First Word

  Mary Lannie Video Review: Ant Trails and Butterfly Dreams Watch: https://youtu.be/D_2MBO2NAug Purchase: https://3l-publishing.myshopify.com/products/ant-trails-and-butterfly-dreams-a-story-about-happiness-pre-sales Summary of Book: Arney the Ant feels sad and wants to be happy like his three buddies, Manny Monarch, Terry Swallowtail, and Breezy Bee. His friends explain how he can use a super magical trick to easily switch from sad to happy. Soon, Arney uses the magic trick and he, too, becomes happy – and the garden is full of glee. In this gorgeously colorful world, the four friends teach readers how to “choose” to be happy.     “Sometimes Happiness is a feeling… sometimes it’s a decision.” ~ Unknown

  I just illustrated my first children's book Ant Trails and Butterfly Dreams -- A Story About Happiness by Selwa Berbawy Hamati. Many people don't know I am a painter. I didn't start painting though with the intention to become an illustrator. I began painting for mental health. After a few years of incredible stress, I wanted to find something to do that was just for me. I had studied art and painted many years prior. I decided to revisit the hobby, and my work evolved into my own visual voice. Let's discuss for a moment that thing called visual voice ... it's a distinct visual style that announces to the world, this is X artist. You recognize famous artists like Picasso or Rembrandt for their visual style. When you're trying to make your work visually unique and different, you want to develop an easily recognizable style. My style developed over time. I love painting the natural world, and I'm not skilled or even enjoy painting people. So, I go through p...

  COVID-19 has disrupted our daily lives and coined a new mental-health term “Covid Anxiety,” which has impacted old and young alike. For children this time in history has been especially disruptive to their normal school routines and social lives. Selwa Barbawy Hamati wrote her new children’s book Ant Trails and Butterfly Dreams – A Story About Happiness to deliver her message that no matter what is going on around young children, they can “decide” to be happy throughout it.   In the book’s introduction, Barbawy Hamati expresses the reason she wrote this important piece of children’s literature. “ I was often sad as a little girl. I remember how other people’s moods and opinions deeply affected me. I was happy when they were happy and when they were nice to me; as soon as that changed, my whole mood changed. I didn’t know how to be happy inside no matter what was happening around me. I had no idea that happiness was a choice and that even when things around me seem...