Two local authors are wishing you a Christmas season filled with spunky dragons, and mice who build birdhouses.

As the push for shopping locally continues, Shelley O’Brien and Coralie Winkler would like to submit their recent pageturners as potential stocking stuffers this Christmas.

Shelley O'Brien's book is illustrated by SRSS art teacher Neil Klassen.O’Brien’s brainchild, “The Spunky Caboodle and the Christmas Fadoodle,” features a host of zany characters in what she describes as “a riptalesnorter adventure to the North Pole to solve a crisis, catch a culprit and save Christmas.”

The SRSS Flex Ed. teacher says writing a book has been a dream of hers since university and having it come true is almost as fantastical as the story itself. During her post-secondary education, O’Brien says she tried expanding her ideas into a full-length novel but her efforts fell flat. She tried again to fit them into the constraints of a teenage fantasy piece but again something seemed askew. Only years later, after having a kid of her own, did she realize that the monsters and heroes battling around in her mind had been destined to become a children’s book.

“All of a sudden I had inspiration, and it clicked.”

Once she had determined the format of her story, O’Brien says writing came easily, the challenge was in its illustration. An admittedly bad artist, O’Brien says she searched for some time for an illustrator who could fulfill her vision. “Then somebody pointed out to me, ‘you work at the SRSS, you have a community of people around you who are so talented!’”

With little persuasion necessary, high school art teacher Neil Klassen agreed to doodle The Spunky Caboodle and the Christmas Fadoodle.

“His strength is drawing folklore and mythology and so he brought my characters to life,” O’Brien remarks.

After many long months of teaching herself how to market and publish a book, O’Brien says the joy of leafing through it for the first time instantly convinced her to work on a sequel.

“When the books arrived at my door, it was incredible to open up that box, to see the cover, to hold the book and go through it… it was absolutely amazing.”

Meanwhile, Winkler says she achieved a similar level of euphoria when she first held the original copy of her book.

“It feels pretty amazing when you see the words ‘written and illustrated by Coralie Winkler’ you think, how did I even do this?”

“Otto Builds Everything” is the title Winkler gave to her tale of an 8-year-old mouse who receives a toolbox for his birthday and proceeds by taking things apart only to rebuild them in exciting, and sometimes humorous ways.

Like O’Brien, Winkler says the story was impressed on her mind for years before she got it all out on paper. Unlike O’Brien, Winkler’s book is loosely based on real life.

“It is inspired by my father-in-law, Otto Winkler who was a builder,” she explains. “He was such an amazing man and when he started getting dementia I thought, oh my goodness, I need to ramp this up and actually do this.”

She says the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be as good an excuse as any to hunker down and hammer out a project.

“I wasn’t doing much so I just learned and learned and wrote and drew like crazy so I could get this done for him.”

She commends her close friend Jenn Lehmen, another SRSS art teacher, for coaching her through the book’s design and illustrations. First in-person, then remotely as regulations grew more strict.

Otto died in August, just a week after Winkler received her first physical copy. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions at the time, Winkler was never able to show him the book that bore his name.

Despite the somewhat sad circumstances surrounding, its release date, Winkler says the book itself is happy-go-lucky and upbeat.

“It’s aimed at 3 to 6 year-olds. But there are these underlying things that parents will also get a kick out of,” describes Winkler. “At least that is the feedback I’ve gotten. So for parents who don’t want to read a boring book over and over, this could be the gift for their children.”

O’Brien say the feedback she has received in recent days has been equally positive.

For anyone still purchasing Christmas gifts for the youngsters in their lives, both books can be found on Amazon. For people who would prefer ordering locally, The Spunky Caboodle and the Christmas Fadoodle is being sold via curbside pickup at Sunshine Greenhouse and on O’Brien’s website. Likewise, Otto Builds Everything can be found at Unger Meats or on Winkler’s Instagram page.