Local Author Publishes Children’s Book

By JENNA RHUDE

Moapa Valley Progress

Melissa Evans is a Moapa Valley local who has published a children’s book, entitled: “When I Grow Up.” Evans lives in Logandale with her husband, Moapa Valley native Wayne Evans, and their six children.
“We read a lot to our kids and there were not enough quality books out there about moms,” Evans said in explaining what inspired her writing the book.

Evans said that she first wrote the story as a project for a class in attending UNLV. Evans has a degree in Elementary Education with an endorsement in reading. She teaches school at Grant Bowler Elementary in Logandale.

Evans’ husband Wayne encouraged her to publish her book. At first she was resistant to the idea. So he took it upon himself to send the book to shutterfly. He had a few copies printed which he gave to his wife a few years ago for Mothers Day. Keeping the project a family affair, Wayne’s sister, Natalie Bunker, is the illustrator of the book.

After sharing the manuscript with several people, Evans finally pulled the trigger and sent it to Covenant Books publishing. Not expecting much to come from it, she submitted it and thought that was the end. However, Covenant Books decided to publish the book.

Evans and Bunker did choose to do some revisions on the final copy. When the story was first written, the main character who is a little girl did not have a name. The Evans only have one daughter, so naturally, that seemed a perfect fit. Young Meg Evans now has a published book with herself as the main character.

Another revision that was made was with the illustrations. Originally the little girl had blonde hair and pigtails. Since the character was now named Meg, Bunker decided to make the characters in the book look more like Evans and her daughter. So she created new artwork for the final version.

The story is an easy read to share with children. It expresses the love a daughter has for her mother and outlines just a few of the things a mother does for her children.

Evans has written another book but is still working on revisions to it. Evans loves her job as a mother. She also really enjoys teaching school.
“When I Grow Up” is available at Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble.