by Amy L. Hatch
In 2001, Jarrod and Jessie Scheunemann began a tradition of visiting at least one National Park a year, and out of this tradition grew their first children’s book, “Adventures with Ranger Roy: Acadia National Park.
The Scheunemanns have together visited more 46 parks within the United States and a handful in Canada. With their book — which they plan to be the first in a series — they hope to inspire families to enjoy, appreciate and be motivated to protect and preserve what they call “these sacred places.” The couple lives in Champaign with their daughter, Cadence, and are the co-owners of Jessie Marie Studio.
Find out why we think Jarrod and Jessie Scheunemann are a Chambana Mom And Dad To Know!
Chambanamoms: First of all, congratulations on publishing your book, “Adventures with Ranger Roy: Acadia National Park. How did you come up with the concept?
Jessie: Jarrod and I have a habit of conjuring up plans or projects when we are traveling. I was in the middle of my pregnancy and we went out to Colorado for our babymoon. While visiting Great Sand Dunes National Park, we started talking about making children’s books about the National Parks.
Kids books suddenly stuck out to us now that we were going to be parents. We visit at least one national park per year, and. overzealous person I am, I figured we could easily make one each year about the park we had gone to. In July of 2009, when Cadence was 6 months old, we traveled out to Acadia National Park for that year’s trip. I got the idea of doing papercut illustrations from different scenes in the Baby Einstein videos that Cadence was getting excited about. When we arrived home I began researching papercut illustrating.
Jarrod: After traveling to some of the national parks, I began to dream about living in one. The easiest way to do this would be to become a Park Ranger. Even though we live far away from most national parks, writing this book and blogging on our new social media sites has made me feel like a park ranger in a small way. My dad’s name is Roy and we thought his name went well with the Ranger title. We even decided to use his likeness to model our character after. It has been fun to read with our daughter and most of the stories rhyme, so I decided to follow that pattern as well.
Chambanamoms: Why is it so crucial for kids to be educated about the natural beauty of the United States?
Jarrod: Our society today is so hyper-connected and our children are no exception. There is a great need for us to have breaks and disconnect. These beautiful places in our communities and nation provide an opportunity to contemplate life and spirituality, relax, restore and center ourselves. If our children are not educated about these beautiful places and our parks go into disrepair, then I’d hate to see how our children’s quality of life will diminish when they are older.
Jessie: I find it extremely important to get your children outside. They need to experience sun, rain, rocks, sand, water and clouds. I have personally found my time in the national parks very educational. You can learn about the local wildlife, terrain, plants & more. I never walk away from a National Park without new knowledge and I want to give that opportunity to Cadence, as well.
Chambanamoms: You’ve visited 46 national parks — we didn’t even know there were that many! Tell us how this tradition got started in your family, and tell us about the first park you visited together.
Jarrod: The National Park Service calls the places they have jurisdiction over by the fancy title of “unit.” There are actually 395 units in the National Park Service. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial just opened this summer in Washington D.C. as the newest addition. My family made the token trip out west when I was young to see Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. When I started dating Jessie, I got bit by the travel bug because her family visited the National Parks so often. In 2001, we visited Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. The rest is history.
Chambanamoms: We know you have a daughter, Cadence. Have you been traveling with her since she was very young? Do you have any tips for families who might want to make a trip to one of our national parks? We all know road trips with little ones have their own challenges.
Jarrod: We have been living in Champaign for about five years now. Most of our family lives over four hours away, so Cadence has been traveling since she was 3 months old. As you alluded to, it hasn’t always been easy. We felt that having a parent ride in backseat was always helpful. We have a master packing list of all the things we need to take with us. We also have a travel bin that is loaded with toys, books and coloring supplies. We have tried to not encourage videos for the car rides but sometimes you just can’t avoid it. We always try to plan driving around nap schedules. One of our latest fun tricks is to stop at hotels to use their first floor bathrooms when available. They are a much cleaner and a larger alternative to rest area and gas station bathrooms.
Chambanamoms: Do you camp when you visit the parks? Why or why not?
Jessie: Jarrod and I love camping. It is less expensive, trailheads are close by, campfires are included to make great food — and you are guaranteed fresh nighttime air for sleeping. Cadence, on the other hand, hates it. I shouldn’t say hates it, she just hasn’t figured out how to stay in her sleeping bag — so 30-degree nighttime temps keep not only her but mommy and daddy awake as well. And overtired parents don’t enjoy their vacation as much as well rested ones. We are hoping as she grows older she will join us in our love for camping. We’d love to hear any camping with kids tips your readers have to share!
Chambanamoms: We know you self-published. That has a deceptively simple sound to it, but we know it isn’t easy. Can you what the process was like?
Jessie: I actually wrote a blog post about this very topic once our book was published. You can read it here. The process was much more back and forth than I expected. Much of this has to do with me being a perfectionist. We went through lulu.com to do the initial publishing. Lulu prints each book on demand — which means when you order one from them, they print and send it to you. One cool part about having our book on their site is you can read the whole book online by hitting preview under the photo of the cover.
After displaying our book during the Boneyard Art Festival this past April I started doing research to get it printed locally. Because we purchased our own ISBN number instead of using one from lulu.com we can take and print our book ourselves.
Premier Print Group here in Champaign printed 100 copies for us at low price; therefore, we will be passing that savings onto our customers. The new books are $9.99 and they are printed on environmentally friendly paper. We are excited to match the message of the book with the materials it is made of.
Chambanamoms: Jarrod, you wrote the text for this book and Jessie is the illustrator. What was it like for the two of you to work together? Did you ever had differences of opinion, and how did you work them out?
Jarrod: Working with Jessie is pretty easy since she is so talented. She made my words come to life. The only real difference we had was whether or not to call each set of pages a “spread” or a “layout.” I still call it by the incorrect design term to get her riled up!
Jessie: Ah, thanks, Jarrod. It does help that we are both really good at critiquing each other’s work and not taking it personally. I thought I was done with the last spread of the book that shows a map of Acadia National Park. Jarrod looked at it and gave me a look. I knew he didn’t like it. We talked about what was and was not working, and then I went back to the cutting board. Now, it is the illustration I hear the most compliments on.
Chambanamoms: What’s the next book in your series?
Jarrod: I think it is going to be titled “Adventures with Ranger Roy: Yellowstone National Park Waterfalls.” Yellowstone is so big that we will do a series on its different features. Most people know about Old Faithful but not many know that are at least 300 waterfalls in the park!
To find out more about the Scheunemann’s next book, the national parks or what they are up to, visit their Facebook page or blog.
The Scheunemanns have a special offer for chambanamoms.com readers. If you like their Facebook page, post on their wall that you heard about it from chambanamoms.com. You’ll be entered to win a copy of their book!