Local author celebrates creativity, imagination and family in new children’s book

Local author Jean Hamersky has released her latest children’s picture book Marlee’s Masterpiece, illustrated by Summer Morrison, celebrating the joy of creativity and the beauty of family encouragement.

The story follows a little girl, Marlee, who loves to paint — and her parents love to see her work. After visiting an art museum Marlee is bursting with new ideas about how to express herself.

But when her artwork starts to get a little too big, Marlee and her family must figure out how to keep her creativity flowing while balancing life at home.

The story was inspired by Hamersky’s grandaughter and great nephew.

“I have a granddaughter Marlee… She’s always loved painting and she just likes to watch the swirls and the lines and the dots and just freely see the colors moving around on the page,” Hamersky said. “And then I heard a story of my great nephew… One day, when his mom was sleeping, he got up and went and found some paint and he painted on the kitchen counter and the walls and all over the place… So I took those stories and combined them.”

And Marlee’s Masterpiece isn’t the first of Hamersky’s books to feature her grandchildren.

“I’m trying to write a book for each of my grandchildren,” she said. “A couple years ago, I wrote and published Parker’s Pumpkin, which involved my grandson Parker, who is actually Marlee’s big brother.”

When Marlee’s painting gets out of hand, Hamersky said she hopes other parents will take note of how her parents didn’t stifle her creativity, but helped her to find a more appropriate way to pursue her passion.

“I like the idea of parents supporting children’s interests…” Hamersky said. “I wanted to show how parents would deal with that with support but also teaching. They taught her that she needed a canvas to paint on… They came up with a solution so she doesn’t have to stop painting, she just needs her own studio or gallery to paint in… There’s a picture of her sitting in a lap with her dad and mom and she’s looking really sad. They aren’t berating her, but they were explaining to her and teaching her that yeah, that was a bad thing to do, but here’s how we can do it in a good way.”

More information about Hamersky’s new book can be found at orangehatpublishing.com/product/marlees-masterpiece.

Marlee’s Masterpiece is available for purchase through Orange Hat Publishing, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.