A Long Island resident’s new illustrated book of bedtime stories for children ages 3 to 6 years old aims to spark creativity in a child’s imagination and let them explore and learn one story at a time.
Benjamin Morganlander, of Eastport, is the author and publisher of his first children’s book, “Kismet & Kasey’s Adventures told in Rhyme,” which is available for purchase on Amazon.
“It’s very cute and anybody that has read it loves it,” said Morganlander, who wrote the compilation of 12 rhyming stories, each with a different topic such as birthdays, magic, colors and counting. “My hope is that someone who reads these stories will see the value of having children go to sleep with good thoughts in mind as opposed to what’s going on in this world.”
Morganlander’s inspiration for the stories stems from his two cats at home, Kismet and Kasey, who he developed as characters voicing the stories he wrote 30 years ago in the hopes of one day publishing them.
“I always imagined in my head that they had the intellect of a 3-year-old. Everything they did was adorable,” Morganlander said. “To me, they’re a great and curious intellectual animal when given the proper attention. Can you imagine if they spoke and were able to communicate with people? I put a voice to the animals. They do things that are imaginative and very creative.”
According to Morganlander, he had sent the stories to a friend in California who was connected to an agent that worked with Disney. Although Morganlander received a contract with the agent, he says Disney decided to not move forward with the idea.
“They liked the stories, but they didn’t like that I developed the characters and they didn’t want it,” Morganlander said. “The two cats in themselves are my creations, and they wanted to develop their own characters at the time.”
After that, Morganlander says, the stories were sitting in his drawer for 30 years while he raised his children and continued running his business, Karlin’s Decorators in Whitestone, a premier source for all interior design needs — including custom window shades, draperies and reupholstery.
It wasn’t until Morganlander’s son saw the stories in the drawer, and was able to publish a book on Amazon, he said.
Today, Morganlander says he hopes that an agent or children’s book publisher will use each story as a book, such as the golden books which is a vibrantly colored children’s series populated by cute creatures and intrepid locomotives.
“That’s how the book is designed — you can get 11 books out of that,” Morganlander said. “The stories are relevant for what a 3-year-old would be thinking about, such as colors and counting. It’s relevant in a sweet way to children.”
As the past year has been challenging for many, especially children, Morganlander says it might help to read a bedtime story to a child is disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He says he hopes more people will read “Kismet & Kasey’s Adventures told in Rhyme” to their children.
