Creative Play Retailer November 2023 | Page 5

Who they are .
They met in a senior centre ’ s creative writing group organized by Marilyn Helmer . Marilyn is the successful author of over thirty children ’ s books with three different publishers . She is the group ’ s language guru and editor . Paul Hock , youngest at 73 , is an accomplished musician , storyteller and artistic genius . His amazing illustrations make critter picturebooks outstanding . Don Smith , oldest at 90 , has retired from careers as a businessman , business school teacher , and business consultant .
Don decided to try creative writing to fill the empty hours after losing his lovely wife Jean Isobel , 63 years married , to leukemia . All three are researching critters and writing critter stories .
These three seniors are creating beautiful , informative , educational , fun-to-read , picturebooks about critters we share this small blue planet with . Each story is told by a critter in its own words , but the story is based on true facts and realistic life-circumstances faced by that critter .
Their picturebooks were chosen Book-of-the-Year for an animal series by Creative Child Magazine . They have received 5-star reviews from three different organizations , Readers Favorite Book Reviews , Reader ’ s Choice Awards and The Online Book Club .
One
5-star picturebook , Rudi Caribou , is available as a free pdf download at critteraweek . com info @ critteraweek . com