by charlee beasor
BROWNSBURG — Elizabeth Lewis took some of her most precious memories — time spent with her parents as a child in the kitchen of their home — and used it as inspiration for her first book.
The Brownsburg resident’s book, Covered in Chocolate, was released Oct. 20 by Tate Publishing. The book contains chocolate-centered recipes for children, along with educational standards, and activities for parents and children.
“It started when I was a little girl. It was a great opportunity to spend time with my parents in a creative way and it’s built a really great relationship with my parents,” Lewis said.
Lewis was a recipient of the Lilly Teacher Creativity Grant when she was an elementary school teacher in Danville. From that, she had the opportunity to travel to Switzerland to study chocolate.
“Chocolate is in line with my passions, and they wanted me to come back and have something that would benefit the children. I wanted to write a book that would be child-friendly with chocolate recipes written in a child’s voice,” she said.
In the book, there are 40 lessons from the child’s point of view.
“The lessons have to do with the recipe ... they’re all character driven. It’s cool for parents because it’s big on values and characters,” she said. “The kitchen is such an important place in a family. And this gives parents a diving board to have conversations with their kids. That was as important as the recipes.”
The book is divided into three sections, the first including the recipes and character-driven standards, which are introduced by three main characters, Sammy, Maddy, and Patty.
The second section of the book guides children and parents through a chocolate factory, still written from the three characters’ points of view. And the last section of the book is a collection of hands-on teaching ideas that parents and educators can use outside of the kitchen as well.
Lewis used what she learned in Switzerland to create all of the recipes and portions about the chocolate factory.
“They can understand how chocolate is created, it takes them all the way through the process and things I learned in Switzerland, which is my favorite country in the world, other than the one we live in,” she said.
She said she wanted the book to be something that parents could use to be actively involved in their children’s education.
“It mixes what I did for 10 years with my passion for cooking and chocolate and I hope it will allow parents to spend time with their children,” she said. “Parents want to be involved in our children’s education, we love our children, but are sometimes at a loss for how to do it.”
Lewis said the book is the outcome of a dream that she put into action, thanks to the encouragement of her husband, Kevin.
“A goal is only a wish if there’s no plan toward it,” she said. “I’d retired from teaching ... and focused on writing my book. I thought, it’s probably not going to work out, but my husband told me that it was ‘just reams of paper and loads of time, so what do you have to lose?’ It’s not failure if it didn’t get published.”
She knew that publishing houses need several reasons to publish a book and after doing some market research, decided to focus on the cooking portion, which is especially popular right now, thanks to the Food Network and similar popular items.
“The Food Network is huge, I felt like the market was prime,” she said. “My goal was to send it to 20 publishers and I sent two at a time. Thankfully a publisher picked it up and thought it was worthy of a bound book.”
Lewis said she’s had quite the year, both with her book and her son, Landon James Lewis, born just a few months apart.
“I’m glad the book came when it did, there was a lot of work prior to the release, marketing and interviews, book signings,” she said. “I’m so thrilled to be able to be home. My priority was with (Landon) and being a mom. And the book is another kind of joy, bringing a different kind of meaning.”
Her son’s birth served as another reason for her to get the book published.
“It’s a legacy for me to leave and more important to stress the values and virtues. I want books like this in my son’s life, lessons that teach values and virtues. It’s something I want to have in my son’s repertoire, whether I’m the author of it or someone else is,” she said.
She hopes to further the book and possibly add additional books and products to a line in the future, which will be featured on her website, www.lizzieloubooks.com
Lewis writes the book under the name Lizzie Lou, and will be hosting a book signing from noon to 2 p.m. Dec. 18 at the downtown Indianapolis Borders bookstore, Suite 110, 11 S. Meridian Street.
The book is sold in all major book retail stores, as well as online at amazon.com for $10.99.
charlee.beasor@flyergroup.com
