Let “Hope” light the way… with her Grandma Melanie and “Falestah the Fairy of Wonder”

Meet our new friend and future best-selling author, Hope!

Hope and her Grandma, Melanie, wrote and illustrated a book together called Falestah the Fairy of Wonder. Hope decided that 50% of all profits would be donated to Feed the Need in Durham and the other 50% would be saved toward her future education. All of the copies that they printed sold, and Hope and her Grandma recently stopped by Feed the Need to share their donation of $300!

As a curious 7 year old, fresh out of grade one, Hope was always asking questions, some that her Grandma could answer and some that she couldn’t. Her Grandma thought that writing a book could be a good way for Hope to explore her questions and her interest in writing, while also spending quality time together. So, in the Summer 2019, the pair started writing Falestah the Fairy of Wonder.

Falestah the Fairy of Wonder was put on hold in Fall 2019 when suddenly on September 19, 2019, Hope’s mother and Melanie’s beloved daughter, Alicia, died in a work-related accident. In the months following, Falestah the Fairy of Wonder sat on a shelf gathering dust as the family journeyed through their grief. They are still processing as a family, and trying to come to terms with life and loss. Just when they thought they couldn’t handle any more changes, the pandemic hit and they found themselves huddled together from the end of March, 2020 to the present. It was during this pandemic shutdown that Melanie came across Falestah the Fairy of Wonder once again.

As Melanie looked to where they had left off back in Summer of 2019, she found a page where Hope had written about Falestah asking Google why people have to die. This led Melanie to think that continuing to write the book they had started could be as much of a healing process for them both as a teaching tool for Hope, and they decided to finish writing the book.

The pair had brainstormed a general outline together when they first began writing the book, and they stayed true to the original plan. Hope was the one with the story concept. With some support from her Grandma to organize wording and wrangle in ideas every now and then, Hope came up with some amazing directions to take their story. Hope did all of the drawings, and her Grandma went in after, adding colour and backgrounds to finish off their collaborative project.

We are so grateful that Hope and Melanie decided to share their story and generous donation with us. We can’t wait to read Hope’s next book!