Chances are if you have kids, you or your child has read a book by Julia Cook. The former teacher and school counselor, who resides in Fremont, has written dozens of children’s books on important life topics. Her latest book, “I Am Money,” pulls insights from personal finance New York Times bestselling author Garrett Gunderson.
Cook’s journey to author started with a conundrum many parents, teachers, and entrepreneurs face — a product she was looking for was not available.
“I started looking for a book on tattling. I couldn’t find one, so I wrote a story,” she said.
Cook followed the advice of a former professor who recommended approaching lessons through a child’s perspective by using books as a resource. She started using the story as teaching material at her school, and it was so successful that other teachers and eventually other schools were asking to use the material.
“I grabbed a book off the shelf and called the publisher from the title page and I said ‘I’m a school counselor who just wrote a book on tattling and it’s working,’” Cook said.“They told me to send it in, so I overnighted it on a Monday, and they called me on that Wednesday and said, ‘We want to publish your book, do you have any more?’”
That book has since sold over 3 million copies. Following that success, she has written numerous titles for Boys Town’s social skills program and travels across the U.S. to speak at schools. These speaking gigs are what led her to her next chance encounter — sitting next to Garrett Gunderson on a flight out of Eppley Airport.
Dream Team
Cook was in disbelief when Gunderson asked for her autograph for his sister who was a teacher, but what neither realized at first, was that he also had a business proposal.
“He said, ‘I’ve always wanted to write a book on money for kids, but I don’t speak kid,” she recalled.
Coincidentally Cook had the idea to write a book on money, so by the end of the flight, they decided to make the book a reality.
“He’s phenomenally talented, and I wouldn’t have this book without him,” she said.
Many executives may have Gunderson’s book “Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity,” on their desks. So the next step was getting their book “I Am Money” on the desks of teachers. Through Gunderson’s connections in the publishing world, the book is now available through the likes of major booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart, and locally at Fat Brain Toys and The Bookworm.
To prepare for the book, Cook interviewed industry professionals, including millionaires, to get to the root of the importance of money. Through the lens of money itself, the book takes the reader through scenarios in which to use money responsibly.
“The book focuses on the fact that your value in life has nothing to do with how much you can buy and there are four things kids need to know about money: how to earn me, save me, spend me and most important of all, how to give me away.”
Career Author
While Cook’s partnership with Gunderson brought on industry connections, she said the hustle of an author is what gets books on shelves.
“Nobody represents your book better than you do,” she said. “So when you have a publisher, a publisher is not a publicist. They are a publisher. So there’s a huge time commitment on your part to make this book a success unless you already have a famous name to start with.”
As a children’s author, Cook said she must balance meaningful words with pictures that convey the message of the story.
“I think about when I get finished with a book, what are the takeaways?” she said. “I make a list of all the things that the reader gets out of the story first, and then I come up with a really good beginning and a phenomenal ending, or try to, and then I weave those takeaways into the story. So it’s a little bit different approach.”
She said authenticity is always a key metric when writing for children.
“If you’re going to write for kids, you have to sound like a kid,” she said. “If a child doesn’t say it, you don’t put it in a book. The kid automatically tunes that out. Because why would I want to read a book that doesn’t speak my language?”
Website: www.juliacookonline.com