CHELMSFORD — Making the choice for which Christmas tree to put up in your living room can be a big deal for some families, and an author from Chelmsford turned a childhood memory of one year’s choice of tree into a children’s book.
Jaya Mehta can remember vividly being a child one Christmas, and being quite angry over her father’s desire to look for a smaller tree, when she wanted a larger one. She recalls leaving their apartment with her dad, stamping her feet over the disagreement, but later returning with a Christmas tree both were happy with.
Mehta told the charming childhood story to fellow author Susan Lynn Meyer, who suggested it would be a great subject and setting for a Christmas-themed children’s book. So the two worked together to co-author the short story and get it published, eventually settling on the title “Nisha’s Just-Right Christmas Tree.”
“It took us about three weeks of drafting it and passing it back and forth,” Mehta said in a Wednesday phone call. “It is a lot more difficult than people think, because it has to be pretty short but you still have to get everything in, so every word has to carry a lot.”
The main character, Nisha, is based heavily on Mehta as a child at the time the real-life inspiration took place. It is set in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City, where Mehta grew up. Like Mehta, Nisha is part of a blended family, with her dad a Hindu from India, and her mom a Christian from the U.S., a fact illustrated mainly by the family’s combination of Indian and American-style Christmas tree ornaments.
“Children’s books about social and cultural issues are great, but sometimes it’s good to have normal stories where the characters happen to come from blended families,” said Mehta.
The book was illustrated by Parvati Pillai, an illustrator who grew up in India and now lives in Finland, who Mehta and Meyer chose through their publisher, Beaming Books.
“Parvati did a marvelous job making a very spirited little girl,” said Mehta.
“Nisha’s Just-Right Christmas Tree” was released Sept. 24, and is available through Amazon, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Target, local libraries and local bookstores. Mehta will be selling copies at the Tyngsboro Festival of Trees, and will be doing readings of the book at the Silver Unicorn Book Store in Acton at 2 p.m. Dec. 4, and at the Tidepool Bookshop in Worcester at 2 p.m. Dec. 15.
A sequel to the story “Nisha and the Stolen Shoes” has been written and is awaiting publication, Mehta said. She has also written two novels which are both also awaiting publication. Mehta was previously a professor of English literature at Vanderbilt and Butler universities. Meyer, a resident of Sherborn, previously authored three picture books as well as three middle-grade historical novels. She currently works as a professor of English at Wellesley College.
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