Published: March 13, 2008 03:34 pm         

Local children's author busy on next book

There is a new children's author in the area. Katie O'Brunt, who also goes by Sharon Hilton, the author of the new Christian children's book series Rufus, The Lumbering Bear, lives on Peavine Road. She completed the first book just before Christmas and is hard at work on the second book in a series of 10 books, geared for children from 3-9 years of age.

Rufus is a young bear cub who shares the hurts, fears and frustrations he faces.

"The series introduces children to the love of Christ in their everyday lives and helps them deal with their very real hurts and problems on a daily basis," Hilton said.

Hilton was born in Indiana and moved to Michigan as a young mother. After 30 years, she relocated to Crossville. She is widowed and a mother to nine children, a grandmother to over 30, and a great-grandmother to nearly 20. Since she has some knowledge about children, she hopes her books will encourage all children who read them.

She is also the artist for the Rufus series, and uses marking pens so it looks like a child has done the artwork. There is no background because ADHD and autistic children have concentration problems with too much background detail. She also wants children to be able to identify with the stories.

If you are interested in acquiring a Rufus book for any children in your family or for your church library, call Hilton at 456-0634, or e-mail sharonhilt@aol.com.

In addition to the Rufus series, Hilton is also a cancer survivor and has written stories about her cancer journey, inspirational articles dealing with the death of loved ones, forgiveness and handling grief, and has authored a number of short devotional articles. She is available to share any of them as a speaker at church, youth and organizational meetings.