’t missed it once. We are gradually removing Amazon links from our sites and not updating old sales posts. There are other places to buy books and we try to spend our money at small local businesses. Today I’m breaking my rules to help out a fellow human who did a human thing.
Among the millions of emails I receive asking me to promote their spammy AI app or begging for a backlink for $20 (we would charge $1000+ if we did them), I had a human email from Kelsey Cecil.
I’ll let Kelsey tell the story below. Maybe you’d like to buy her book as a Christmas gift, or any day present, this year. You’ll see why I broke my rules for this story.
Before we get onto Kelsey’s story, I want to be certain you saw the post, Living Differently, What We Can Do? For some reason, the email tool isn’t sending it out and I want you to see that one. I also would like you to revisit our Freak Street Kathmandu post. The artist behind that stunning mural got in touch with me, and I added what he had to say about his work. Also, a reminder, if you are a genuine human blogger and you leave a non-AI comment with your blog link, I will publish it, and you will get a backlink. 99.9% of blog comments today are AI spam, and I delete them. But humans are welcome. Cheers!
This post is not sponsored, affiliate links may appear.
A Book About a Dog on a Train, For Younger Kids, With A Deeper Meaning and Message
Kelsey says:
Rally Takes the Train started with my own mum. For years, she loved telling a story about our corgi, Rally, riding the train to visit his grandparents. She always dreamed it would become a book, but she passed away before that could happen.
She had the title, the story, and even a word for the grandparents in it: the “grand-paw-rents.” She passed away in 2021, during the pandemic, before she ever wrote it, and before my kids were born. My dad passed about a year later.
So I wrote it for her to carry her dream and her love forward. Rally Takes the Train follows our real corgi on his first train ride to see Grandmommy and Papa. Along the way, he goes through a dark tunnel, gets scared, and then finds the light on the other side.
My kids never got to meet their grandparents, but now they get to read the story their grandma dreamed up. Rally has since passed too, so every page holds a little of all three of them.
In the story, Rally’s train enters a dark tunnel, and he feels afraid. But the dark always ends, and his loving grandparents are waiting for him on the other side. It’s a sweet little train adventure for children, and also a gentle reminder for anyone who is grieving that love is never far away.
My hope has always been for Rally to be more than a book, so I’ve built some free resources around it that may be nice to include:
- Train museums: Children can explore 650 train and railway museums through our free guides, discovering the history, engineering, and stories behind real trains. A lovely fit for families who travel! They can also play our free educational game, Whistle Stop.
- For educators: Lesson plans to help teachers and homeschooling families use the book in their lessons.
- We also have free coloring pages for kids that pair with the book.
Every page is hand-painted in real watercolour by illustrator Leslie Dunn. It’s for ages baby to 5 and sells for $16.99 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The ride is based on the real Amtrak Pacific Surfliner along the California coast, so it’s a natural gift for little train lovers.
I also offer signed author copies shipped directly from me.
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