Big Lake couple releases third childrens' book

For the third winter in a row, a Big Lake couple is releasing a children's book that draws on Alaska's animals and culture to tell a rewarding story.

Kyle and Lisa Forbush's third book, The Sourdoughs' Five Children," is being distributed to stores around Alaska. It follows on the footsteps of last winter's release of Alaska's Favorite Bears and the 2002 release of Balto.

"There's always a redeeming quality or theme that is part of each story," Kyle Forbush said. "We've gotten into the routine of releasing one every February."

Working together as a team comes easily for the Forbushes. On each book, Kyle comes up with the story and writes it, with an idea of what words will go on each page. He then turns the project over to his wife to illustrate.

"I've got the easy part, for sure," he said. "Writing it is the easiest. Coming up with the illustrations to go around the writing is the hard part. We'll work together and sometimes we have to rethink it because I get too wordy. She's really good at developing ideas."

The husband and wife team moved to Alaska in 1994. They have a son and a daughter, both of whom are grown and living on their own now.

"We were too busy then to write children's books," Kyle said with a laugh.

Kyle Forbush said he had various relatives who were involved with writing, but the genre of children's books is what intrigued him.

"I really like writing, but it's not exactly Ernest Hemingway stuff," he joked. "The idea of doing a children's book always interested us."

His wife was eager to do the illustration work, so the fit was natural.

"Before we moved to Alaska, she painted an eight-foot by eight-foot painting for a restaurant in Wisconsin," Kyle Forbush said. "She's always been involved with art."

The Forbushes get their biggest reward not in the form of a paycheck, but rather the sight of a young child reading one of the storyboard books.

"It's a really nice feeling when we see a parent reading the book to their child," Kyle Forbush said. "Getting kids involved with reading now, at a young age, makes it not as much a struggle later in life, with things like required readings in school."

The book should be available at bookstores around Alaska within the next week or two, Forbush said.