Walking into the world of Laura Grime, it’s clear her family is the inspiration for her books.
Using her artistic skills and the written word, Grime weaves together … something both lighthearted and magical.
Stepping into her home, is like walking into her latest book as well.
Before the interview, the family gathered on the comfy looking sofa, the same one which appears on the cover of her latest book. Equally clear, is the fact her latest book is a family effort.
Though Grime wrote and illustrated the book of rhymes, her husband, Grant Christie, assisted with the editing and their children, Charlotte and Maxwell, provided some of the illustrations and much of the inspiration.
And yet, she seems genuinely surprised at the path life has taken her on.
“I had no idea I ever wanted to do any writing, either in high school or university,” she said. “The inspiration to write came when I became a mother.”
Her grandparents also made a suggestion to pursue it.
“At the time I thought – aw – c’mon,” she laughed. “I thought about it more seriously later on.
“I think that’s why I write, because I get all tongue-tied,” she laughed. “It’s much easier when you can just write stuff out on a piece of paper.
“Normally when I start, I have a message that I like to get across.
“Being able to do the illustrations makes the writing stronger because I can see what I can leave out with words because the pictures can tell part of the story.”
She described Grime’s Rhymes as being very different from her previous efforts because it’s a rhyming book.
“Rhymes really help children learn to read, because there is repetition,” she said. From that and through the rhythm, they stress the words in a different way.
“They are listening to the words phonetically. And with the repetition, they can sometimes predict what is going to happen next.”
She used the example from one of her rhymes:
I ate it, I hate it
Chewing is a chore,
I ate it, I hate it
I can’t eat …
“And then they know what the next word will be,” she said. “The rhymes make reading fun for kids and can also help them decode language.”
Originally, she’d only planned to illustrate the poems she wanted to stand out more. Then, she noticed the difference it made as she read to her own kids.
“Charlotte, my youngest one, would skip over poems that didn’t have a drawing or artwork with it. So I thought, if I want kids to read, I’m going to need to illustrate every poem in this book.”
The poems that are in there are probably a bit of a mom’s perspective, she explained.
As to her poems, “Little things would inspire me from everyday life.
“The first one was Red Fred, it came to me and I just threw it in the drawer.”
Then Grime described one night where everyone else was sleeping, and she couldn’t.
“I probably wrote 20 poems, they just fell out one after another. I knew the idea and I just wrote it right away and titled it.
“I remember wondering ‘where is this coming from?’ ”
As a result, she had a small core of poems, which she never considered as a book at the time.
“With my first book I was really surprised when I did start writing stories, because I didn’t see that in myself before.
“It took me a long time to getting around to saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to make this a book.’ My husband was one of my editors. He’s really good at it actually.
“He’d just say ‘that’s crap,’” she laughed.
She took a second look at what she’d written. “He’s definitely helped make it a better book.
“There’s one poem, Don’t let me make you feel stupid … Stupid. We really argued about that one. But the kids loved it.
“In the end, I wrote a little poem under the heading to explain why it was staying in.
“I guess the editor isn’t always right … but he is (right) most of the time.”
Grime has also done numerous author readings.
Her visits at John Black Public School, ranged from Kindergarten to grade 7.
“I found the classes to be quite responsive and they had very good questions.
“Originally, I was just going to submit it to a publisher, but was discouraged in reading the stipulations, guidelines and the timelines; the book might be held before publication.
“I knew I could do the illustrations, but was afraid to put the effort into it, on the chance the manuscript was accepted and someone else was chosen to do the illustrations.
“At the time, my son and my husband said – you gotta do that part – nobody else should do that part.
“I sat down with my first book and thought about what the characters would look like. That was Do You Love Me?
“I invented this Milo character. He’s a fictitious character in a magical, colourful world … with little creatures that belong to his world.
“Now I had this complete book, and was ready to take it to the next step.”
Her author friends said “you know, the publishing industry is turning upside down right now, you should publish it yourself.
“I was concerned how people would see that and if I would appear as credible going as an independent.”
In the end, Grime decided not to worry about it.
At the moment, local bookstores which carry her books include Roxanne’s Reflections in Fergus, and the Bookshelf in Guelph. Plus they are available online.
Grime is scheduled to do an author reading at Roxanne’s on Jan. 29.
“Originally, we’d been thinking of doing on Literacy Day (Jan. 27) but thought more parents and kids would be able to come on the Saturday,” she said.
Her current book list includes: Grime’s Rhymes, Do You Love Me?, Little Tree and The Make-Up Story.
She noted Max’s drawing is at the back of the book.
It’s a drawing of his mom walking towards the sun, with little poems falling out of her briefcase.
Having brains is not measured in how well you read,
Nor if you can add two plus two,
We all have it in us to make sense of the world,
As sure as the sky is blue.
Grime’s website is www.llgrime.com
