By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Jeanine Alberti and her daughter Brenna Ferrell not only share genes, but they both are creative, accountable for their actions, great communicators, teachers, and storytellers at heart.
They also have an uncanny ability to be totally in sync. So much so that they each recently published their first book within two months of one another.
That’s where their similarities part, at least a little. Alberti’s book, “Catching Lightning Bugs in Our Jammies,” is a delightful children’s book that was published in December 2024. Ferrell’s book, “Break,” which was published in February, is an intense murder mystery that fits into the “cozy murder mystery” genre.
Nostalgic childhood and love of teaching
Alberti’s desire to write a children’s book stemmed from a nostalgic childhood and a fulfilling teaching career. She grew up as the second oldest in a large, Cleveland area family with six sisters and a brother. As kids, they were carefree, playing outside in the summertime until the streetlights came on. Or on a rainy day, they would sit on the porch, play card games and read library club books.
“We were allowed to go outside in our jammies before bedtime and catch lightning bugs,” she said. “I wasn’t a fan of bugs, but lightning bugs were magical, like twinkling little stars.”
In the story, she recalls the heart of summer. “The electric fans were buzzing loudly in the windows. My grandparents’ tomato vines were taller than grandma, barely five feet tall. My Italian grandma had the green thumb of a giant,” she read from the book.
That important role of grandmother resonated with Alberti. Once her children had children, she wanted to share some childhood memories with her grandchildren.
“Seeing how the world has changed that is so vastly different than the world kids are growing up in became more important to you to revive that and share those simpler and sweeter times with your grandkids,” Ferrell said. “I think that was a lot of your drive to finally write the book.”
The written story evokes the essence of idyllic childhoods and the love of family. The illustrations by Trish Flannery, a friend from high school who now lives in the Netherlands, capture some of the details.
Because Flannery also grew up in a large family, her artwork depicts many of the same kinds of Alberti’s childhood memories such as playing with hula hoops and tucking cards into the spokes of their bikes for the cool sounds they would make.
“I felt like I was the heart of the story, and Trish was the soul of the story,” she said about the writing and the illustrations.
Alberti’s connection to children’s books was nourished by reading to hundreds and hundreds of students during her 30-year teaching career. She loved to read books from her vast collection by children’s authors that she treasured for the art and the content.
“I have always loved good picture books and was inspired by such great children’s authors as Katherine Paterson, Jerry Spinelli and Chris Van Allsburg,” Alberti said.
She came to Bowling Green State University after her father said she could go to school in Cleveland or Bowling Green; he didn’t want to drive anywhere else, she recalled.
After receiving her degree in art education, she knew she wanted to stay in the area. When art teaching positions were hard to come by, Alberti added a general teaching certificate to be able to teach more than just art.
She loved teaching elementary students, and they loved her. For more than 25 years, she taught at Ridge Street School, mostly fifth grade, where she went to camp every year and “had a blast.” She was known for providing a caring, inclusive community for students and their families.
“She was literally every student’s favorite teacher,” Ferrell said about her mother. “Parents love her, and students love her. When she’s out and about, people still come up to her and want to say hi.”
She completed the last four years of teaching with seventh graders at the Bowling Green Middle School. “Who knew I would love seventh graders, too,” she said with a smile.
“That’s how I relate to the world, and how I can be positive,” Alberti said. “If I can be kind and pay that forward, that makes me happy, too.”
Those are the same sentiments that fill the pages of her children’s book.
For years, she had wanted to write children’s books, but decided it would be a retirement project. “I even had my titles,” she said. “I started after I retired (in 2014), but when COVID started, it gave me something good to concentrate on.”
The teacher in Alberti is also evident in the book’s presentation. There are interactive portions to engage the readers of all ages.
Same passion, different approach
Ferrell has many of those same qualities as her mother: a delightful sense of humor, a fascination with the written word, and a dedication to her family and students.
Instead of teaching little ones like her mother, Ferrell has found her niche teaching family and consumer sciences to high schoolers.
Originally, she had no desire to be a teacher. As she pursued a college degree at BGSU, she remembered thinking, “One thing I know I don’t want to be is a teacher. My grandma’s a teacher. My mom’s a teacher. That’s great, but I’m not doing it. It’s not for me.”
She knew she liked math and art but hated writing at the time. She discovered with a family and consumer sciences background, she could teach math (personal finance and budgeting) and art (cooking and interior design).
“It’s the best of both worlds,” said Ferrell, who has been a satellite teacher at Genoa High School for Penta Career Center for 20 years. “My classes are not an elective at Penta because everything is vocational, but I get to be in a traditional high school setting and have a regular schedule.”
She has taken her mother’s advice to heart: “Just find the good in every student,” which has made her “very good with all kinds of students,” Alberti said proudly.
Ferrell is not one to sit still. She’s a planner who is organized and never idle. Writing a book was not on her radar. In fact, she didn’t like reading until she was in her 20s.
“As a kid, I didn’t even like the Harry Potter series or stories about wizards,” she said. Not until she was student teaching and picked up a Harry Potter book to fill some downtime in the classroom did she realize the power of the written word.
She learned to love true crime, crime fiction and mysteries. Her goal of writing a book started about 11 years ago when she had an idea and started writing it down. Shortly after, her husband at the time passed away unexpectedly, and she forgot about writing until a few years ago.
During the drive time between Bowling Green and Genoa, she listened to audio books.
“I really loved listening to all these awesome books, but I was thinking, ‘It’s too predictable. I think I could have done it better,’” she said. “I decided I need to put my money where my mouth is, and not to prove anyone wrong but to prove to myself to see if I could do it.”
She didn’t know where to begin but decided she needed a goal. She researched how long a novel should be and learned that most ranged between 60,000 and 100,000 words.
In the summer of 2023, she sat down to pick up where she had left off on the first idea. The next day she woke up with a completely different idea that she was really excited about. That same day, she flew to visit her brother in California and wrote during the entire flight and every night of her trip.
She had a goal of reaching 60,000 words, but finished the book with about 92,000 words in three months. Early on, she had the beginning and the end of the story, but had to connect the two without revealing the truth. The writing time for the first book was relatively quick, but it took 18 months to figure out how to publish it.
“When I would sit down to write, the words would come to me almost as fast as if I was reading it,” Ferrell said. “And if it didn’t come to me, that would be okay. I would stop and say, ‘It’s not the right time.’ I want writing to be fun and not work.”
“Break (The Greyson Series)” tells the story of a small-town psychiatrist whose patient turns up dead, and her young child goes missing without a trace. Seasoned detective Chris Greyson enters her world, the body count rises and more of the patients become entangled with a killer who believes in a twisted sense of salvation. As readers dive into the depths of the human mind, they will wonder about the line between good and evil.
After exploring publishing options, Ferrell landed on self-publishing. Her penchant for learning and technology and her desire to make it happen sooner rather than later pushed her to “just do it myself.”
She hired a professional designer to create the cover based on concepts she provided. “I like the idea of simplicity,” she said. The cover includes “Break,” the one-word title, and the illustration of a typical baby carriage that looks “a little ominous.”
What’s next?
Alberti has one more book idea percolating in her head, related to 12 years of being taught by nuns in Catholic schools. She’s debating between “The Nuns’ Garden” or “Nana’s Garden,” maybe a more relatable title for today’s children to connect them to grandparents.
However, the second book might take a back seat to the other activities that occupy her time. She loves to garden and make jewelry, and she also wants to learn to play guitar and mandolin. “There’s not always enough time in the day to do everything I want,” she said.
Ferrell’s impatience for idleness and her active mind have developed a plan for at least seven more books, some of which she has already started.
As she was writing, she had ideas pop into her head for additional books, not necessarily in order. As she thought of things, she wrote it down, careful not to lose the thought.
“I’ve got an idea laid out for seven books, and I’m about a 10th of the way done with the second one and halfway done with the third and the fifth.”
The mother and daughter are proud of the work they’ve done.
“As a mother and a woman, it’s really nice to have something that is yours, that is just your own little thing,” Ferrell said.
She did warn her battalion of editors that she wanted them to be honest. “This cannot be an American Idol situation where it’s bad and you let me put it out there saying how wonderful it is to me and then I embarrass myself,” she said. “You have to tell me if this is good or if this is wrong.”
To date, the reviews have been positive from family, friends and other readers, and she’s excited that more than 25 people have listed it as “Want to Read” on GoodReads.
Book readings scheduled for both authors
Both authors will do readings and book signings at Novel Blends in Bowling Green. Ferrell is scheduled first. She will share her book on Saturday, March 22 from 3 to 5 p.m.
Her sister-in-law Kacee Ferrell Snyder will provide decorated cookies for the event, using the book cover as a theme. BG businesses SamB’s and Beckett’s Burger Bar will provide 15% coupons to people who attend the reading. “We are trying to promote local, downtown for the event,” Ferrell said.
Given the title of Alberti’s children’s book, her presentation will align with the first BG Firefly Nights of 2025 on Friday, June 20. “It’s a summer book, so that timing couldn’t be better,” Alberti said.
She also did a reading at Gathering Volumes in Perrysburg for the inaugural book signing.
“Break” and “Catching Lightning Bugs in Our Jammies” are available on Amazon.
