By 509J Communications
Congrats to 509J Online Teacher, Geoffrey Svoboda! He is now the author of a published children’s book titled “The Fly and the Horse.” He recently read the book aloud to a few 509J Online students.
He created the story several years ago when telling his daughter, Aleya, a bedtime story. She provided some details to the story like the name of the horse. The story teaches kids a valuable lesson about cheating, friendship, and forgiveness.
The book is dedicated to his late father in law, Ta-Mon, who lived in Thailand.
“He was a deaf/mute, never went to school, but was one of the smartest, most capable people I ever met,” Svoboda said. “He could literally do anything from growing food, building, hunting, fixing things, planting, and harvesting.”
Svoboda tried for years to get his book published but kept running into obstacles.
“I quickly found out that large publishers are difficult to break into. I tried maybe 50 publishers, but many were too expensive,” he said.
The illustrations were done by Theerayu Srethapakdi. He is a cousin of the father of one of Svoboda’s former students from when he was teaching in Thailand.
“I am so thrilled to finally have my book published after many years of trial and error,” he said. “I am very happy I found Emerald Books in Bend.”
Svoboda’s book is available to purchase at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.