Three generations of creativity were woven into a new children’s book by one Naperville local. Heather Lewandowski combined her late mother’s artwork, along with hers and her daughter’s, to create “The Best Summer Day.”
The story follows a young Ava, Lewandowski’s daughter, as she goes through the perfect Fourth of July day, from waking up in the morning filled with excitement to watching a fireworks display at night.
The book highlights some of the activities and traditions that filled Independence Day for the Lewandowski family and features real people from their lives, like some neighborhood kids who are depicted on the cover and Ava’s stuffed toy from when she was a child.
The last few pages also teach readers about the U.S. flag, like how and when to display it, along with other historical information.
“We always had such an amazing time celebrating the Fourth of July here. We always had a parade led by a fire engine, and the kids would decorate their bikes and just loved the holiday. I just thought it would be such a fun way to chronicle that for my own kids, but also to just share our patriotism, for our country,” Lewandowski said.
A forgotten manuscript rekindles the Naperville local’s dream
Ahead of Mother’s Day, Lewandowski held a book signing on Thursday at Crossroads Community church in Aurora to celebrate the book’s release.
She wrote “The Best Summer Day” more than a decade ago, but stored it away, hoping to eventually finish it with her mother, Caron Turk, who was an established illustrator.
Turk illustrated several children’s books over the years, but died in 2019 before she and her daughter could revisit their book together.
“I didn’t rediscover the manuscript until I was going through her studio last summer. So then my daughter Ava and I decided to finish the project together,” she said.
A mother’s artwork lives on in ‘The Best Summer Day’
With access to her mother’s illustrations on paper, Lewandowski used them as the foundation for the book. Then, she and Ava enhanced them to better fit the story, adding some originality while also preserving Turk’s art.
“I just put a piece of paper on top, traced the piece that I wanted to keep that was her original artwork, and then added our own parts of it around it,” she said. “So whether it be the background or changing the hair or taking another one of her artworks to add one of the dogs in the picture, we kind of did piecemeal and kind of added it together, but it was all done by hand,” she said.
The book took about five months to complete, but Lewandowski says it was all worth it to keep her mother’s memory alive.
“I wish that she could have been here to help us collaborate with this book in person. But knowing that her drawings will continue on in this piece is, again, just a gift that we wanted to share with everybody,” she said.
Real-life Ava shared her mother’s sentiments, recounting some of the days they spent together working on the project.
“It was really cool seeing the passion she had for the book and just watching her creativity flow after a long time of not seeing her draw or whatnot, and just seeing it happen all at once with my grandma in mind,” she said.
Lewandowski says she hopes audiences can resonate with the book and feel the love that went into making it.
“I hope that this will be something that people will enjoy as much as we did in creating it,” she said.
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