What does beer have to do with a children’s novel? Usually, not a lot, but local brewer Sean Guidera now dabbles in both with the release of his kid’s book, Ethan the Raindrop. Guidera will read Ethan the Raindrop at Harborview Elementary school next Mon. Jan. 11.
A full time brewer at Holy City, Guidera has always enjoyed writing as a hobby and he finally put pen to paper to create Raindrop, a big colorful paperback about the water cycle. Illustrated by local painter Briahna Wenke, the book is available for purchase on Amazon.
The premise of Guidera’s book is simple: Ethan the raindrop starts his journey in the sky, falls to the ground as snow, and travels through a river, eventually reaching the ocean. The book doesn’t employ any scientific lingo to demonstrate Ethan’s journey — rhyming words and bright illustrations (created by Wenke with acrylic on canvas) tell the tale of a smiley-faced raindrop learning to go with the flow, so to speak. “We don’t control our journey,” says Guidera, who hopes that kids will come away from the book feeling more comfortable with the uncertainties of their own lives.
“I want them to find contentment through a relationship with nature,” says Guidera. With lines like “Whether a drop of rain or a flake of snow, you’ll be what you’ll be and you’ll know what you know,” Guidera’s book promises more than just the plot points of the water cycle. “In the most ambitious sense, I want kids to find self-actualization,” he says.
For more info on Guidera head to his website at spgwrites.com.
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