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Central Albertans team up to create new children’s book

‘The Pelican and the Hoot Owl’ is expected to be released within the next month
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Author Sandra Ladwig and illustrator Annie Burik hold up a copy of their children’s book ‘The Pelican and the Hoot Owl,’ which is set to come out within the month. (Photo by Sean McIntosh/Advocate staff)

Two Central Alberta women have teamed up to create a new children’s book.

Red Deer’s Sandra Ladwig, 81, began creating stories in Grade 6 by writing them on paper napkins, brown paper bags and in the margins of newspapers. In 2021, she released The Tiger In Your Dreams, which features 14 short stories about adoptees searching for and contacting their birth families.

Her newest creative endeavour, The Pelican and the Hoot Owl, is her first foray into children’s literature.

“I first had the idea of the names. I thought an owl named Horace was good. Then I thought a pelican would fit in with an owl, so that’s how it started,” said Ladwig, adding the pelican’s name is Priscilla.

The Pelican and the Hoot Owl is described as a story of wisdom, delight and true friendship between two creatures that learn how to get along and share through hardship.

This past spring Ladwig contacted the Golden Circle Seniors Resource Centre to ask if they knew an artist who may be interested in illustrating a children’s book. That’s how Ladwig connected with Penhold artist Annie Burik, who was the illustrator for The Pelican and the Hoot Owl.

Burik is a Montreal-born artist and graphic designer, and the mother of a teenage boy. She said art has always been a passion for her.

“In Grade 5 I won the 1988 Calgary Olympics drawing contest,” said Burik.

“I was so excited to win a Calgary Olympics hoodie. That kind of gave me the pride and persistence to pursue art. … I’ve always been drawing, painting and I now teach art classes to children.”

Burik said the story features characters with positive qualities.

“Priscilla is a caring, compassionate bird. Those characteristics, you need to put them out there so children can identify with a caring mom or a caregiver,” she said, adding a source of artistic inspiration comes from nature, so illustrating a book with animal characters was a good fit.

Ladwig, who is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, said she hopes to help inspire children to write stories of their own.

“Write your thoughts and bring them to life by giving them characteristics,” she said.

“They can be animals or people. I want to encourage children to draw and to write stories, even if the story is just one page.”

Ladwig already has a second children’s book in mind. But in the meantime, the goal is to release The Pelican and the Hoot Owl within the next month in local book stores and libraries.



sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com

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Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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