Local author publishes children’s book

Written By Sam Odrowski

A one-of-a-kind children's book has recently hit the market, written and illustrated by local author, Constance Scrafield. 

Scrafield's recently published book, titled “Katie and Her Dinosaur”, takes readers through the scientific journey of a girl named Katie, who, with the help of a talented scientist, clones a prehistoric dinosaur.

Scrafield recently sat down with the Citizen to speak about the book. 

“Well, it's quirky and it's very different,” she said, about Katie and Her Dinosaur. 

“I like to think that it's wonderful to read, that it's really fun to read because it's oddball…a piece of unique literature.”

The story starts with Katie hearing that Sammy, one of her classmates, has a dad who is a scientist and that he's working on the cloning of a dinosaur, using DNA from bones found in Alberta. 

Katie, who loves dinosaurs, says she has to meet Sammy's dad to learn more about the scientific experiment and he is later introduced as Dr. Boggles.

She is taken to Dr. Boggles lab and completely enthralled with it, which Dr. Boggles finds strange at first, but encourages her along the way, in case she ever wants to become a paleontologist.

“The story goes from there,” said Scrafield. “First of all, there's a very big excitement about this, how it [the cloning] takes in the petri dish.”

Scrafield noted her daughter, Patricia enjoys how Katie is obsessed with science in the book, as girls are usually less interested in STEM education, which is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. 

“From Patricia's point of view, that's part of the push, but otherwise, it's a whimsical, fanciful story, and it's fun to read,” Scrafield enthused.

“The other thing I would say about it is that I don't condescend the children – I don't. Like it's really good for kids up to 10 years old, 10 or so depending on the level of reading.”

Dr. Boggles also speaks to Katie as an adult instead of a child, using some words that are more than a couple syllables, so it may be an opportunity to help improve reading skills. 

Most of all though, it's just a fun book to read before bed. 

The story is 25 pages long, with three chapters, and illustrations sprinkled throughout. It could be read by the chapter or all at once over the course of 30 to 45 minutes. 

“You can read it with your mom or dad, big brother, big sister, whoever. It's a good night time story,” Scrafield said. 

Those looking to buy the book can purchase it directly from Scrafield by sending her an email at celticfair@hotmail.com or visiting Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Xlibris, which is the company who published the book. 

Looking ahead, Scrafield said she's working on a novel, based on a true story, totalling 320 pages, about her travels across Africa with her then husband. 

“I drove from London, England to Cape Town, [South Africa] in a Volkswagen Kombi,” she recalled. “What makes that fun is it's probably the only Volkswagen Kombi that went across Africa.” 

Scrafield said everyone else they saw was driving jeeps or trucks, as they handle the terrain there much better. 

“We were going across the desert and going through the jungle, going across the Serengeti, in our Volkswagen Kombi. And we still made it because my husband was a genius driver,” she noted. 

All of the letters, short stories, and documentation from the trip was brought home, back to Canada, but sadly, much of it was lost in a house fire.

“I lost everything, so I had to remember the story, all the things that you written down on it,” Scrafield said. “I had told the stories lots of times of those things, I had a pretty clear memory of lots of it, but there was some of it I just [forgot] – it was some time ago.”

The novel is written in the third person, which Scrafield says is a very fun writing style to play around with.

Scrafield said there are currently plans to publish the book next year.