Valerie -Welcome to Book Worthy. Today we're talking with Healy Eichard about the author of The Red Ball, a children's book about friendship and forgiveness. When Renata's grandmother sends her a gift of a red ball, she's overjoyed. Little does she know this gift will take her on a journey of powerful emotions and life-changing lessons. Join Renata as she learns to live out her faith with love, forgiveness, and kindness, becoming the girl that God uniquely created her to be. Welcome to Bookworthy Healey.
Healey -Thank you. I'm excited to be here, Valerie.
Valerie -I am so pleased to have you. Now, we usually start our conversation with a random question of the week. And our random question for today is, what was your favorite toy as a child?
Healey -Well, I think it was probably, I had a doll that I had named Tina and she was pretty consistent with me throughout childhood. So I would probably say, even though I didn't play with her when I was older, I did do, I had a lot of stuffed animals and a lot of toys, but, she'll always have a special place in my heart.
Valerie -It's always funny what toys stick with us. What was the one thing that, you know, was kind of our call to home, encapsulates our childhood so much? I know for me, I had this one stuffed animal that looked like the dog that I had when I was a little kid. And so it was named after the dog. And I don't know, I still have it in a closet and it's still kind of, still special. So it's lots of fun to kind of think back What are those unique things that make childhood special? So.
Healey -Oh yeah, and if you see them in a thrift store or an antique shop or something, yeah, anything that reminds you of your childhood, it's exciting. It must be.
Valerie -So fun. Well, Healy, why don't you tell us a little bit about your book, The Red Ball?
Healey -Well, the story was inspired by my mom. She grew up in East Germany and the 40s. And she would tell me about this ball that she received from her grandma, Dora, which is in the book. And how, because it was a very poverty-stricken country at that time, how excited she and all the neighbor kids were to get that ball to have something to play with because they didn't have much. And so I just took that story and added some more about her friend. I mean, guess I can give a spoiler alert. I don't know. But her friend actually takes the ball. And so Renata has to work through the forgiveness of Willie and it's just her process of working through her anger and frustration and you know confusion and kind of all that stuff so because I work with kids as a counselor even though that's not all of her story her story is getting the ball I did want the story to be educational and helpful for adults teaching concepts to their kids because that's what I use books for a lot is to, I mean some are just fun, but like it's a great way to introduce things for kids to learn important stuff about life.
Valerie -It's very true. I think what is it? Books allow us the opportunity to look into different situations from different perspectives. I think Renata, is so excited about the ball and then she's confused about where her ball went. And then she accuses Will of taking it and he says, I didn't take it. And I think that's a very relatable situation that kids come across. It's like, well, how do I deal with the fact that who I thought was my friend has lied to me? How do I wrestle with those emotions? And I think that's a great tool to use. And throughout this book, it's just kind of like, okay, these things can happen to us. They do happen to us. And we can either get stuck in the feelings or we can work through them. And I love how Renata does that in her book and how you incorporate kind of a God story in there too. Was that your hope for faith and turning to God to be a pivotal point for Renata?
Healey -Yes, starting from the beginning of just how grateful she is for everything, even when she doesn't have much. And that is my mom, you know, in a nutshell too. She's very grateful for things. And I mean, I think that's why she talked about that story about the ball and it wasn't read in real life, but you know, that's exciting. But just in being grateful for things and how. You know, during tough times even though there's not a lot how we can still be grateful for what we do have. And so I wanted to make sure that and that's, you know, as, as a Christian, we should really be able to relate to that as well of going, yes, we are, we should be thankful for things that we have, especially in America, we are abundantly blessed, even if we have hard times, we're still blessed greatly. So.
Valerie -I do love how your book kind of introduces the idea that different countries operate in different ways and that Renate is in Eastern Germany and that is a different state, but you provide it in a way that is not scary or intimidating, but just this is the situation she lives in. And she is thankful for what she does have and just walking through that different countries do operate differently. And growing up, did you experience anything that kind of was representative of those different lifestyles from your mom growing up in Eastern Germany?
Healey -Well, we grew up in the country, so we were probably, I mean, not, at least as a child, I felt like just seeing other people, they seemed to have a lot more than we did. And, you know, my mother, because she was very self-reliant, we did a lot of like making, she made a lot of our clothes and we would garage sale a lot. So I can't really compare that to growing up in a communist country, but you know, just not having like all the toys the neighbors had and things like that. I mean, as a kid, you know, that's kind of hard and sometimes hard to understand of like, why can't I dress like they do or why can't I have all the toys that they get for Christmas or whatever? So, yeah.
Valerie -Yeah, it is kind of, as I get into that kind of more elementary school age, there is this like comparison, you know, that starts and it starts so young and it just to be like, huh, I want a red ball rather than, you know, the broom that I'm playing with, whatever it is. But it was like, there is in this, you know, a culture of abundance, just a constant need or desire for more and more and more. And I think that sweet little reminder of like this family story that you have adapted to be not just, you know, a fun family story, but a teaching element too, is that, yeah, we can be thankful for what we have, you know, even if it is just one simple thing. And I think that's something that our culture doesn't teach us very much, but the Bible does. And I love how your story does that. Now, what kind of overarching message you would like to communicate to kids in this story? What would you like the biggest takeaway to be?
Healey -Well, besides the forgiveness, that is a big component I think is great to teach kids, but Renata wrestles with the concept of who God's created her to be. Because her mom asked her this question, you know, when you hold on to anger, it creates bitterness in you. And she says, is that the kind of person you wanted to be? And as Renata goes to bed and contemplates that question, that's kind of what I want people, I guess, to really the big message of the story is God's created us to be a people of forgiveness, a people of kindness, a people of gratefulness, a people of love, and that we can, sometimes we need to do a little digging deepening too to remind ourselves that that's who God created us to be, not a people that hold on to bitterness or even if something unfair happened to us, which is what she was struggling with like, why should I forgive him? That's not fair. That at the end of the day, it comes back as who did God create you to be?
Valerie -Yeah, just kind of that reminder from you know, Jesus talking to the disciples you will know they will know you are my disciples by the way that you love others and I love Love talking about my kids about forgiveness, but when I do have to you know because it always there's that say you're sorry, you know to ask for forgiveness element of parenting but One of my kids gets really I don't know bent out of shape a lot like Renata and just really just kind of holds on to it like look Forgiveness isn't just about letting them off the hook. It's about freeing your heart from the bondage of bitterness and anger. And it's been a hard concept to teach my kids like this. Forgiveness isn't just about the person that harmed you. It's about you. I know in my own life, I've had to forgive people who have hurt me, but I have never gotten the opportunity to meet them again and reconcile face to face, I was able to reconcile with the Lord and it was such a sweet gift that forgiveness was in those moments where bitterness was sneaking in.
Healey -Yeah, it's a big concept for us as adults because we do like to hold on to things that don't seem fair or why should I and you know, Renata does the simple thing of being kind and showing love to him. And I think that's an easy concept for kids to understand because sometimes this whole forgiveness thing like how do I know I'm forgiven? Like you act out the forgiveness of being kind and loving to them. That was the whole part of the note in the giving of the bread and the coming, come play with us, you know, that she could show that kindness and genuinely feel it, you know, so that then he could kind of experience that on the
other end too. But you're right, like sometimes we don't see those people that hurt us again and we don't have to and don't get the opportunity to be kind or loving, but we can pray for them. And that's, I think a helpful part of being kind and loving also, even though they don't know it but God does and that's who He created us to be.
Valerie -Right. You sure did. And it's one of those, I think Martin Luther King Jr. had the quote that the only way to cast out darkness is by turning on the light. And that's the light of God's love. And loving is the way that you'll, you know, change things because it is easy to get stuck in our feelings. I'm sure you've experienced that as a counselor too. And just, you know, those feelings can feel so big, even, especially for kids. I don't know what the switch was or from when I was growing up to kids nowadays, I don't know if we just kind of were told to suppress our feelings or if we were just, I don't know, feelings weren't a thing or we were outside more, I'm not sure, but you know, kids are feeling big feelings and don't know how to manage them. And I love how there has been this increase in the Christian book market for kids to kind of give them those tools and understand that emotions are a gift from the Lord, not something to stifle and to just move on and that kind of thing. So how did you see in your counseling profession the need for a book like The Red Ball?
Healey -Well, there aren't a ton of forgiveness books. There are some good ones. But I, you know, because to me, and I'm not gonna put my book up there with great books, but good books to use in counseling, you can use for a variety of things. And I think, you know, like through the book, you can talk about godly traits, you can talk about emotions and managing those well and you know talking about well gratitude's a godly trait. So you know being able to just pull different things out of there and being able to use those. So I like books like that but yeah I Hope to use it. I don't work with as many kids as I used to, but I still do. And I love to use books. I think it's such a great prompt for introducing any topic because most kids will always say yes to, can I read you a book?
Valerie - That's one of my parenting rules is if my kid comes to me with a book and they say, will you read this? I have to say yes. Just don't tell them. I know, I know there's been some times I'm like, ah, why did I set up this rule in my head? But it's been so sweet and books have become right, right, right. You sometimes.
Healey -Yeah. Right. If they get the if they know that Valerie, you're in trouble. Maybe you should add 10 minutes too, you know, that is within 10 minutes, just in case it's something important.
Valerie -As they've gotten older, they're reading more on their own, which is nice, but every once in a while it's just like, hey, give me one minute to finish this. And then I would love to read that.
Healey -All right, yeah, that's great. Well, one of the things I did do to kind of help because I had created some lesson plans for teachers because I thought, okay, like, because I think there are a lot of neat concepts in the book. But what I ended up doing was creating a companion activity book to kind of reinforce a lot of the concepts that are talked about. So I've got like a story base where you are learning comprehension emotion -based section talking about all the different emotions and answering some questions and it's got mazes and word searches and all that and then the last section is forgiveness and it just does some different activities with forgiveness talking about that and then a section on trusting Jesus just in case they
picked up the book and didn't know who Jesus was they can learn how to have a relationship with him too so, I ended up creating that and that was like a lot of fun. I'm telling you, I loved mazes and word searches and crosswords. I was just having fill-in-the-blank for scripture. It was a blast.
Valerie -I love that you've created other resources to help not just kids enjoy a book and continue that learning process, but also for parents and teachers to have guidelines to walk through such a weighty topic as forgiveness and bitterness and trusting, you know, in God's justice. I think, you know, even as an adult, I just might need to pick up that activity book and look through it myself. You never know. Now Healey, did you always want to be an author?
Healey -Well, you know when I was young I did write a few Children's stories I didn't think I wanted to become an author I just loved to read though and I think when you love to read you automatically Create stories in your mind. I don't know. Maybe that's just me but Create stories in your mind or think of oh that would have been a good ending too or oh this would have been neat to happen here. So yeah, so I did create a few little books when I was young, but only my family knew about them. And I brought one out over Christmas and cause my dad had saved one cause our house burned down. So a lot of stuff got destroyed, but he did have that 1%. I don't know how that survived, but I got it out and I did illustrate and everything. It was kind of funny. It was called The Stranger.
Healey -Yeah, it was uh, yeah, it wasn't great, but I didn't even think I don't know what back, you know when I was growing up like if that was even a concept of becoming an author like now you kind of hear, you know kids like give all these different professions and I didn't really think all that much back then but once I became a counselor I thought about more about writing kids books just because I every time I had you know a subject out I was like oh I think I could do a good story on this and so but again author was not you know out there it was just like I need a story on this to help so
Valerie -Sometimes what is it you have to, if you can't find the book you need, you have to write it, right? So fun, but you've also written for some adult books. So tell us a little bit about those books that you have.
Healey -Well, one is an anxiety workbook. It's learning to work through anxiety and worry, and it can be used for depression or anger as well. But it is designed to help just people walk through like they would counseling sessions. That's what I just created as you know. A book of
all the counseling that I do when I work with people through that. It's taking cognitive behavioral therapy and integrating biblical principles, or maybe that's the other way around. But I start at the biblical base and then use this psychology and research to help people work through it. I've gotten a lot of good feedback about people if they work through it, which is The reason I wanted to do a workbook instead of just a book is for people to walk through and actually experience the transition, just not know the concepts, but actually practice the concepts because that's always my downfall in books too. I'll read it, and get motivated, but I won't do anything. Like I'll be like, oh, that's
good, but I won't do anything. So that's kind of why I created a workbook. The other book is called Celebrate the Day and it is my soul. In poetry. So you know, I've got it out there, but I don't publicize that much because it's just really vulnerable stuff. Just praising God and you know, hard things that I've walked through that there's something very therapeutic about poetry for me that some when I have a hard time expressing, like, I'm having a hard time getting this out. If I write it kind of in a poetic form, it does something. I don't know. That's maybe why David wrote the songs. I like you know just because like it does something to really help you work through That sort of stuff, so that's what that's what that book is about.
Valerie -Very neat. I love that you've, you know, created tools, not just for kids, but for adults too, to work through kind of, you know, this rise of anxiety and depression that is in our culture. And then you're right. You know, we can read as many books as we want on anxiety and depression, but if we don't really take the steps to work through it, that we, it's really hard to overcome. I know anxiety and depression are kind of part of my story too. And, It is, it has to be this daily discipline of taking captive my thoughts and turning, making them obedient to the Lord. And so I love that you've done that, you know, for adults as well as, you know, the sweet little book, The Red Fall with, hey, talking about forgiveness and, you know, generosity and those types of things. I love that you've done that. What has been the most impactful book in your life, Healey?
Healey -Probably the Boundaries book, if you know that one. I used to be a yes person to like everything and it made my life stressful then I was a director of a nonprofit organization for a
while and wow, I stretched out my, I didn't even have boundaries and so I ended up very exhausted and that book just really, I did something in my brain where like, it's okay to say no. And suddenly I was saying no, kindly and respectfully and lovingly, but I would say no to things. And I still practice that very much today. Thank goodness, because I don't think at the time that I read that book, at first, I even knew I was gonna be a counselor, but it has helped me really be a better counselor because I can separate. I don't have to carry all the burdens on the shoulders of others. I mean, I care and love them, but I don't have to, Jesus does that. And I can, you know, go home at the end of the day and be okay. So it's been, that book, it's a blessing.
Valerie -It was definitely a good book. I love that. It also goes into boundaries for kids and boundaries and marriage and all of those things. Teens. Yes. There are so many different versions of that. Oh, I need to find that one. I have some teenagers now, so we might need to check that one out. But yeah, I have a friend that says no is a full sentence and she's been having to teach that to me because I am a people pleaser and I love to help people. And it's like,
Healey -Teens, yeah, where you need it.
Valerie -I hate saying no, but it is not, what is it, not, what's the word? Possible for me to please everybody and to help everybody? And so it's definitely, no a full sentence is something I have to say to myself.
Healey -Yes, yes. Well, I think people who have care and compassion as a gift probably struggle with it more because it's hard to know. I mean, it's hard to care and not get in there and do something. You know, I've just come to believe that as we also, have to love ourselves, we love God and sometimes God is calling someone else to do something and it's not just us. So we don't have to go in and save the world, but just having a good concept of ourselves helps with that also. So, yes.
Valerie -Most definitely. Well, Healey, what can we expect next from you?
Healey -Well, I'm actually working on it, I'm in the illustration phase of another children's book. I had been praying about it, we have a small farm here in Northwest Arkansas and I have some goats and I love my goats. So I was praying about like, God, I want to write a story about goats. And I don't know how that even looked, 'cause I had no ideas. And then one day God just, you know, gave me a little story and I wrote it down and tweaked it a little bit. And yeah, so now it's an illustration phase. It's a story about a mama goat and a baby goat. The baby's a
little anxious and so mom does, like giving him some things to help calm his mind. But basically what it's doing is teaching the reader about goats. So this is why, like, you know, like his worry is, oh my gosh, am I gonna know how to drink water? You know, and mom says, no, you do that. And you know, and she just explains like all these concepts that he's worried about. And so hopefully at the end, the reader, you know, people that wanna learn about goats will learn all they wanna know. Although there's a ton to know, hopefully, it's a fun story. I mean, I'm loving it, so even if it doesn't sell, I don't... Yeah.
Valerie -Goats definitely have their personality.
Healey -They are, yeah, adorable and honoree all at the same time.
Valerie -Yes, yes, they're awkward and yeah, adorable. And it's like, why are you choosing troublemakers? Yes. I think kids can relate to goats very well.
Healey -Yeah, well the underlying theme I had put in there is that there are the mama talks about a goat herd, which is equivalent to a shepherd for goats, and how much the goat herd cares for them and takes care of them and they trust him even though, you know, things seem scary or whatever and, and that's kind of, it's not blatant in there, but it's kind of an underline that that's who God is to us. So, yeah.
Valerie -That's always a good reminder for those being read to and for those who are reading for sure. Well, Healey, where can people find out more about you and your books?
Healey -I have a website called WrittenbyHealey.com and my name is spelled H -E -A -L -E -Y but if you put in my name Healy I could you know in Google I think it'll probably come up but yeah all my books are listed there and yeah find out anything you want to know about me there. I'm learning to be vulnerable as a matter of Were you there Valerie you knew.
Valerie -And some pictures of goats too, right? I was, I might've checked it out.
Healey -So they had me do, the publisher wanted me to do a photo op obviously, so for your book cover, and so I asked the photographer, could we do some pictures with my goats and chickens?
Valerie -So fun. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Healey.
Healey -Thank you, Valerie, so much for having me.
Valerie -It's been a pleasure. And thank you for joining Healey and me on this episode of the Bookworthy Podcast. Check the show notes for any books or links that we discussed and let us know in the comments what was your favorite toy as a child. Be sure to like and subscribe to discover more great books together.
Happy reading.
Comments