Congratulations to Eyal Podell on publishing his first children’s book, The Little Cat That Zoomed. Written with wife Ashley, the book is an allegory designed to help children deal with the frustration of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eyal explained the book was “an attempt to commemorate a small part of our family’s experience during this historic and insane time. In the beginning of 2020 Ashley underwent hip replacement surgery and was recovering at home. When Covid hit and everything shut down she was furloughed and a few months later was let go. During that time she not only became a full-time, stay-at-home mom but also, like many of us, was looking for a creative outlet and an opportunity to turn the lemons of the lockdown into some kind of lemonade.”

He went on: “We have a cat named Sugar we all adore that would jump on our kids’ desks and sit with them during their school Zooms. My son introduced her to his fifth-grade classmates and they all loved her; even the teacher knew her name. My mother-in-law suggested my wife write a children’s book about it. Something just clicked. Ashley wrote a first draft, we collaborated to fine-tune the story and brought on a talented artist for the illustrations. This book is a love letter to our children and an acknowledgment of how strong and resilient they were during this time. The thematic message is that sometimes life’s biggest obstacles offer surprising opportunities for growth.”

On collaborating with Ashley, Eyal wrote, “We’re both creatives with backgrounds in performing arts so working together was a breeze. It was a fun experience to share with her and something that was always a bright spot in our day.”

Look for The Little Cat That Zoomed on Amazon in August.

Kudos to Chandra Guglik, another first-time author, who writes under the pen name C.H. Avosa. She wrote: “I’m so excited to announce I published my first novel this spring! Are You My Mother? begins with the main character, Sol, getting an email from a stranger saying her mother isn’t her mother and her ‘real mother’ needs a kidney transplant. From there we follow Sol’s journey to find out the truth and address timely topics such as racial identity and medical crises.”

I asked Chandra, a graphic designer, what inspired her to write the book. “In my family I’m the middle of three sisters, but our coloring is very different, so we always joke about having different parents. However, I do look like my dad, so I started exploring the idea of how a middle child could have a different mom than her sisters. I did a lot of research into medical situations where someone was looking for a family match and also read a lot of stories from late-discovery adoptees about their experiences.”

Chandra started writing in the fall of 2019 and took about one and a half years to complete the book. In addition to the main character being inspired by her own story, Chandra noted “most of the rest of the characters are a combination of lots of people I know, but the dating stories are about 88-percent true, so those are based on real people I went out with!” In a nice Dartmouth connection, Jeneil (Palmer) Russell’s review is on the book’s back cover.

Chandra doesn’t have immediate plans for another novel but wrote, “Several people have told me they want to know what happens with these characters, so there may be another novel or two in my future.”

Find out more about Chandra and her book at www.chavosabooks.com.

—Jason Casell, 10106 Balmforth Lane, Houston, TX 77096; jhcasell@gmail.com