Local artist has published her first children’s book
Sammy Jo Miller has no problem connecting with children on a canvas. Now, she is trying her hand at doing the same thing through a different media.
Miller, Tracy’s artist in residence, has published a children’s book titled, “I Have a Plan.” She wrote the book and, of course, is the source of its illustrations. It follows a kindergarten-aged kid who is trying to make a plan to build a block castle. The young girl experiments with a variety of materials, and she ends up drawing out her plan so she can execute it.
“Big words, big concepts, very simple,” said Miller. “She’s got the blocks, so she’s like, “What do I want to build?’ She starts by wanting to paint it, but it’s hard to draw shapes with a big paint brush.”
The girl has a plan, but, like any young child, finds herself getting constantly distracted by one thing or another.
At the end, she draws her castle with markers and uses her drawing as a reference to build her castle. “It’s about developing the plan, not just about executing the plan,” said Miller. “It’s about, sometimes we have to try many times to find a plan that’s going to work.” The publication comes with activities and a website dedicated to using it in a learning environment. Miller hopes it will be more than just 28 pages that can be read and put away; it’s about getting a child involved in a project that they can do at home — “it’s about making a plan instead of just diving into something,” she said.
The book is simple by design and is geared
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I want to be in schools, and I want to talk to kids about how to make art be a part of storytelling.
— SAMMY JO MILLER toward early readers — kindergarten through about third grade.
The book is the end game of a long-term goal for Miller. She said she has wanted to publish a children’s book for some time. When she was in the fifth grade at Talahi Elementary School in St. Cloud, her school was visited by an author/illustrator, who inspired her at that young age.
“That stuck in my brain,” she said. “I want to do that. I want to be in schools, and I want to talk to kids about how to make art be a part of storytelling. This book leads ultimately to me wanting to connect with kids through schools and those types of presentations.”
Miller moved to Walnut Grove in 2021 and after reaching out to local libraries was introduced to Tracy librarian Val Quist. Since then, she has provided a number of public works in town, including the new mural at the library and one on the east exterior wall of Boxcar Liquors.
More than what can be seen around town, Miller leads local art programming at the library — classes that are often supported by grant funding. She also works with Tracy’s community education program through the school district.
“I really like working with kids — they’re a lot less intimidating!” she said. “They have questions, but they’re questions that you can answer; sometimes the adults overthink things, and kids just dive in. There’s something magical about kids just diving into something.”
The accomplished artist, who has started her own publishing company called Paintdrop Press Publishing, said working with kids independently when they’re outside of their parents’ shadow allows them more freedom to create. And her book’s main character is a girl who is working on her own in the most simplistic way “The kids’ world right now is so overstimulating,” she said. “I didn’t want to overdo the illustrations; when I put it out, I was a little hesitant — are people that follow my work going to be a little disappointed that it’s not more than it is?”
The answer to that — at least through the eyes of a child — came when Miller showed her book to her kindergarten daughter, Thea, on her iPad before it was even published in book form.
“I wanted to jump back to the things that my kids were really drawn to,” said Miller. “I had written the book, and it might have been a project I was just going to throw away until I read it to my daughter … she fell in love with it, wanted to read it on her own. When she fell in love with it, I thought, ‘There’s something here — I think this needs to get into the hands of kids.’”
