Shawn Dougherty

Shawn Dougherty (WAKE, with Leah Busch, illustrator)

Biography

I’m a Montessori pre-primary teacher and writer in Cincinnati, Ohio, a wife, mother, and grandmother. My special interests, besides writing with and for young children and reading, include hiking, photography, travel, gardening, and meditation. I retired from the classroom after teaching for 23 + years, and last year returned to work as a mentor/teacher. I find my greatest joy in the time I spend with young people, especially outdoors, and in hiking with my husband.

WAKE is the first book I’ve published, and is just the book I wanted to write. Leah Busch’s thrilling watercolor paintings connect the verse with a young boy’s experiences, as well as his feelings about the world he knows best, sensitively and mysteriously. I believe the lives of children of any age are enriched immeasurably when they have a personal connection to nature. The place children know at an early age, and know well, informs their view of the world and their development. I worry that today’s over-scheduled and screen-obsessed children are missing out on a major joy in life. Children require quiet, peaceful moments when they are free to observe, to dream, to experience the world through all their senses, and to imagine. Those moments provide space to integrate who they are in the outer world, and to experience, on a deeply personal, spiritual level, their inner selves. With WAKE, I hope to remind and inspire readers to immerse themselves in the beauty and wonder of that connection.