BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — Brother and sister Gage and Austen Rodey may be only in elementary school, but they recently teamed up to write, illustrate and publish their first children’s book.
Austen, 10, said she sat down one day with her creative thoughts.
“I created a story board and my brother started drawing and he came up with the title of the book,” she said.
The book, “Dreams Come Alive,” was published in December by Miri Group and is available in paperback and Kindle formats.
Gage, 7, said the title was fitting to the words written by his sister.
“Dreams come alive,” he said nonchalantly.
The book features a girl named Penelope and her unquenchable pursuit of her dreams. The young girl attempts to recreate her dreams in reality; however, she quickly learns it just causes trouble and it is better to draw and paint her dreams. The book offers additional pages where readers can draw and paint their own dreams.
“One of her dreams transports Penelope to Lollipop Land,” said Austen.
The sibling duo held a book signing at Lollipop Land that is in the book on Feb. 6. The store is a specialty candy gift store on Main Street and is co-owned by Michelle Schutz and Denice Quinn.
Schutz said Austen is in the same grade as her son, Matthew, and she had heard about Austen’s book and that it mentioned their establishment.
“I thought it would be great to have a book signing here,” said Schutz.
The published book was a family affair among Austen, Gage and their parents Lucinda Famous and Davinder Rodey.
Famous, who is an author, said her daughter came to her and said she wanted to write a book and then the family helped with the illustrations.
“I told her she had to have an idea first,” she said.
Austen said the idea came to her in five minutes; however, the process of putting the illustrations with her writing and finally having it ready to be published took about two months.
“I kind of freaked out when I saw the book,” she said adding that it felt cool seeing it all together.
Austen said she has always loved to write, mainly fiction, and would like to publish another children’s book in the near future.
