Award-winning CT author, inspired during COVID shutdown, pens children’s book about hope and coping

Award-winning children’s book author Janet Lawler was in the COVID era doldrums when her agent sent her a phrase and said, “Wouldn’t that make a great title for a book?” Lawler agreed and the book, “There’s No Place Like Hope,” has just been released through MacMillan Publishers.

The book, illustrated by Tamisha Anthony, establishes that children can feel loss, grief, fear and other difficult emotions. It explains, in rhyme, that “Hope holds your hand when you’re scared and alone. It lets you be brave though you’re not fully grown.”

“There’s No Place Like Hope” has a special launch event on Feb. 14 at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, where Lawler will be livestreamed to young patients throughout the hospital. A copy of “There’s No Place Like Hope” will be donated to each patient in the age range for which it is intended. Lawler is also donating copies to Ronald McDonald Houses in New Haven and Springfield.

Lawler will also read the book to children at the Farmington Main Library at 10 a.m. on March 16.

Lawler fields all these events with aplomb. “Honestly, my favorite part of this career is the writing,” she said. “I’m a shy person.” But given her output, which includes dozens of children’s books for multiple publishers over the years, those library visits are quite common. She enjoys reading to kids and has two grown children of her own.

Lawler also likes to hang out with other writers. For over 20 years, she has belonged to a local writers group where the members — many of them fellow children’s book authors — critique each other’s work. She also collaborates closely with artists. “In the very best picture books, the text and the art come together in a way that’s bigger than either one,” Lawler said. In “There’s No Place Like Hope,” Anthony’s illustrations on the inside covers of flying birds set an exhilarating sense of freedom and promise before Lawler’s text begins.

She’s published over 30 books. At first, she had a simultaneous career as a lawyer but eventually left that to concentrate on her writing. “My market is ages 0 to 8. I guess I still see the world through a child’s eyes. I still wonder at nature. I like to laugh.”

Lawler grew up in Milford, went out of state to go to law school, returned to Connecticut and has lived in Farmington for over 30 years. One of the first stories she published was based on the time she spent fishing in Milford with her father.

She likes to work with themes of “caring, kindness and community.” She has an affinity for Halloween stories, but hers are about costume parties and trick-or-treating rather than getting frightened. “The main concern when ‘Fright School’ was being illustrated was that to not be scary,” she said. She has done five pop-up Halloween books. “My first was ‘Silly Ghosts,’” she added.

She also writes non-fiction books for children, from “Rain Forest Colors” and “Ocean Counting” (released through the National Geographic Kids imprint) to “Scary Plants!” and the Autumnal pop-up book “Leaves.” Her “Walrus Song” won a Connecticut Book Award for Best Non-Fiction Picture Book in 2022.

“I’ve now been published by most of the major publishers,” she said. Some of the reasons she’s in demand, she feels, is that she’s “fairly prolific” and has “a facility for writing in verse and rhyme.” She recently got an email from a woman who remembered her from freshman year in high school that reminded her that the notes she passed in class were in rhyme. “

You’re looking for the musicality of a text,” she said of her innate writing style. “I have no special training in it.”

She recognizes the special nature of a book about how to cope and face unexpected difficulties. “For this book,” she said, “as I read the Hartford Courant I cut out articles about those who need care and support. I will do outreach.”

When she wrote “There’s No Place Like Hope,” she recalled, “It was 2021. We still didn’t have a vaccine, everybody was pretty depressed. I’m basically an optimist, but everyone was having trouble at that time. It’s hard to communicate these themes to children.”

In the book, the concept of hope applies to countless situations besides the pandemic, and in her verses, Lawler universalizes the need to overcome the feeling of hopelessness with hope: “Hope helps you fix things when plans have gone wrong and offers you comfort when nights are too long.”

“This book was supposed to come out last spring but it took a lot more time than expected,” Lawler said. The publisher further delayed the release because it didn’t want it to compete with holiday titles. Now Lawler’s got several other books in various states of readiness. In the works are a book of poems about ocean animals, a Christmas book and a sequel to a Valentine-themed book that just came out.

Autographed copies of “There’s No Place Like Hope” are available at River Bend Bookshop at 161 Park Road in West Hartford. A list of all of Lawler’s books, as well as her upcoming appearances, can be found at janetlawler.com.