Once upon a time, I taught myself to read when I was something like 4 years old. Exact age is unconfirmed because my mom is the only one who could verify, and she died when I was 11. I know it was before I started kindergarten, because once I got to elementary school, there used to be a publishing center that would print and bind all of the books we created. Anyway, the point is that once I learned to read, I started copying the shapes that letters made, learning how to write them on my own to make words, and one day, I wrote my first book.

And so today, in all of it’s unedited glory, I present to you my first self-published book. Written in a combination of pen, pencil, and crayon, on mainly colored construction paper but also some copy paper, and bound together by my mom, using leftover wallpaper, cardboard, Elmer’s, and some Mom magic that makes it still hold together 30 years later.

Front Cover, using leftover wallpaper from the downstairs living room no one ever used. Pound sign drawn in red crayon for reasons unknown.

Title Page: The Bear Is Here at the Store, by Katie
Quick, to the point, and provides a detailed amount of information you don’t always get in a title.

Pages 1-2

Translation provided in case you don’t speak fluent 4 year old: Once upon a time there was a bear called Benny.

Benny and a rabbit were in a store.

Pages 3-4
You’ll remember that I said previously I preferred tracing Berenstain Bears books with colored pencils to drawing my own pictures. This is why.

Just then, someone bought the rabbit. 

During the night, a wizard appeared and turned Benny into a live bear. 

Pages 5-6

In a flash of light, Benny was outside as a real bear. 

Once Benny was outside, he saw a cave and went inside it. 

Benny liked the cave and decided to make it home. 

Back Cover. Leftover wallpaper, no pound sign.

And so, gentle readers, that is how I was first self-published, like so many are these days. It’s very concise, but really, contains a lot in these few pages. We’ve got losing a friend, magic, and finding your true self.

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