The misadventures of a squirrel named Bosco fill the pages of a new children’s book penned by Heidi Delahoussaye of New Iberia.
The story was inspired by a squirrel from Delahoussaye’s mother’s backyard and has been enjoyed at bedtime for several years by Heidi and Keith Delahoussaye’s two young daughters, Ashleigh, 6, and Gracie, 3.
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“This is one of those that for some reason I decided to write down.”
As the marketing director for Highland Baptist Christian School, Delahoussaye has worked on the project in her spare time, self-publishing the book with a company called AuthorHouse.
She said when she decided to get the book published, she did a lot of research on the Internet to better understand the publishing process.
The company she chose allowed her to make all the design decisions and left her in control of the final product, she said.
In addition to the playful prose, the illustrations of the book bring poor Rosco to life and were the efforts of Delahoussaye’s cousin, 18-year-old Paul McGrew Hudson of New Iberia.
A recent graduate of Westgate High School, Hudson has been creating art with various mediums since kindergarten and painting since the sixth grade. The illustrations in Delahoussaye’s book are reproductions of a series of Hudson’s oil paintings that depict the adventures of the unlucky squirrel.
“Illustration was new for me. I was out of my element, Ihad never done any illustrating before but learning new things is good,” she said.
Hudson, who plans on attending a ministry college in Broussard in the fall, would like to get involved in youth ministry in the future, as well as music. He plays guitar and sings for a local acoustic and Christian rock band called 90 to Nothing.
“It’s exciting seeing my name on the front of the book and knowing my artwork is in there is kind of a strange experience,” Hudson said.
Delahoussaye said the ending of the tale leaves it open for a sequel but doesn’t have any specific plans for a follow up.
“Well see how this one sells,” she said. “I really just did all of this so my girls could have a story they love so much in a book with pictures for them to see.”
Currently, the book is available on www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and Delahoussaye also plans to distribute them locally.
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