Being the Odd Duck with Stephanie Campisi

On today's episode of the "Helping Families Be Happy" podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly talks with guest Stephanie Campisi. She will be talking with us about her wonderful new book, Quacks Like a Duck.

 

Episode Highlights

• 1.41: Opportunity presented itself, so Stephanie moved to the US from Australia in 2014 and she has been having a wonderful time. 
• 1.51: Throughout her travels, Stephanie has been collecting interesting stories and overheads and snippets and turning them into books.
• 2.07: Stephanie has lived in quite a few states in the US and has traveled almost half of now and working on the rest.
• 3.53: Reading and writing are how Stephanie makes sense of the world, and she thinks it's so true for so many people even if you are not necessarily an author, but you write letters or things like that.
• 5.15: Stephanie looks at the recurring motives that shine through because she has several books out through Familius and tends to be loved together, laugh together, and play together.
• 7.33: Stephanie's perspective has been really interesting in Australia and being an Australian and what that identity is now that she is elsewhere.
• 8.35: Stephanie has been taking Vegemite to the US schools and having brave souls try it and it's always hilarious. They eat Vegemite to keep their vitamins up.
• 11.10: The essence of relationship is when we can take a topic and start dissecting it whether it is about books or some little curiosities, says Carla. 
• 12.11: Stephanie mostly travels around the schools in rural Eastern Tennessee and in a lot of cases she is the first author that the kids have met and so it's wonderful.
• 13.40: There has been a little bit of time in the making quacks, but Stephanie does have a book in the work that hopefully will be on shelves and is absolutely inspired by her son who is three years old.
• 15.15: When Stephanie came from another country and made a new home in America, that belonging, and acceptance were a big piece for her. She shares if her books somehow create more of a sense of belonging and acceptance in her life or not.
• 17.35: When Stephanie came to the US, it was kind of like a single-swim situation.
• 19.41: Social-emotional learning helps kids learn how to get along with each other and make friends, create healthy relationship dynamics, and learn to exist alongside each other in the world. 
• 20.12: Quacks like a duck is a brand-new release and it's not actually about a duck. It is about Petunia the platypus who shows up at her very first party in the US, says Stephanie. 
• 22.10: Sometimes we want to label everything. We want to put something in a box so that we are comfortable knowing what this is, says Carla.
• 26.22: Books are really safe way to explore little things with children, particularly if you are with a trusted adult who can help you work through them.
• 27.18: In Quacks Like a Duck, we have petunia going to her party but that applies in so many different situations where you're the new person in an unfamiliar situation and that can apply to kids in so many different experiences throughout their lives, says Stephanie.
• 29.00: Stephanie feels picture books give us permission to be kids again and feel like that is one of the joys of being a picture book author.

3 Key Points

1. Stephanie talks about her journey and what motivated her to become an author.
2. You feel yourself and what you are meant to be at Familius and that's why we gravitated towards Familius. The energy at Familius is very loving, very inclusive, and very family oriented, says Stephanie.
3. Different people can approach the same book, but nobody is ever going to approach it in the same way. We are in different moods when we are reading the book, says Stephanie.

Tweetable Quotes

• "Your reading and writing passion helps you bring components to life, in your body, in your mind and spirit." - Carla
• "It is really beautiful that there is some energy that brings people to Familius because that energy is like let's create books that help make the world a better place." – Carla
• "Once you get outside the familiar bubble of comfort, you have a different lens to see and understand everything." - Stephanie
• "Social-emotional learning lens is authenticity for how to embrace your truth, know who you are, stand in your truth, and not need to dress up. You can just be yourself." - Carla
• "When we are connecting with the child, we are also connecting to lost or thirsty parts of ourselves, and their books work in a way that more the 500 pages book can't do." - Carla

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast Apple
• Stephanie Campisi: Website
• Podcast Editing