Local author works to bring the world to children
Author and local librarian Stephanie Fazekas-Hardy, who writes under the name S.F. Hardy, has written four children’s books.
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Stephanie Fazekas-Hardy says culture is at the heart of her books. The author and local librarian, who writes under the name S.F. Hardy, has written four children’s books.
Fazekas-Hardy says she started writing when she was a child. She says it helped her when there were things she could or didn’t feel comfortable discussing.
As an adult, she wants to tell stories about travel, animals and culture.
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“My first book ‘The Empress’ New Hair,’ is loosely based off of my experiences with my hair,” Fazekas says. “Growing up in a beauty salon and watching women, and just the emphasis placed on my hair and how people react differently to me depending on how my hair is — whether it’s curly or straight, long short.”
Hardy’s book “Dancing Monkeys in My Soup” is more complicated than the title suggests. There are monkeys — finger monkeys, even — but there are also dances and foods from Peru.
“I don’t have a connection to Peru,” Fazekas-Hardy says. “I would like to go one day.”
“Peru was selected as I started doing my research on the pygmy marmosets. Not only did ‘Peru’ rhyme with soup — because I came up with the title first … I love dance and I love food. So I started to research the pygmy marmosets and learned that one of their habitats were in Peru. … And as I started to research Peru more I learned about the Afro-Peruvian dances. So it all kind of like just came together.”
Jabbar, the frustrated hero of “Dancing Monkeys in My Soup” is also the star of Fazekas-Hardy’s new book “Bush Baby, Buh Baby Go to Sleep.”
“He’s going to different continents, different countries on different continents and encountering animals that we normally don’t hear about,” Fazekas-Hardy says.
In the new book, Jabbar is in Kenya and trying to get to sleep when nocturnal bush babies take over his room.
“So there’s a little jingle ‘bush baby, bush baby go to sleep; mama doesn’t want to hear a peep.’”
Fazekas-Hardy explores the behaviors and sounds the animal makes and the culture of the environment around them.
She says her mission is to cultivate a joy of reading – as an author and as a writer.
“Reading is my drug of choice. And so I try to share it with everybody.”
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