THE INSPIRATION BEHIND WANDER WORLD

As a young girl, I spent most of my pre-school years with my grandparents and great aunt. Being an 80's kid, television was limited and the internet wasn't available. Which meant I spent a lot of my time alone, left to roam from room to room looking for something to do.  Most of that time I wandered, imagining, drawing, coloring, or singing while my grandmother cooked and cleaned, and my great aunt busied herself. Sometimes, when everyones chores were complete, we would all sit outside and swing, or pitch pennies.

It was my grandpa, child at heart as he was, that would spend the most time with me. I vividly remember our trips to the library, learning how to garden, singing silly songs, playing hide and seek, and of course, taking imaginative adventures. One of my favorite memories was when we would "take a trip", a game where we would sit on the couch and I would narrate our journey as he patiently played along. It was something I looked forward to when we spent time together.

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Fast forward to my teen years, and he would always encourage me to write and illustrate, but my own insecurities always seemed to get in the way. Then there was life. College, marriage, kids, and an art teaching career took me to 2020, when the world slowed down just a bit.  It was then I rediscovered my passion for both writing and illustrating, and knew my first book should pay homage to the person who inspired it all.

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When I look back at my childhood, I remember it as nothing less than magical, and I owe a great part of that to my grandparents, Stanley and Kathryn Badowski.

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