Sterling Heights

Elementary teacher relishes role as children’s author

By Cortney Casey
C & G Staff Writer

All eyes widened when the student reading “Imagine That!” aloud in Melissa Cavanaugh’s third-grade class at Eagle Creek Academy in Oakland Township reached the author’s name on the cover.

“The whole classroom was like, ‘You really wrote a book?’” Cavanaugh recalled with a laugh.

The Sterling Heights resident is reveling in the fulfillment of a lifelong dream with the publication of “Imagine That!” a colorful, rhyming tale about teleporting to exotic locales — from the ocean to space to a castle — via a magical treasure chest.

Cavanaugh’s success is particularly poetic in that she traces her desire to become an author back to her experience creating a hardcover book in class as a third-grader. Now, she teaches third-grade and uses her own book as an example of the entire writing process, from brainstorming to revision to publication.

And for kindergartners and first-graders, the book’s primary audience, the rhyming structure helps develop phonemic awareness, she said.

Cavanaugh developed the concept for “Imagine That” and wrote the first draft during a master’s course at Oakland University. Inspiration for the subject, she said, stemmed from multiple sources.

Growing up in New York with little opportunity to travel, she and her three sisters vowed that they’d see the world someday.

“Traveling to a place — whether it’s a fantasy land or a reality — was always an interest of mine,” she said.

She also remembered a cancer-stricken student, who has since passed away, talking about how she would close her eyes and visualize being elsewhere, somewhere more exotic and pleasant, to escape the trials of her illness. And she often plays games with her students, asking them where they would go if they could travel anywhere in the world.

Subsequently, a lot of the material in the book “came from their brains,” said Cavanaugh.

Even with the story in hand, Cavanaugh, who moved to Sterling Heights in 2007, dragged her feet on taking the next step.

Finding a publisher turned out to be a case of serendipity. Chatting with an author signing books at a Long Island marina in summer 2009, Cavanaugh’s mother, Mary Blozis, mentioned that her daughter had written manuscripts for children’s books.

As Blozis was walking out alongside the author, Nicholas Agro, he informed her that he also owned the Port Jefferson, N.Y.-based Little Harbor Publishing, and was interested in reading Cavanaugh’s work.

“It was just by being at the right place at the right time,” said Blozis, to whom the book is dedicated. “Some of the things you do in life … it happens to you for a reason. It was really like a fate type of thing.”

Cavanaugh sent the story, Agro liked it, and the process took off from there, though it was another two years before the book actually came to fruition. It was the illustrations, not the writing, that took the longest, she said.

After cycling through various illustrator options that didn’t pan out, Agro asked Cavanaugh to send over preliminary sketches she’d drawn up to provide a flavor for the type of images she was imagining. Satisfied with what he saw, he informed her she’d be illustrating the book herself.

Long a painter by hobby, Cavanaugh said she’s become skilled at replicating other images, but has never truly been tasked with developing original pictures and found it difficult.

To assist her in the process, she enlisted her niece and nephew to don fairy wings, goggles and safari hats, then snapped photos she could work off of as she produced the illustrations through a combination of painting and collage.

“The good part is, it’s for very young children, so it doesn’t have to be this professional fine art piece; they’re just happy with vibrant colors and a rainbow,” she laughed.

Seeing the published book for the first time, bearing her name, words and images, “it was surreal … and when you actually accomplish a goal, it’s just exciting,” said Cavanaugh. “It’s something that you want to share with everyone.”

Since its release late last year, the book already has sold more than 200 copies. With Reading Month on the horizon, Cavanaugh said she has book readings and workshops scheduled at local schools — including Jefferson Elementary in Sterling Heights March 2 — and hopes to visit children’s hospitals to share the story.

As for her next endeavor, she said, there’s one thing holding her back — and it isn’t a dearth of ideas or a stubborn case of writer’s block.

“I have tons of books written, but what deters me is going through the illustration process again,” she laughed.

“Imagine That” is available for $9.95 on Amazon.com.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Cortney Casey at ccasey@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1046.