By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Brandon Twp.- Kelly DiPucchio knows a little something about perseverance.

When the New York Times bestselling children’s author visits schools, she shows students the rejection letters she received from publishers— she saved nearly 200— as an important lesson about not giving up on your dreams.

“It took six years of writing and submitting before I got my first offer,” said DiPucchio. “The key is to be persistent, but work on your craft and have a thick skin. Some people get lucky and get a letter of acceptance in a year or two. For some it takes 20 or 30 years. Some never get it. Perseverance is key.”

DiPucchio got her first acceptance letter in 2004 and is now a highly successful author. She will read two bedtime stories, her 21st and 22nd published books, from 7-8 p.m., Sept. 20, at the library, 304 South St.

“I will be talking about all my books, but I will be reading “Dragon was Terrible,” my 21st book, and the book that comes out next week is ‘Everyone Loves Cupcake,’” said DiPucchio on Wednesday. “That is a follow-up to last year’s book, ‘Everyone Loves Bacon.’”

The short picture books, which DiPucchio laughingly says she does not illustrate for very good reasons, can take her anywhere from a few weeks to up to a year to write. On average, writing, revisions and getting to print takes a few months.

The Macomb Township resident, 49, has a process down-pat now, and says there are certain rules for writing children’s books— show, don’t tell; include details in threes; identify a problem and a solution. The rules become ingrained, and then she learned how to break them and become more creative.

“You are still in the confines of what is appropriate for kids, and you realize the books also have pictures and you don’t need to be over descriptive, because you have the pictures. You back off and let the artist do the job in telling the story. In picture books, less is more, you don’t want to be overly wordy. You have beautiful art to do that for you. What you leave out is just as important as what you leave in.”

Full-time author is yet another incarnation for DiPucchio, who graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in child psychology and development and worked in the foster care system before becoming a full-time stay-at-home mother of three children.

Her writing is influenced by many of the books she read to them, including all of the work of Dr. Seuss, as well as Jon Scieszka and Peter Reynolds.

She writes in rhyme and in prose and begins with an idea sparked by something she sees, or reads, or someone she meets, not a moral or message, although that usually evolves from the idea.

At the beginning of her incarnation as an author, when her now grown children were small, her writing was therapeutic, with themes of clutter and sleep deprivation.

“I was taking things from my own life, creating ideas, worlds, and sharing stories with my kids,” said DiPucchio. “They were my test subjects.”

She was with her children and her husband on a trip to Disney World when she finally got a call from her agent that she had her first acceptance.

“I was jumping up and down and screaming,” DiPucchio recalls. “I had offhandedly passed along the name of the hotel to the agent, and he called to tell me there had been an offer on one of my books, and I was so elated. When I got the agent, I knew it was a turning point. Getting a great

reputable agent is as hard, if not harder, than getting a publisher these days. A lot of publishing houses will only accept from agents.”

She now works with numerous publishers, including Simon and Schuster, Disney Hyperion, Harper Collins, and McMillan, Scholastic.

In 2008, her first bestseller was published, “Grace for President,” which is receiving a lot of attention again with Hillary Clinton seeking to become the country’s first female president.

Her next bestseller was “The Sandwich Swap,” which she co-authored with Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.

DiPucchio said she doesn’t have a favorite book she has written, they are all different, with some serious and some funny. They are like her children, and like any good mother, she loves them and always believed in them.

For more information on the free program at the library, visit

www.brandonlibrary.org.