A Letter From The Author

Many people have asked me what motivated me to write “A Zone of My Own”. The creation of my children’s book began in 1995, when one of my co-workers told me that something really bad had happened to her son. She told me a story that forever changed my life.

Her son’s baseball coach had taken three of his best players to a major league baseball game, including her eight year old son. Her son was the last to be dropped off. Upon arrival, they noticed that their son was very distraught and they asked him what was wrong. He told them that his coach had done something really bad. When they asked him what the coach had done, he said “He took off his seatbelt in the car!?!”.

His parents had always told him that you never take off your seatbelt in the car. This was a rule and he knew this was wrong. They almost didn’t ask why the coach had removed his seatbelt – but fortunately they did.

Their son said, almost matter-of-factly, “Well that’s when the coach took my pants down”. I asked her if she and her husband had ever taught him that no one is allowed to touch him in a way that makes him feel uncomfortable. She said in frustration, “All we’ve been taught is to teach him that you don’t talk to strangers and you never go anywhere with a stranger”.

She then told me that she and her husband had gone to the authorities but they would do nothing because this coach was well liked. They were left feeling angry and helpless.

This upset me. And the more I thought about it, the more upset I became. I decided to go the bookstore and find a children’s book that teaches children that no one is allowed to touch you – and I would give this book to my co-worker to prevent this from ever happening again. What I discovered shocked me – there were books written for adults on how to help safeguard their child, but no children’s book written on this subject for children. How could this be possible!?! I then went to every bookstore I could find and kept hearing the same thing from the bookstore managers, “It seems like we should have a book like this, but we don’t”. Like me, they were frustrated. I thought to myself, “I’m a writer. I’m an illustrator. I need to do this.” and I decided to create a book that tackled this difficult subject.

I knew that to teach children effectively, a concept had to be created and presented in a way that made sense to children. The message had to be clear and the results had to be effective. I felt that the best approach would be a Dr. Suess-like rhyming book that would be fun and whimsical – something a child would 'want' to read. A difficult task when you are tackling a topic such as inappropriate behavior. But with “A Zone of My Own”, I feel that I have successfully accomplished all of these things. I then met with my co-worker and showed her my book.

She took the book home and she and husband shared it with their son.

Through my research on the subject and the discovery of such disturbung statistics, I found a huge resource of organizations that help councel children and parents of these unspeakable crimes. I even found out that there are numbers you can call to report these types of crimes and that there are law enforcement teams that will actually conduct an investigation. I gave this information with my co-worker, she made the call and the matter was investigated. The good news is that the investigation resulted in the coach’s arrest.

Focus groups were then organized to test the effectiveness of the book and the book’s message with children. The results were astounding. Not only did the book’s message retain the child’s attention from beginning to end, but it also had a visible impact on each child – they would sit there and just ‘think’ for five minutes or more. The child psychologists determined that the message was so effective on the child that they began to "see the world with new eyes".

Children deserve and have the right to be safe -- and I will make every effort I can to make this issue a thing of the past.

My mission is to get A Zone of My Own into the hands of all children – throughout the U.S. and around the world.

If you are interested in receiving a free A Zone of My Own book, I would love to share it with you -- Request a pdf of "A Zone of My Own" Complete-Guide-to-Child-Safety Book for Free

I am very excited about the impact “A Zone of My Own” is having in the continuing effort to keep our children safe. As the father of five children, child safety is very dear to me and my family – and I hope it touches your life as much as it's touched ours.

Bret Stout
Author & Illustrator of “A Zone of My Own”