When she was still a sophomore in the Honors College at the University of South Carolina, Paige Canady planned to write a straightforward honors thesis, the kind that might get read once or twice, then put on a shelf.
Now, just as she has been preparing to graduate, Canady’s honors thesis has become a cleverly illustrated children’s book, one that she hopes will be read by families everywhere. The Sweetest Halloween is the story of a boy diagnosed with type 1 diabetes shortly before his favorite time of year — trick-or-treating at Halloween.
“He was looking forward to dressing up as Superman, but he’s like, ‘How can I be Superman when I’m not strong?’ says Canady, a nursing major from Fayetteville, N.C. “His mom encourages him that diabetes doesn’t define his life, and although it’s going to look a little bit different, he can still do the things he did before being diagnosed — including having a few sweets on Halloween.”
Canady, who is especially drawn to the patient education aspect of nursing, says the book is intended to help children with type 1 diabetes better cope with a condition that requires daily monitoring. She hopes the book might also encourage non-diabetic kids to be more understanding of their friends with the disease, which affects one in 300 U.S. children by age 18.
Canady’s journey to becoming a children’s book author got a jumpstart when she signed up for an Honors English course that focused on analyzing children’s literature. Tharini Viswanath, the assistant professor of English who taught the course, helped Canady think about plot development, choose an appropriate reading level and decide on other structural elements. Ultimately, Viswanath became Canady’s second reader for the book project/honors thesis.
While Canady was confident of her ability to write The Sweetest Halloween, illustrating it was not in her wheelhouse. She applied for an Honors College thesis grant to pay an illustrator.
“But when I was looking into finding illustrators who do this for a living, it was very expensive,” Canady says. Instead, she found the perfect illustrator in Emily Jeffords, an art education major who attended the same Bible study on campus.
“I was there one night, stressed about who was going to illustrate the book, and I noticed a girl a couple of people down from me doodling in her notebook, and I thought, wow, she’s really talented,” Canady says. “After the Bible study, I was like, ‘This is so random, but I’m writing a children’s book and looking for an illustrator — would you be interested?’”
Jeffords, a junior from Pamplico, South Carolina, was soon sketching ideas for the book. This past summer, she completed page after page of brightly colored illustrations.
“Over the summer I worked at a daycare, so I was paying close attention to the children’s books I was reading them,” says Jeffords, who is getting certified to teach art at all grade levels. “I was really trying to think like a kid in terms of what they would think when looking at my illustrations, making sure things were clear and facial expressions were understood.”
“The first page took the longest because I was figuring out how I wanted the main character to look and what colors to use. This was all so new to me, and it took a while to complete — but I think it was definitely worth the time.”
Canady is especially pleased with the result of her collaboration with Jeffords, which is now available on Amazon. After taking the licensure exam in January, she’s looking forward to moving to Memphis, Tennessee, for her first job as an RN at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“I definitely think this book helped in my interviews,” she says, “just giving me something to talk about and show my passion.”