New Children’s Book Celebrates Differences

Photo: Karen Graham
Janet Stobie with her latest book, an inspirational children’s story.

Janet Stobie has just launched a new children’s book entitled Rajah Finds His Wisdom.

In it, a young elephant learns to appreciate his differences and use them in special ways.

Janet found her Rajah prototype a few years ago on a safari in Africa.  Larger by half than its Asian counterparts, the African elephant weighs in at 6,000 kgs.  She imagined how an animla like that might feel as an outsider, his scale perceived as unappealing or even repugnant.  Those thoughts launched the writer on a journey where her hero Rajah finds himself teased and bullied because he doesn’t fit in.  He sticks out for all the wrong reasons.  It’s a disheartening experience, as are all forms of bullying.  Rajah finds strength and courage, and eventually his size becomes an advantage when he is chosen to take King Balthazar on a long journey to following a star in search of the baby Jesus.

Learning to love and accept oneself is a common theme in Stobie’s books, and this one makes ten.  All of Stobie’s books develop from her faith.  After retiring as a United Church Minister almost 20 years ago, she has embraced her new ministry of writing and is as engaged as ever in spreading the Christian faith.  Stobie also writes a regular column for this paper and has a weekly newsletter where she provides words of inspiration and encouragement which are relevant, practical and accessible.

This is her tenth book.  They include devotional readings, short stories and several children’s books.  She clearly loves to write, but taking the project from story to published product is less fun.  There are several rounds of editing, finding an illustrator, and working with the printer to get the final product.  To keep control of her projects, she chooses to be self-published, thereby avoiding the delays and changes required to satisfy another view.  These books are her words and express her faith and she likes it that way.

Janet has a new illustrator for this project.  Lois Sexsmith hails from Napanee, where she is a member of the local art association.  Her medium is watercolour, which is a very delicate medium to portray an animal that is anything but delicate, but the soft colours

Janet now has possession of 500 copies of the book.  They can be purchased directly from the author through her website www.janetstobie.com. All of her books are also available on Amazon.  Congratulations, Janet.  KG

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