Alpaca Pearl Packs for Peru

I am so excited that I just received this book fresh off the printing press. It was both illustrated and written by my good friend and well-known producer of Talk It Rock It products for early speech. First of all, I would like to say that I am so excited to have this book to take to my young grandchildren. I see so much learning and fun in the story. Rachel has graciously agreed to answer a few questions to enlighten my readers on her new book

Question 1: How did you come up with this story?

The story of Alpaca Pearl really began with a photo that I took while traveling in Peru. After drawing her, I also created a mosaic picture with her where I added a fancy hat, ruffled collar, and pearls. One thing lead to another, and I started thinking about the word, alpaca, and how it could be turned into a play on the words, “I’ll pack a___.” The adventure began.  

Question 2: Do you see this as something that speech/language pathologists can use in therapy? Please give a few of the goals and activities that can be used.

Yes, this book was written with speech and language therapy in mind. It includes a manual of ways to work on categorization, visual and verbal absurdities, problem solving, answering questions, and pronunciation and sound blending of middle and final /k/ sounds. Children can learn about alpacas, where they live, what they like to do, and what they like to eat with added information given in the manual. 

Question 3: How do you see it being useful for parents without the knowledge of SLPs?

This book is silly and fun and needs no training to read it. The manual, though, gives great suggestions on how to read books to children and how to enhance speech and language using Alpaca Pearl. A parent can easily incorporate the suggestions in the manual. But the book also stands alone as a delightful way to interact with your child. 

Question 4: Can you give a little information on how it was published for speech/language pathologists who would like to publish; i.e, self-published? printer? Any other information you feel is relevant.

I have written other books before and have always self-published. After writing the very preliminary text, I created a little template and laid out an order of the text and pages. When that was established, I began drawing the illustrations. I showed the text and illustrations to many people who I know will tell me the truth and edit it honestly. They gave suggestions for the text and the illustrations. After numerous re-writes,  I sent the completed text and pictures to a graphic artist who put it in printable format for me. I use Docucopies.com to print the book. And now I must begin the marketing which is by far the most difficult for me.

The book can be purchased at https://www.talkitrockit.com.