Son’s birth inspires children’s book

BOWLER — Brock Schreiber’s latest children’s book captivated the audience Wednesday at the Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library and Museum — right up until the author’s 3-year-old son, Eli, asked if he brought any water.

Schreiber, who was born and raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation, just smiled and continued reading the story, noting later that it was his son’s birthday.

For the crowd, “Once Upon a Moonless Night” was a charming tale. For the author, the story holds a much deeper meaning for him, as it is a story about how his son came into the world.

The illustrations created by Bowler artist Judy Gosz show little Eli coming in like a comet on that moonless night. The child’s birth was definitely fast, as Schreiber recalled.

“My wife delivered him at home, and that wasn’t planned,” Schreiber said. “We just didn’t make it out of the house in time.”

Schreiber said his wife woke him up at 2 a.m. on Oct. 30, 2016, when she went into labor and said they needed to go to the hospital. Schreiber had gone out to warm up and pack the car to make the journey, but once he stepped back inside his home, he quickly saw that Eli wasn’t going to wait for the doctors and nurses.

“I called 911, and I got Ethan Schmidt, the dispatcher,” Schreiber said. “He helped us along, and about five minutes into the call, Eli was born.”

The title for the book came to Schreiber months later as he thought back on the night Eli was born. He remembered it being very dark when he went out to start his car.

“It was just a very starry night with no moon out,” Schreiber said.

Schreiber’s book went through three different versions before he decided on the rhyming style folks would read in the book, he said. Earlier iterations attempted over the course of a year were more descriptive of what happened that night without the rhymes.

“I’m glad I wound up with this book,” Schreiber said.

Schreiber’s words only make up a portion of the book. Gosz’s illustrations let readers see the journey, from a starry silhouette of Schreiber holding Eli close to him, to images of the North Star, Little Dipper, the Swan Nebula and other constellations.

Although Gosz has been an artist for many years, it was the first time she’d illustrated a children’s book. She had never thought about it until Schreiber approached her about it after seeing some of her work hanging at the dental clinic on the reservation.

“I met with him, and I heard the 911 call that he sent in the night Eli was born,” Gosz said. “That was my introduction to his story.”

Gosz said her love of the night sky inspired her to create illustrations that were as close to the real night sky as possible. She noted that her research has helped her to name more star constellations than she could before

“I was studying star charts and seeing how the planets really are formed,” Gosz said. “If you’ve seen my work before, you know that I either go real abstract or else I make it as close to reality as I can get.”

For the page with the silhouette, Gosz had originally planned to have a traditional black silhouette with a star-covered background. When she saw the part she cut out, however, she decided to flip it.

“That was just a gift from the Creator,” Gosz said. “You kind of just go with the flow, and you don’t always know where it will end up.”

The hardest page for Gosz to illustrate was a page where she showcased the Northern Lights.

“They have a lot of yellow and a lot of green, but (Schreiber) wanted all the colors in there, so I put in a little rose,” Gosz said. “That one I probably did over four times.”

Schreiber said his book would not be complete without the illustrations.

“The illustrations in this book are just wonderful,” Schreiber said, praising Gosz for her work. “They really bring the book to life.”

“Once Upon a Moonless Night” is not the first book Schreiber has written based on his children. He wrote “Cookies Full of Love” in 2017 as a tribute to his 5-year-old daughter, Brynn.

“It started out as a letter to my wife on Mother’s Day, and she really liked it a lot, so we thought we should get it published,” Schreiber said.

Schreiber has also written three books teaching Mohican language, all translated by Christopher Harvey, that also help children learn about animals, counting and the seasons.

He has another children’s book in the works. As yet untitled, Schreiber didn’t divulge the title, but the new book, which will be about powwows, will be available in May 2020. Sheena Waupoose, a Menominee artist living in Keshena, will be illustrating the new book.

Schreiber’s inspiration for writing came out of reading stories to his children. When his wife was first pregnant five years ago, he would read stories to her belly.

“It was fun to watch it grow, and then Brynn would start moving inside my wife’s belly,” Schreiber said. “That’s when I thought it would really be awesome to write a story that I could say, ‘This is Dad’s story. Dad wrote this story.’”

Schreiber’s children have heard his published works countless times, but there are also dozens of stories he has written that have not been published.

“Maybe they’ll be turned into books,” he said.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com

AT A GLANCE

Other local book signings for Brock Schreiber’s “Once Upon a Moonless Night”:

Saturday: 10 a.m. to noon at Beans and Books, 1235 E. Green Bay St., Shawano

Wednesday: Noon to 4 p.m. at Glas Coffeehouse, 511 N. Main St., Shawano

Nov. 18: 4-5:30 p.m. at Olga Brener Intermediate School, 1300 S. Union St., Shawano