The following is a post from Amy Helene Forss, author of Black Print with a White Carnation Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star Newspaper, 1938-1989 (Nebraska, 2014). Forss has a PhD in African American history and teaches at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska. She has been blogging about her experience turning her book into a nonfiction children’s title. You can read about the first Scoop on Mildred D. Brown here and the second scoop here. 

 A Triple Scoop of Newspapers and Butter Pecan Ice Cream

It’s a surreal feeling. I’m looking at the cover of Newspapers and Butter Pecan Ice Cream: Mrs. Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star. I’m in awe of what I see: a glossy image of Mrs. Mildred Brown, newspaper carriers, and of course, the Omaha Star.

After four years and countless revisions this children’s nonfiction picture book adventure is almost ready to start. I’m going to miss “visiting” with Mrs. Brown on an almost daily basis but now, she’ll be visually “alive” for every reader to meet thanks to talented illustrator, Gina Tolstedt.

Newspapers and Butter Pecan Ice Cream will be ready for public consumption soon. The typesetter is almost done with the final proof of the book and then it will ship to the printing office next week. One single copy of the book will be overnighted to me for the final last minute “oh my goodness I need to change this” adjustments and then the initial order of 5,500 copies will be printed. Newspapers and Butter Pecan Ice Cream will go from being a dream to a beautifully illustrated forty-page softcover text! There will be plenty of copies of it available. And, every single third grader in the Omaha Public School district during the 2017-2018 academic year will receive a copy of it, courtesy of Nelson Mandela Elementary school. It’s fitting this particular school with its mantra, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” was a supporter of my project. Over the next year, I hope to meet with as many OPS students and teachers as possible in their respective sixty-three elementary schools. Reading the book with them can open dialogues about making change happen, and start conversations with families and neighborhoods. It is possible to make a difference one voice at a time, especially when that voice belongs to a child.

If you wish to purchase a copy of Newspapers and Butter Pecan Ice Cream contact me at aforss@yahoo.com or visit your Omaha bookstores after May 30, 2017.

I appreciate your support and thank you for your faith in our community.