Today’s blog is a guest blog written by one of our incredible children’s authors, Kendall Concini-Moore! Make sure to check out her book in the shop and grab one for your little one, or as a gift for someone else’s.
Happy reading,
E
📘 Book Summary
A beach day. A stubborn cloud. A family's love and understanding.
Alma and Max are eager for a day of sunshine and adventure. But a cloud begins to follow Mom, dimming her day. With empathy and playful hearts, the family reminds her that it's okay to not be okay, because clouds don't last forever.
This whimsical picture book, for ages 4-8, validates the reality of hard days while celebrating the healing power of family presence. With its gentle approach to emotional wellness, it gives children the language to understand when someone they love is struggling, and shows them that sometimes, the best thing we can offer is simply being there.
Includes discussion questions and caregiver resources for exploring big feelings together.
✨ Vibes & Keywords
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Age Suggestion: Children
Tropes: Mental Health Awareness
Trigger / CW: None
Spice Warning: None
📝 Book Details
Author: Kendall Concini-Moore
Format: Hardcover ✨SIGNED✨ (+ Free goodies from the author!)
Page Count: 34
Publication Date: February 1, 2026
ISBN: 979-8994068922
Series: N/A
📚 From the Author
Coming Soon
🌙 A Little Magic in Every Parcel
Every order from Imaginary Adventures is wrapped in our cozy‑magical packaging, complete with themed bookmarks, stickers, and other shop extras. We love making each book feel like a small adventure when it arrives.
If you told younger me I’d become an author one day, I’d laugh. But not as hard as if you told me I’d become a mother, because to say both were not on my bingo card is not a deep enough surprise.
With that said, my children were very intentionally planned. They were celebratory phoenix fires rising from the ashes of my inner-brain mental health dumpster fire struggles that told me my future was short. When I learned to rise, not only was it rewarding for myself, but it became something I had to share. And so. . .I became an author.
When I created my book, it began as an entry in a book publishing contest.
Pitched as an American Idol styled contest, you were meant to have an idea, enter the contest, advance through book creation stages & at the end come out with a ‘finished book’ that could win a package that included finalized editing, illustrations, publishing, marketing, etc.
When I spoke to the judges, I told my story:
“Horses, pirate penguins, dogs who eat, and once, a vacuum.”
These are just some of the topics my daughter has asked librarians to help her find.
And despite the odd, specific, or routine requests, we always came home with a book.
Until I asked a librarian for a book to help teach my daughter about my big feelings, depression.
I was handed clinical books, but they weren't what I wanted at her age.
I was handed children's books about emotions, but they were all cause & effect: I dropped my ice cream, so I’m sad, and then Mom cheers me up, usually fixing it.
Nothing about when a friend has emotions. Nothing about when your parents have emotions.
So I was lost. How do I talk about what’s going on through storytelling?
And when I couldn't find the book, I decided to write it.
It began as a scrapbook, a bedtime story, where Mom had big feelings: “A cloud came to stay, and Mom couldn't play. We'd move the cloud from location to location based on where we were: the beach, the park, the store.Then we let it sit in one place and become a full story, Mom’s Cloud and the Beach Adventure.”
While I was still in this contest, I continued to give my story away. I blogged, I instagrammed.
It resonated. I had an audience.
Then, I learned the next round was about an audience vote. I was ecstatic! Until the contest reached out that they were a bit mad because some of us had completely written our books already.
They had intended for us to only have a synopsis, an idea, and their writers would help us to fully develop the story. Hey, that's on their bad advertising & them not listening to my entire pitch and application story.
In their anger, in their proposals to help edit, redevelop, and finalize my story, I realized, Hey, these people are waiting for me to vote!
If they believed in me, I wouldn't need this contest.
I could make the book I was pitching without waiting. Without caving for their rules. Without their changes. And I could focus on the families who needed the support.
So we did.
We found Juliana, and in her we found a safe space to turn a story of struggles into a whimsical story of beauty, love, and understanding.
Where with every shady moment she drew, her art showed sunshine too, always there, always a part of us.
Most authors have stories in them their entire lives. They dream, pine, plan.
Admittedly, I did none of that.
Honestly, still, if given the chance, I would change, edit, and alter my work because my story is always evolving (good thing I signed up to make a lot of books) but that's the truth.
I am an author because I am an advocate.
✦ Connect with Kendall ✦
