Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson, Duchess of York, has given quite the boost to Newcastle children's author Emily S. Smith.
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Fergie read Emily's latest picture book How To Hug A Cactus on her YouTube channel, Storytime with Fergie and Friends.
Emily said she was "over the moon" that her book was selected to be a "royal read".
"I was so excited. I couldn't believe it," Emily said.
How To Hug A Cactus, illustrated by Aleksandra Szmidt, is about a little girl's desire to hug her best friend, which "just happens to be a cactus".
"She asks all her family members for ideas to help her achieve this goal, and they are all gigantic and funny failures," Emily said.
"After experiencing failure after failure, she's just about to give up when she gets a sudden hit of inspiration from a 'guru of the garden' on TV."
She creates her own cactus-hugging suit made of gardening gloves, enabling her to "live out her dream of hugging her cactus".
"Except then she is hit with a new problem when she gets stuck to the cactus and can't let it go."
Emily said the child in the story wants to hug the cactus "to help it grow and as an expression of love".
"In this story, the child makes a suit out of gardening gloves, as the garden guru on TV was able to handle the cactus without injury.
"Less successful suggestions from various family members include covering the spikes with marshmallows, creating a cactus 'space suit' out of bubble wrap and wrapping yourself in pillows."
Emily, an early childhood educator, has often noticed children struggle with persistence and resilience.
"If they can't do something perfectly the first or second time, they give up and see it as something they just can't do," she said.
"To be fair, I've noticed a lot of adults struggle a bit with this as well - myself included."
Emily is a big fan of perseverance.
"I want to foster the development of an open mindset in young children, where 'failures' are seen as stepping stones to success, and to demonstrate how important it is to just keep on trying."
Garbage Guts
Emily's first book, Garbage Guts, explores the importance of reducing waste and recycling.
"It focuses on the anti-hero, Garbage Guts, who is the North Pacific Garbage Patch in anthropomorphic form," she said.
"Big G has a grand plan to rid the sea of all other life, so he can have the ocean to himself. He throws a party where he feeds the animals garbage and tricks them into games with nets to try and get rid of them."
In the end, his plan fails and he realises the error of his ways. He is then transformed, literally and metaphorically, into a bunch of other items that humans use.
Emily's next children's book, Kora Kerplunk's Travelling Tongue, is due for release in February.
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