The message of Joan LoPresti and Bob Danner's new children's book, "Flump," wasn't dreamed up over cocktails or in focus groups, rather it came out of the mouth of a kindergartner named Kenecia.
LoPresti, a teacher and administrator for almost 20 years, was facilitating a writing workshop for a kindergarten class, and during a conference, she asked Kenecia why it was important to be a good writer.
"Cause I don't want to flump!" she declared, mispronouncing the word "flunk."
LoPresti says she "tucked away the word for later," liking the sound -- and the concept -- of it. "I liked the idea of when you risk failing, that's part of succeeding," she says. "So, I wrote a nonsense rhyme in a 'Seuss-like' fashion."
"Flump" is the second collaboration between LoPresti and her husband, artist Bob Danner. The couple, married for 12 years and residents of Milwaukee's East Side, also published a children's book called "Calendar Capers" in 1990.
"I intended for the words to be read aloud," says LoPresti, who received the Excellence in Education Award from MPS in 1996 for her work as an elementary writing teacher. "It's more fun that way."
The extraordinary book is arranged in playful, meaningful couplets that make both joyful sounds and contemplative commentary.
"Make birds sing, hear cows moo, Mama hopes the flumps are few. Laugh at a nickel, laugh at a dime, each of us will flump one time."
"Flump" is also an effective tool for teaching young children to read. LoPresti purposely selected words from the 25 most frequently used words and highlighted them in yellow so kids in the early stages of reading could easily identify them.
LoPresti also test-marketed the book with kindergartners and first graders, and surprisingly yet not surprisingly, many of them understood the message despite the metaphorical "flump" and the abstract illustrations.
Modern, colorful and energetic, Danner's gestural lines twist, splash, swoop and boing across the large pages, visually interpreting the joy and melody of the words.
"The drawings are meant to convey the sense of journey that the flumps are going through, just as one travels in life through a series of failures and successes, hopefully learning from each," says Danner, a resident artist at MPS' Lincoln Center for the Arts. "They are frozen frames in a surreal animation piece."
{INSERT_RELATED}Illustrating the book was also a learning experience for Danner, who claims he's been creating art "the old way" for 30 years but was inspired by this project to learn how to manipulate computer graphics.
A curious egg shape appears on every page, sometimes seemingly female and sometimes male. "The egg is the protagonist in the landscape," says Danner. "And the egg is in everyone. In the act of trying, sometimes you don't obtain, but you have to see it as part of the process. Just don't shut down. Don't stop."
"Flump," ideal for children or adults of all ages, is published by Denver's Maval Publishing. It is available at Amazon.com or can be special ordered through any local bookshop, including Schwartz.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
