Grace Anne Remey On Her Lion's Pride Books!

Grace Anne Remey is the 9-year-old author of Lion's Pride: A Tail Of Deployment, a book based off her own personal experience as a child in a military family.

Grace Anne joined us on a Skype call from Germany to talk all about her writing, the things that inspire her, and how she deals with deployment.

"Mom first came up with the idea of a book," Grace Anne said.

Grace Anne's mother wanted to write a book about a wolf on deployment.

Grace Anne decided that she wanted to be the one to write the book, with one major change. She wanted the story to revolve around lions.

"I'm good at drawing lions," Grace Anne explained. "So I wrote this book, Lion's Pride, A Tail of Deployment.

Grace Anne is the author and illustrator of the book. The story was based around her own experiences dealing with deployment.

Deployment comes with many challenges. For one, she doesn't often get to see her father.

"I only have my mom at home, and she is busy most of the time," Grace Anne said.

Grace Anne is aware that her mom is busy and often overwhelmed doing double duty in all the roles usually covered by both parents.

Grace Anne's second book, Lion's Pride On the Move, was inspired by the fact that, in addition to her father being deployed, Grace Anne has had to move a number of times.

"I wanted to write a book about moving," she said. "That was around the time I was moving, too."

Grace Anne's books have helped other children dealing with deployment know that other kids are going through the same things, and to learn how to cope with difficult situations.

"There was this one girl and when her dad deployed she read my book every night until her dad came back," Grace Anne explained.

She also also awarded with a Bronze Award from the Military Writer's Society of America for the books.

"That felt amazing," she said. "We celebrated by having flowers and cake."

When it comes to dealing with her own difficult circumstances, Grace Anne has learned a few great ways to make it through.

"I hug a stuffed animal," she said. "We have a kiss jar, and we have one chocolate kiss every afternoon, and there' s a grab bag that my dad puts toys and stuff in. And there's a toy that my dad takes and he puts places and takes pictures. The toy can be flying a helicopter or hiding or sleeping and stuff like that."

Her mother, Lisa, also explained that Grace Anne always lets her mom know when she is feeling stressed. Talking about things out loud is a huge help to both of them.

We hope that Grace Anne Remey continues to write and inspire other military kids in the future!

Learn more about Grace Anne Remey and her writing on the official Lion's Pride website here!

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