It was one of those moments neither Leigh Kelly nor Teresa Kelley will ever forget: news reports reaching them to say the World Trade Center had just been hit by terrorists, with a third airplane hitting the Pentagon in the nation’s capital.
"I thought the world was coming to an end," said Teresa Kelley, a Kansas native, during an interview on Dec. 6, just after she and co-author Leigh Kelly finished a book-signing at the Mainstay Suites in Secaucus.
Even in Kansas where both women lived, they felt the impact and knew from the moment they first heard the reports on the radio that a huge, fearful cloud of doubt would hang over the heads of the nation’s children.
As creators of children’s books, both women knew they had to do something, that through their talents as writers and artists, they had the power to do something to help the nation’s children heal.
Leigh, a student of psychology at the University of Kansas, has long been deeply involved in women’s issues, but her lessons at school taught her that the impact of the disaster would be most felt by the youngest people in the country. Teresa, an artist, also sensed this as well.
"We were working on a different book when the disaster happened," Teresa said.
The two authors had come east with the vague notion that they could reach out to the firefighters in New York City and distribute copies of their books, hoping to heal the ache of the children closest to the disaster. Due to the availability of hotels and transportation in nearby Secaucus, they found themselves there instead, spreading the word about the book to local schools.
It took two months to write and draw the book. They call the book a nursery rhyme, one that helps people – especially children – cope with traumatic events. It was inspired by the events surrounding the Sept. 11 World Trade Center disaster.
The book tells the story of a child’s struggle to deal with the attacks, seeking an imagined, safe space – an underwater kingdom – to heal in and return from.
"A safe space isn’t a place of escape," said Leigh. "It’s a temporary retreat."
The story encourages deep breathing and the creation of safe space imagery as ways to cope with overwhelming feelings
Rather than accepting these events as unspeakable horrors, the book and its authors encourage children to find their voices and put into works their emotions.
The book, Safe Space, also includes 16 pictures by students who imagined their safe place and captured it with crayon. It is a fantasy nursery rhyme that helps children and adults talk about the events that happened Sept. 11.
"We encourage them to put their feelings in a box and seal it," Leigh said. "Kids are very receptive to a variety of suggestions and feelings."
The book is designed to assist parents and teachers as they talk which children about traumatic events, providing some concrete tools to help channel the fears associated with the disaster, using fantasy and visualization as a tool.
Drawings done by fifth graders from various schools in crayon and marker showed everything from a Willy Wonka-like chocolate factory to kids standing together watching a sunset.
"I think it’s pretty expressive,” Kelly said.
The two women never did get to Ground Zero in New York, but after leaving Secaucus, they went to Long Island to meet with people there associated with the tragedy. Both women said they would be touring schools to help kids and provide a means for adults to help their own children.
"We’re setting up a fund for the sale of the book," Teresa said. "All the funds raised will go to help the victims."
For more information or to contact for a possible school appearance, you can reach both women at their website: http://wwww.writeworkstudio.com.