North Liberty dad publishes book on ‘The Oohs and Ahhs of Parenting’

NORTH LIBERTY — A North Liberty father has published his first children’s book, “The Oohs and Ahhs or Parenting,” which was inspired by his parenting journey and is meant to appeal to adults and children alike.

  Buy Photo

Kyle Sommers, an Iowa native, has two daughters, 6-year-old Hadley and 4-year-old Paisley. He and his wife Kylene have been North Liberty residents for a little over a decade.

Sommers, who works professionally in a consultative role for an employee software company, said he always knew that he wanted to write a book, but he wasn’t sure about a topic. Through his own parenting journey, and through conversations with other parents, a concept for the book began to take shape.

“When you have a kid, or if you're around kids, they pretty much consume, you know, your entire conversation, yeah, whether you like it or not,” Sommers said. “I started kind of collecting and writing down some of those ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ moments with kids that kind of all parents run into. So I just started writing some of those moments down and then trying to create, you know, funny verbiage to go along with the illustrations.”

Sommers worked with Alison McClain, also a North Liberty resident, to illustrate the book. The two met after Sommers began searching for an artist in the Corridor area and connected with Summer of the Arts, an Iowa City-based arts organization.

“I knew I wanted to work with someone local so that way we could support each other and then also meet to bounce ideas off each other … I just gave her a rough outline, had a couple of example ideas and I let her work her magic and use her expertise there,” Sommers said.

Sommers self-published the book in May.

The 32-page book presents a number of familiar parenting situations, including building a crib that has a bit more than just “some assembly required.” The book also includes a scene in which a toddler throws spaghetti across the room, and their parent can’t help but laugh.

Each illustration includes a hidden heart for readers to find as they make their way through the book.

“It is capturing all those relatable head-scratcher moments that you know all parents, caregivers — anyone around kids — will experience at some point. It's got something for everyone within it, it's got the funny verbiage for caregivers or anybody that's reading the book, and then it's also got a lot of artwork and detail within the illustrations, and then hidden objects for kids to find,” Sommers said of the book.

“The Oohs and Ahhs of Parenting,” which Sommers self-published, is available in paperback through Amazon.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

Get a weekly roundup of Johnson County news by signing up for my Johnson County Update newsletter.