Judy Snider

This time of year is filled with plenty of Hallmark moments! With one holiday down and several still coming, families around the world are making plans to gather together to celebrate. Whether family travels from a long or short distance, we often tell them to “be careful” on their routes to and from.

It is just that phrase that inspired sisters Judy Snider and Joan Dickow’s to write I Love You, Be Careful. Inspired by the events of a family’s life events, I Love You, Be Careful reminds young and old of the love felt between family members.

Joan Dickow

Joan lives in Michigan with her husband and cat, and is working on her second children’s picture book, The Porch Fairy.

Judy lives in Virginia, with her husband and two cats, and is also the author of the picture book, Goldy’s Baby Socks!

Please welcome our award-winning sisters to the Spotlight!

MCA: Welcome to the spotlight Judy! Can you please tell us about what motivated you to create your book?
Judy: When speaking together, Joan (co-author) and I commented how many times we say “I love you, be careful” to the people we care for. That phrase inspired our heartwarming picture book for all generations came about.

With the help of our excellent illustrator, Cady Driver, our ideas came alive into I Love You, Be Careful.

MCA: Now that you have an award-winning picture book, what are your goals for the next year?
Judy: We are proud it is a Mom’s Choice Award® Honoring Excellence book. We will spread the word on many book sites, media sites, and at conferences about the book and the Mom’s Choice Award®.

We look forward to having the book recognized at Book Expo America in 2013. We also want people buy the electronic version and send it as an e-card/book to their friends and family.

Our biggest goal is to have the book picked-up someday by Hallmark. It would be so cool to see I Love You, Be Careful in the Hallmark brick and mortar stores.

MCA: Wow! It will be fun to see your picture book in my local Hallmark store! Taking that to the next level, have you thought about ways your Mom’s Choice Award® will help you attain your goals?
Judy: The award will help us with having others see that our book was accepted into this wonderful program. Just having the seal on our cover will help in getting the word out about the book,

We’re also excited about being able put this award on our website and on the book when it is available at retail sites. Last but not least, we are excited about getting it into bridal stores and baby stores. It is a perfect gift for the new bride, parent-to-be, and grandparents, too. Those hallmark events in our lives.

MCA: Can you share with us what you learned about yourself as an writer in creating your award-winning book?
Judy: We learned that anything is possible, nothing can stop you, and it takes a lot of hard work and having a good team working together to make a book.

MCA: Since launching your book, what has been your most rewarding experience in promoting or sharing it with the public? Do you have a favorite memory?
Judy: Working with each other, and promoting our book on radio interviews together has been so much fun and a learning process. Seeing the smiles on our family, children’s, and friends’ faces made us happy and showed us it was worth the hard work. Our time was filled with laughter when working on this book, sister to sister.

MCA: As a new honoree, do you have any questions you’d like some of the “old hands” to answer for you?
Judy: There seems to be so much we have learned and are learning. I would love to know more about books getting into stores. We are thrilled for the honor of Mom’s Choice as well, as knowing we
have experts to guide us!

MCA: We are glad you are learning so much! Talk back to us, MCA Alumni – tell us about getting your books into stores!

Mom’s Choice Awards® Honors

I Love You, Be Careful
by Judy Snider and Joan Dickow
Children’s Picture Book – Crossing Generations
Silver

Contact, Connect, and Network with Judy

The Alumni Spotlight is a periodic feature on the official Mom’s Choice Awards® blog. It is part of our ongoing effort to “shine the spotlight” on you and your award-winning, family-friendly products, services, and media.