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Writing books for children serves as way for two to bond

Click here • POST-CRESCENT EAST • December 21, 2009

KAUKAUNA — Kaukauna resident Zetta Hupf was trying to entertain her son, Mitchell, on a rainy afternoon six years ago when she spotted a hippo the kindergartner had created using construction paper.

The mother-and-son team printed copies of the story to give away as Christmas presents to family and friends, but didn’t pursue getting the book published until February or March. Within a week of submitting the manuscript to PublishAmerica Inc., a Maryland-based publishing company, Hupf received good news.

Their first book was released Dec. 5 and is available for purchase online.  “We actually sat on it for quite some time and thought, ‘What the heck — let’s send it in and see if they accept it.’ And they did,” said Hupf, who is employed as a machine operator by the paper company Appleton. “We can’t wait to get the official book.”

Hupf and Mitchell, now 11, also are eager to hold their second finished children’s book in their hands. “Detective Buddy and the Case of the Missing Football,” based on their miniature Doberman/terrier mix, is slated for release on Jan. 5.

While Hupf has done all of the illustration for the two books, she and her son collaborate to create the books’ characters and storyline.  “Most of the time, we feed off of each other,” said Mitchell, a sixth-grader at River View Intermediate School. “It’s a fun thing, a time to get away and do something together.”

Hupf, who has enjoyed drawing since she was a child, said many of the characters for the books come from doodles she and her son draw while watching television. The two even have a travel game they created to come up with interesting characters.  “He’ll draw a squiggle and then I have to make a character or something out of it, and then I’ll draw one for him and then he’s got to make something out of it,” Hupf said.  The two also draw on personal experience for some of their stories. They came up with the plot for “Detective Buddy” after watching their dog, Buddy, play with a football it received as a gift. The book takes Buddy and the other characters on a search for a missing football.

While Hupf and Mitchell enjoy creating characters based on animals, they currently are working on a story about a boy missing his father, an American soldier fighting in a war.  Hupf and her husband, Chris, are Desert Storm veterans and her sister is a soldier stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas.  The two came up with the book idea after Mitchell drew a picture of a soldier saluting at the cross following the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.  

Mitchell, who has signed up for an art design class next school year, plans to play a bigger role in the illustration of the next book.

Both mother and son are looking forward to sharing their published works with others. The two have been asked to do a book reading at Kidzland Childcare Center in Darboy and Butterfly Books in De Pere.

“It’s exciting to see something that you created that everybody in the world has a chance to look at,” Hupf said. “If it makes one kid excited or they love it, then we’re happy.”