Moose Jaw grandmother Pam Metz always wanted to write a book with her grandchildren, and a few years after retiring from teaching, her dream has come true.
Metz and her grandson, Declan Bratkoski, 9, recently released “Nibbles goes to school,” a book about a young boy who takes his pet tarantula to school for show and tell. The critter goes missing and hijinks ensue — an exterminator is called in at one point — before the little boy and his spider are reunited with the help of his friends.
Before retiring three years ago, the former elementary school educator taught for 25 years — mostly in Regina and northern Saskatchewan.
She explained recently that she loved her students’ creativity and loved to teach creative writing, while her grandchildren also enjoyed reading, so those factors led to the desire to write books.
Three of her grandchildren live in Moose Jaw, while two live in Lumsden, including Bratkoski.
This is the first book that either Metz or her grandson has written, she explained. Bratkoski came up with the storyline for the book after the two sat down to write.
“It was pretty good,” he said about helping write the book.
Bratkoski enjoyed the experience, including learning what it took to create something like this, he added. He thought it was fun to work with his grandma, while he sees himself writing more books in the future.
“He’s a real good little salesman; he’s funny,” chuckled Metz, explaining that they were successful in selling books at a Lumsden trade show because of his child-like and humorous qualities. The youngster also likely wants to write more books “because he started making a little money.”
The book cover features the boy standing in front of his school while holding his tarantula. Metz put out the call in a writers’ group to which she belongs on Facebook to find an illustrator. Maria Akram, an artist from the Philippines, answered and helped design the cover.
Metz joked that it was difficult to work with Akram because of the 12-hour time difference.
While “Nibbles goes to school” was released on Nov. 7, Metz has been hard at work writing a second book with her 10-year-old granddaughter from Moose Jaw. This novel is a chapter book about the community helping a farm family save a goat from being sold.
“It’s a bad goat,” laughed Metz. “It (the book) has a funny ending to it.”
“Nibbles goes to school” can be found on Amazon.
