Author Shares Tale Of Monkey
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/16/tr-author-shares-tale-of-monkey/The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 16, 2008
TAMPA - Everyone who sees Gable Yerrid's new children's book falls in love with Marley, a chubby-cheeked monkey who learns that sharing is much better than hoarding golden bananas and other treasures.
Yerrid, 21, wrote the story for "Marley's Treasure" and sketched out pictures for it just before his little brother, Mason, was born four years ago. He was so happy to finally have a little brother, he wanted to give him a gift, he says.
Writing the book also helped him emerge from the sadness and depression he experienced after he was in a car crash 4 1/2 years ago in which the other driver was killed.
"It was such a dark time. I had so many emotions, I'd just write and draw," he says. "I wrote to get my mind off things. It took me away."
In the book, Marley finds a bunch of bananas and is so enamored with them that he worries someone will try to steal them. He hides them away and closes himself off from his friends. One day, a wise old pelican named Pete convinces Marley to share the fruit with his friends. Marley runs out to find his friends, apologize for his selfishness and give them some of his treasured bananas.
"Magically," Yerrid wrote, "Marley began to feel a glow within his chest. His friends could see the difference as happiness returned to Marley's heart."
Yerrid says he and Marley have a lot in common. They both love beaches and islands, and they both learned important life lessons that prompted them to want to give to others.
Yerrid's life changed in August 2003, when Christy White attempted to make a U-turn onto Bayshore Boulevard and Yerrid hit her car. She died the next day. He broke a leg and hit his head.
The accident was investigated by the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office, and Yerrid was not criminally charged. He was fined by traffic court, and his family settled a civil lawsuit with the White family for an undisclosed sum.
Before the collision, like many teens, he says, "I was so one-track-minded in life. It was all about myself." Afterward, he knew he wanted to do good things to help others. The book became part of his mission.
At first, it started off as a story he wrote in his journal. He would write a passage, then draw a picture to go with it. When he showed his story to his parents, they encouraged him to make it into a children's book.
His dad, Tampa lawyer Steve Yerrid, helped him find illustrator Jennifer Fitzgerald of California, who used his son's drawings as a basis for the book's illustrations. He also arranged for Yorkville Press to publish it and helped him get the book on Amazon.com and into Barnes & Noble, Borders and other bookstores. Yerrid dedicated it to his little brother, Mason.
Some of the proceeds from his book will go into Marley's Fund, which he and his parents created to benefit children's charities.
Eckerd College English Professor Julie Empric calls Marley "irresistible" and his story "charming."
"Selfishness with things - treasures - is definitely a recognizable part of childhood, as is the virtue of sharing that must be learned, and Marley presents both for the young reader to recognize, in the book and in him or herself," she says.
Yerrid, on leave from his studies at the University of Tampa to go on book tours, says when teaching children to share, parents sometimes yell. His book makes the lesson fun.
Children and parents have taken to Marley, who lives on a lush island, based on Boca Grande and other area beaches that Yerrid loves.
Yerrid's mom, Vee, says parents attending her son's book readings sit thumbing through the book and following the story as he reads. Children seem entranced, says Yerrid, who named his monkey Marley because it's his favorite name and he likes Bob Marley's music.
His mom says she thinks the book has helped her son begin to heal.
"It's still hard for him to talk about it," she says of the accident. "It is a process. The book helped in some way.
"It's not something he'll ever get over, but if he can bring something good out of a horrible, horrible tragedy, that will be part of the healing process."
