Literally, in one quick write, it was done. A couple weeks later, I was visiting with five of my dear friends and as we were talking, the book came. This got me thinking about what fills my heart and our hearts as human beings. What I saw was the way she looked at him with such love filled his heart with happiness. His shoulders went back, his chin came up and his eyes lit up. He stood in front of her and she took his face in his hands and his whole body changed. My Heart Fills with Happiness was inspired when I was facilitating a workshop on our history and resilience at an Aboriginal Head Start program.Īt lunch, the children joined us and I witnessed a Kookum (Grandma) sitting in her chair and her grandson came running over to her. We spoke on many occasions about the message and illustrations it was a beautiful collaboration. Thank you for your kind words about My Heart Fills. This award sends 2500 copies of the winning book to schools and programs across the country, and all of a sudden, Tilly was in the hands of young people, in schools, classrooms and friendship centres and it became a YA book.Ĭongratulations on the release of one of my favorite new titles, My Heart Fills with Happiness, illustrated by Julie Flett (Orca, 2016)! What was your original inspiration for this title? When Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience first came out, it was marketed to adults, but then it won the Canadian Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature. I never set out to write for young readers and to be honest, I never saw myself as a writer. What put you on the path to writing for young readers? Today I’m honored to feature Monique Gray Smith, “a mixed heritage woman of Cree, Lakota, and Scottish descent” and the author one of my favorite new titles–my official go-to gift book for 2016.
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