A Children's Book, Written and Illustrated by Annie b.
The Hare and the wise old Apple Tree
This children's book, a picture book about animals, is a heart warming story about how a wise old apple
tree befriends a lonely, sad Hare and helps him see that things are
always changing and that having an open heart and gratitude really can
make life beautiful and that we can never loose the love we have felt. A joy for children and adults alike.
The mystical art illustrations throughout the book make it a visual delight for children and support the story beautifully.
Suitable for Age 4+
This is the first of a series...
At the bottom of this page you can read about how the Dalai Lama's words inspired me to start writing and illustrating books for children...
"The Hare and The Old Apple Tree is every inch an extraordinary experience for all age groups particularly parents and children, as it simply weaves it's universal wisdom and reflects the Honesty, Hope, Kindness and Love in the world. This book very simply brings about an awakening to the secrets and magic in nature and an awareness and respect that can touch all our lives when we open it and read its beautiful story." Ruth Cheesbrough Window
annie b. also offers book illustration for authors and publishing houses.
Please email for more information to [email protected]
Some Book Reviews
Cornwall Today Magazine:
"Written and illustrated by
Cornish author, Annie b., this heart warming children's story reminds children
aobut the importance of kindness and self-esteem through the beautifully
illustrated tale of a lonely hare who befriends a wise old tree. The hare
learns from the tree's wisdom, discovering among other things that we are all
unique individuals, and that life changes like the seasons of the year. These are themes that we can all benefit from
remembering, regardless of our age."
children's magazine :
"Cornish children's author and illustrator has written a moving story about loss and lonliness and the importance of love. As snowflakes sofly fall and hare grieves for his dead mother the wise apple tree gently explains how love is always with us and winter always turns into spring. Age 5+"
Some Testimonials from my clients:
"Reading and re-readingThe Hare And The Wise Old Apple Tree made me truly appreciate the meaning of the story: that we may feel very much alone with our daily struggles and troubles but if we allow ourselves to reach out, we will find the love to nurture us, the kindness to support us, the wisdom to guide us and above all, the hope to light our way out of the dark tunnels we can find ourselves in, to show us the way forward in our often difficult journey through life. We can re-discover the joy in life, the beauty of the world around us and the true value of friendship and ultimately, find that quiet place within ourselves that brings inner peace. I will treasure this book for what it made me feel; it is written from the heart with warmth, honesty and wisdom – a real gem. I will no doubt find myself reading it again and again over the years - a timeless message of how to live our lives with love in our hearts. Thank you Annie." Louise xxx
‘The Hare and the wise old Apple Tree’ arrived today. THANK
YOU. It is for my nephew Finn and his mum for Christmas. I have just
read it out loud to myself and it is truly beautiful. I didn’t really
finish the pages without crying though! All the more poignant as my 18
year old cat Bob is buried under our apple tree and I often sit in my
hammock just above him and remember him! My children do too and we
watched as the grass grew longer just above him for a short time. Isn’t
Love, light and peace to your and your family and all."
Caroline Fisher x
How I Came To Write And Illustrate Books For Children
Continued from 'My Journey' on the home page...
I sketched out a little series of drawings and poems, a sort of first book, which I called, ‘Dancing Soul’ – my soul journey as I recognised the connectedness of all things and the pure magnificence and beauty of all around me. … I then painted pictures to illustrate these words of prose… then paintings with poems… The message was clear, we are all ONE. All souls on our own soul journey, all connected, all equal, animals, humans, all race and creeds and all here on earth to learn who we really are and lessons we need to learn, I believe we have chosen our path before re-incarnating with our chosen Soul family.
This, I now realise, all linked in in with my resonance with native American philosophy and Shamanic beliefs...
Buddhism became important as the teachings made so much sense… I studied with the very inspiring Sogyal Rinpoche, a world renowned Buddhist teacher from Tibet who lived in the West, so understood how our western minds worked.
Of all the incredible teachings, the ones I remember most clearly that we can all live by are:
Harm no sentient beings, Create a wealth of virtue and always be of service, Tame this wild mind of ours (Meditation and Mindfulness are so so important).
When I heard His Holiness the Dalai Llama was coming to England, well Scotland, I simply had to attend.
It was an experience of a lifetime. Even before I saw His Holiness I felt him approaching. I will never forget the moments before he entered the hall where we all waited, before I could even see him, the feelings were so strong, so much love, so much light, my tears began to stream down my face as pure love emanated from his every being.
During the teachings he shone with love and compassion as this beautiful humble man, His holiness, talked with such intensity and passion for three days about Tibetan Buddhism and the teachings. I felt so honoured to be privilege to his teachings first hand and am still as it was to inspire my art journey on a path I had not foreseen.
At the end of the last teaching session, His Holiness asked if we wanted to ask questions. Many people waved their hands in the air, but the question that struck me the most was, “how can we stop all the awful terrorism and killing in the world?” To which he replied something along the lines of, “we cannot change the past and what has happened, but we can change the future. Our children are our future and we must teach them of love and compassion…”
It was at this point I really did have one of those light bulb moments..ding! I knew from that moment that it was my true divine purpose to help teach our children (our future) of love and compassion, and the importance of friendship and kindness.
I could do this by illustrating positive children’s books with spiritual teachings woven into the story.
When I got back to Cornwall I spoke of this to a friend and writer with such enthusiasm but no idea how it would come to pass. Three weeks later, I need wonder no more, as my writer friend had travelled back from a conference and met a lady on the train who told her she had written a positive children’s book and was looking for an illustrator! The rest is history as they say!
This was the beginning of my positive book illustrations (or emotional wellbeing for kids). It was called ‘Gods in Pods’ by Karen Kensley.
I then went on to illustrate several other story books, and meditation cd’s and book covers around the globe.
Then one evening before Christmas a story came to me. Well actually someone at one of my art exhibitions had looked at a recent painting of a hare and a tree (the first painting where a hare appeared), and asked, “what is the story?”
Indeed the picture told many.. so one night I sat looking at the painting, and a story flew in… I had it all written down in 35 minutes, magic!
It did in fact take 2 years to gain the confidence to illustrate and publish this story, - ‘The hare and the wise old apple tree’.
Then I began to feel this was my purpose, the reason for my being on
this beautiful earth; To write my own stories and illustrate them with my spiritual art style to teach our children,
our future, of the love and compassion and kindness so that we may
honour each other and the planet we live on….To share the teachings I
believe I receive from my spirit guides and angels.
Archangel Gabriel is one of the beautiful higher energies I work with often,
along with Archangel Raphael for healing, Archangel
Chammuel for heart work and Archangel Michael for strength and protection.
many angels were coming to me in my studio, the message was… the angels are
there for us all, all day every day, we just have to ASK them to help us, guide
us, protect us.. be with us… Spiritual laws are that we have free will, so we
must ask for that we desire.. and it shall be..
With this in mind I have
created a deck of oracle cards, with the angels to help us connect to our
angels and spirit guides.. and our hearts desires.. The deck is called ‘Ask the
Angels’ and some amazing emails have come in saying how fantastic these cards
are and how true they are…
I have also created an oracle deck of cards called, Blessings from the Heart. A deck designed for us to tune into our hearts and
intuition/ our true inner knowing.
For I believe we always do know the answer,
we just have to ask our hearts. The heart speaks very quietly though so it is
important to take time to be still and just listen… Meditation and Mindfulness.
This is why meditation has become such an integral part of my work and life. I
am naturally a multi-tasking go getter or striver… but have learnt, we actually
achieve so much more by being still. It only takes a moment to bring our
awareness back to our breath, coming in….and out… in and out… bringing our
consciousness into the body and into the NOW.
When Ekarte Tolle wrote the book,
The Power of Now, he really was not joking, for if we are present, we really do
own our power and do not get caught up with what has happened or worrying about
what may happen.
Mindfulness is a wonderful way to bring oneself back to the
now very simply. I also realised it is perfect to bring me back to the moment
and to help connect me to the earth and my spirit guides before painting. I
always meditate before I begin… and then let go, let be… and paint
intuitively.. as the colours flow and the magic really does begin.
is so successful I now teach Painting with meditation workshops, which I find
help the complete beginners and the professional artists to re-connect to the
moment, their hearts and their creativity.
I also work with lots of spirit
animals, particularly the Unicorns who bring joy, love and a lightness of
being. Wolf is a frequent visitor to my studio recently and teaches us to seek
out lonely places that will allow you us listen to our own teachings.. Wolf
also protects and reminds us of our intuition. I also find myself returning to
my shamanic roots…. Earth honouring…..and listening to the messages of the
natural world and all the nature spirits and elementals. ( I have also created
an oracle deck recently called ‘Nature Spirits Oracle cards’, to help us all connect
with the natural world and all the joyful nature spirits and their gifts.
also honour all the animal kingdom and often tune into the Bear, wolf, eagle,
horse, for their wisdom and support and have been inspired to create a series
of books for children to help teach them nature’s way and share this wonderful
wisdom from the animals.
Bear Books will be launched soon so watch this space!
Love, Annie b.