Szymkowiak Jenny

By Todd Hambleton
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18 April 2016

LONG SAULT - When Jenny Szymkowiak illustrated and later wrote Good Morning, Sunshine, a few years ago, she thought it would be for a very limited audience.

"I wasn't sure it ever would become a book," said Szymkowiak, who did give one copy to her dad last year, as a Father's Day gift.

Quite a few people are reading the educational children's book these days.

And it's another author in Long Sault, Troy Guindon, a family friend, who played a big role in that. It was Guindon who directed Szymkowiak to publisher mascot books in Herndon, Virginia, and when the feedback was very positive, the process was well
underway.

Guindon's book The Reading Promise the last two years has gained lots of notoriety and numerous awards. What if that were to happen for Good Morning,
Sunshine?

"I'd be stoked," Szymkowiak said. "I'm already over the moon that the book is available now for anyone who wants to seek it out."

The married mother of three boys who runs a family business with her husband says the book is about a little girl who goes on an adventure with the sun. During a
spiritual journey with all the elements of nature, the girl discovers the truth about where she comes from.

It's the beautiful illustrations that came first for Szymkowiak, who worked on the project several years ago when her two oldest boys, not yet school age, would at home.
"After I had the pictures, the story fell into places," she said.

The busy first-time author isn't retiring her pen just yet' "I'm already working on (a second book)," she said.

Good Morning, Sunshine, available on Amazon, is in several local schools, and the publisher has its placed in big U.S. outlets Chapters, Barnes and Noble and The Bookstore.

The hardcover book costs $16.95 (Canadian), and, signed copies are available locally at Stokefire in Long Sault, the Martintown Trading Post and Sharyn's Pantry
in Cornwall.

The book is also at Kid's Korner in Cornwall, and will also be available this summer at the Long Sault Farmers Market.