boona on boombin
before starting the next one i thought a reflection on book number 1 boombin and lama might help me do it in less than 6 years….the process begins boombin was a teddy bear who traveled with me for about 12 years and lama of course is his holiness who blessed me in dharamsala in 1962 and travels in my heart where my heart goes so goes the lama boombin was taken by a bear hungry person at the sf airport. when restless and sleepless and jet lagged i would have boombin (i created a boombin voice) have conversations with his holiness (i can do a pretty good his holiness accent) and boombin had many conversations with kodi who is now 12, some of them made kodi go noooo too much as these conversations were usually about sustainability and the environment and the role kids could play in learning early and taking action scary stuff…and so activist me i started to think about writing this book about 6 years ago after realizing that talking with kids about climate change, oil spills, filthy air, losing our forests…was scary and of course the answer was to write a children's book which would be accessible for kids and a tool for parents….. to date one of my great challenges which proved to be an adventure of awesome proportions.. i had no idea how a children's book is written, published and sold…now i do this is about the time i met damon guthrie who is a local illustrator and just as concerned about the state of our planet at a chamber of commerce meeting where both of us were a little like what are we doing here? and started talking about my artwork and damon's illustrations and a teddy bear and his holiness lama…bla bla turned into intention when i introduced boombin who was in my car to damon said ya lets do it. damon did an illustration of boombin and his holiness or lets say many illustrations and i began painting the backgrounds we would use to match with the illustration….the words and narrative that became my mini nightmare i also felt that there comes a time when parents need to have the very difficult conversation about critical issues and answer questions like "why do i have to recycle"? what is global warming? why are our oceans polluted..why why why so i wanted to give parents a tool that was lightly serious, visually beautiful and something that damon and i would love doing together. matching our passion, our skills and our sense of humor we set upon our mission knowing nothing about the industry of children's books and totally intimidated by actually writing….very quickly we realized that we needed to get all this great stuff percolating in us on paper so with the images we created we printed a forever calendar and a set of cards …some of you might have seen them or might even have them… then came the time to write i the writer kept telling damon that i was working on it i was writing narratives which continued to be so bad that i wouldn't share them with anyone….and then one night in mexico while walking through a market place i was thinking about where boombin might be…. i realized that the book needed to be written by boombin the bear and i began a process of remembering all the conversations boombin had looking at boombin photographs and began writing a small bears curiosity and a wise man's knowledge started to blend into a narrative for the restless technology driven children began to emerge each picture page then had to match boombin's narrative story of friendship, investigation and adventure began taking shape. boombin began sending me emails in bearanese which had to be translated (ha ha) the joy in me was bundle full and words without grammar began to write themselves and damon's and my collaboration got deeper as he had to then design this treasure that we had fallen in love with we did the work without argument, with great compassion for each other as artists and deep love for our planet. i started to take the 1st draft around to kids of different ages and asked them for feedback and later for reviews which are on the back of the book…involving the age groups in the process was very important to me and comes across in the words i chose. i'm downright emotional about this book and look at the bear and lama doing yoga, lying on an oil spill, riding bicycles made from thrown away parts, planting trees each colorful plate and the words make me so proud of everyone that encouraged us along the way but most proud of a lasting collaboration with damon guthrie, the voice in my head that is boombin and the lama in my heart one done 2 to go and as our lama is so needed right the next book will be boombin and the children showcasing projects from around the world where young children are engaged in the movement……boombin is continuing his travels of investigation….. ma piyar tu (i love you in bearanese) boona |
boombin and lama
a story of friendship, investigation and adventure written by boona cheema and illustrated by damon guthrie 
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