Page 20 • September 2018 • Hanover Park Life
Florham Park Mom Cultivates Communication With Kids In First Book “It was a really nice balance to communicate with each other and problem solve with each other,” she says. “We would garden in the car, on the way home from school. What were your weeds; what were your flowers?”
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By Cheryl Conway seed, planted in her mind for her first book, has grown into mini episodes teaching life lessons to kids as well as tools for parents and teachers to help spread positive resolve to daily challenges. Life-long Florham Park resident Shanna Truffini’s book, “You Are A Gardner” has taken a life of its own since it was published in Dec. 2017. The 39-year old mother of two wrote the 32 page book in just 20 minutes that March with its simple language and poetic style. “It was just a matter of me to self-publish it,” she says. So she had a friend, Kelsey DeLaney, illustrate the cover and pages and within months “I had the book in my hand.” What appears to be a children’s book about gardening is really “a system for parents to talk to their kids and open the door for communication,” explains Kaitlyn Reynolds of Mt. Olive, marketing representative for the book. “The method is to “pull your weeds, plant your seeds, and enjoy the flowers along the way.” “Pull your weeds” translates to mean “talk to an adult about what is making you sad, scared, mad.”
“Plant your seeds: Do something positive! Bake cookies, take a walk, hug your grandma. “Enjoy the flowers: Step back and take notice of the best part of each and every day.” According to an overview of the book provided by Reynolds, “You Are a Gardener” is a solution based system to help children learn to solve life’s everyday challenges with a positive and empowering result. The book embraces a child friendly vocabulary that allows children to effectively recognize and communicate the “weeds” that they encounter and understand that they have the power to control the way
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