>> Rep. Pete Stauber: Hello,
I'm Congressman Pete Stauber
from Minnesota's 8th
Congressional District
in northeastern Minnesota.
Boo Boo Bear's Mission,
The True Story
of a Teddy Bear's
Adventures in Iraq.
This is dedicated to the
military families who have had
to say goodbye, and to
all families who are asked
to meet the challenges
of separation.
Shea Leigh's dad was going
away and she was feeling sad.
He was leaving for the war.
She was scared and she was mad.
Shea Leigh's dad was part
of a team that makes sure
that the Falcons can fly.
He and the team made
the jets safe
for the missions in the sky.
Shea Leigh begged
her dad to stay home.
Then she wanted to
sneak on his plane.
She had a horrible tummy ache,
but no one understood her pain.
Shea Leigh put on
a big brave smile.
Dad sadly shook his head.
Then she pouted,
yelled and cried,
and she stomped off to bed.
Boo Boo was now scrawny
and scraggly with love.
He'd lost stuffing which
had never been found,
but he confronted Shea
Leigh with teddy bear hugs
when her daddy wasn't around.
Too soon it was time
for Dad to go,
with long hugs and sad goodbyes.
Boo Boo Bear showed
his feelings too,
as Shea wiped tears
from his eyes.
Shea Leigh played basketball
and worked hard in school.
Her friends helped
her forget being sad.
Her mom did special
things with her,
yet Shea Leigh still
missed her dad.
Then one lonely day mom
said let's send some goodies
to your dad.
I'll put Swiss rolls,
muffins and cookies.
Shea Leigh, what
would you like to add?
>> Alayne Hopkins: Hello.
I'm Alayne Hopkins, Director
of Programs and Services
for the Friends of the St. Paul
Public Library, which serves
as the Library
of Congress-designated
Minnesota Center for the Book.
As such, we present programming
statewide that focuses
on readers, writers, libraries
and our state's literary legacy.
I'm really pleased to be here
today with Mary Linda Sather,
author of Boo Boo Bear's
Mission as a part of the Library
of Congress Read Around
the States program.
Mary Linda Sather is an
award-winning retired educator
who's worked with diverse
learners from preschool children
with disabilities to
university graduate students.
As a parent, grandparent,
and great-grandparent as well
as an educator, she has
personally witnessed the
stressful effects separation
can have on families.
After years of academic
writing, with time only
for occasional personal writing,
her retirement offered
the opportunity to focus
on writing stories from her
life and from her heart.
Boo Boo Bear's Mission,
The True Story
of a Teddy Bear's
Adventures in Iraq,
was born out of a
heartwarming family experience
and is her first
children's book.
She's currently working on
a memoir about her journey
with her husband as she
learned to come to peace
with his life threatening
illnesses and eventual death.
Mary Linda lives in Duluth,
Minnesota at the edge
of an urban forest.
When she isn't exploring
the forest,
she spends time hiking
the rugged north shore
of Lake Superior reading,
writing, photography, traveling
and enjoying time with
family and friends.
So welcome, Mary Linda.
I'm so pleased that
you're here today.
>> Mary Linda Sather: Thank you.
I'm so happy to be here.
>> Alayne Hopkins: So
we are here to talk
about Boo Boo Bear's
Mission, The True Story
of a Teddy Bear's Adventures
in Iraq, and I would just love
to hear, and so would
the readers, a little bit
about the inspiration
for this story.
How did it come about?
>> Mary Linda Sather: Well,
it came about in a
totally unexpected way.
My son was with the Air
National Guard in Minnesota,
based at the 148th
Fighter Wing in Duluth,
and he did three deployments
to Iraq during those war years,
so his kids were not real
thrilled, his three daughters,
about his leaving, of course.
And that's scary with war.
His youngest daughter, Shea
Leigh, who was about 11,
at the time, was particularly
upset about his going.
And what happened was,
in his second deployment,
she decided that she wanted
to do something to try
to keep the family connected.
They'd been sending care
packages back to him,
which he greatly appreciated,
but Shea Leigh got the idea
that she would send her
precious, beloved teddy bear
to her daddy in Iraq,
and keep him company
until they could
be together again,
so that's how it got started.
There was no way that I
couldn't write that story.
>> Alayne Hopkins: Of course.
That's fantastic.
Did Shea Leigh's father take
any pictures or send any images
of his life with Boo
Boo Bear [inaudible]?
>> Mary Linda Sather:
Actually, he did.
We had to be careful
that none were forbidden
because of security reasons,
but and he told me very
specifically, what I could
and couldn't show, so
that worked out fine,
but it was really
great to hear all
of the things that
happened there.
They -- the service members
had contests to hide the bear
and to see who could find it.
And in the story, the bear gets
to go on an actual mission,
which probably wasn't
exactly okay, but they did it.
They did it anyway.
And so the bear got
to fly, which is,
you know, totally amazing.
So the people who were
deployed, had an opportunity
to have a little bit of
lightness in their lives,
and really enjoyed it.
>> Alayne Hopkins: And I bet
that Shea Leigh then benefited
from that too, the sort of maybe
feeling that she was responsible
for some of that lightness
and joy that she was able
to connect with [inaudible].
>> Mary Linda Sather: Yeah.
Absolutely, yes.
Yeah, she was.
>> Alayne Hopkins:
That's marvelous.
And in the book, the
illustrations are --
they're wonderful, and they
were all done by children.
I'll show a few of them,
and I would love it
if you could talk a bit about --
here's one of them at the base,
and then if you could
talk a little bit
about how that process worked.
Here's another one that's a
picture of Shea Leigh, I think.
So how did that start?
>> Mary Linda Sather:
I considered how we
would illustrate it,
because with children's books,
typically there are
illustrations, and I thought
about looking for
an illustrator,
and then the more I thought
about it, the more I realized
that this really --
what I want is for this
to be a children's
project, a children's book
that they can participate in
and feel some ownership in,
so I was fortunate enough
to have some connections
with the family program
people at the base,
and they helped me
set up some meetings,
so we had illustrators days.
We brought in groups of
kids, and they had a bunch
of other activities that, you
know, play-related and food,
of course, for children,
and then the whole idea
of introducing them to the book,
and having them choose a text
that they would like
to illustrate,
and we did that twice
in different locations,
so we ended up with many,
many children, both military
and civilian, who
contributed possibilities,
possible illustrations for
the book, and in the end,
that turned out to
be really exciting,
because when we did the
book launch, of course,
those children were there,
and got to actually see their
pictures and be so excited,
and the parents were so excited.
So for me it was a really
joyful thing in the middle
of some quite serious
world events.
>> Alayne Hopkins:
Oh, absolutely.
That's such a fantastic way
to connect with the children,
and then they get
to be in a book.
I have to show the picture
of Boo Boo Bear actually
in the jet.
>> Mary Linda Sather:
And of course,
these were the children's
interpretations of what went on,
so that makes them
even more interesting.
>> Alayne Hopkins: Absolutely.
Can you talk a little bit more?
You mentioned the launch.
Can you talk a little bit
more about other events
that you had surrounding Boo
Boo Bear's Mission and what
that meant to you as the
author and certainly as --
I mean, it's your
own family story,
but how that helped you connect
with others who are going
through the same thing?
>> Mary Linda Sather:
And I think connection
is the key word there.
As I mentioned, you know, I
wanted this to be something
for the children and their
families, so I spent a lot
of time setting up events.
I had some help with that, thank
goodness, and I went to schools,
to libraries, did public
events with adult groups,
with community groups, presented
to children's young
authors writing conferences,
so we got into the focus of
the actual writing of the book,
which was interesting,
particularly
for the older children.
So and I had the opportunity to
be invited to go to some bases
where they had daylong programs.
I got to present and it
was it was just lovely
to meet those families,
to set up activities
where the families could talk
about the feelings that went
with deployments and
the separation issues
and how we can deal with those.
And I learned so much
in the process too
about how families
handle those things,
and when they were struggling,
and the things that they found
that helped to support them.
So this to me was the real joy
of the whole experience
was meeting the children,
the families, having the
opportunity to interact
with them, to learn from
them, to hear their stories,
to try to answer
their questions.
It was just a phenomenal
experience for me.
>> Alayne Hopkins: That
sounds -- it sounds wonderful.
I mean, and really, what an
amazing experience as the writer
to be able to see
the direct impact
that your work has
on the audience.
That's really fantastic.
So Boo Boo Bear's Mission
was your first book.
Would you talk to us a
little bit about what's next?
What are you currently
working on
or what do you what do you have
in mind for future writing?
>> Mary Linda Sather:
Well, interestingly enough,
I was working on
another children's book
when this family event occurred,
and I set that book aside.
That was a book about a little
girl who is learning to --
how to interact with her
grandmother who had Alzheimer's,
so in a sense, you know, that
was a teaching book in a way
as well, helping kids
to be able to connect
with their own experiences,
and maybe learn some strategies
or some ways to think about a
grandparent that they're losing,
you know, in a sad, sad way,
and figure out how to turn
that into something
that's more positive.
So the title, the working title,
of that book is What
Gammy Remembers,
rather than what she forgets.
And then beyond that, I'm
also working on a memoir
that tells the story of my
journey with my husband,
and how I learned
to come to peace
with his life-threatening
illnesses
and his ultimate death, so
that's a bigger project.
I'm working now on the
book proposal for that,
and challenging times,
challenging topics,
challenges as a writer.
>> Alayne Hopkins: Yes,
absolutely, but really,
it's great to have the
experiences that you have
with your writing, with your,
with your career as an educator
in that way about being able
to use writing to process those
and then being able to
share those experiences
with other people who have
maybe walked down that same path
as well or been on some
part of that journey.
So thank you for the work that
you do, and thank you again
for Boo Boo Bear's Mission,
and for speaking with us today
for the Read Around
the States program.
It was really a pleasure
to connect with you.
>> Mary Linda Sather: Well,
thank you for the opportunity.
I really enjoyed it.