Whipper is an 8 year old girl who lives and thrives on her family's farm and ranch in Eastern Montana.
She lives sandwiched between the Yellowstone River and the North Dakota Badlands. The prairie is her playground. She is curious and mischievous. Everything is an adventure, and to explore is to learn about the world around her. She feels everything.
Her senses are highly attuned, and she lives in the perfect environment for living in her superpower. She sees details that others miss. Colors are rich and vibrant, even when they are not, because she sees the little nuances that make the tapestry of life so detailed you can get lost in it.
The smells all around her give her signals, and she broadens her view of the world by connecting so many memories to the smells she experiences. Smell is one of the biggest memory anchors we have. For Whipper, the smell of roses takes her back to visits at her Grandmother's house, to a blue bathtub, and to the rose cream that kept her grandmother's skin so soft to Whipper's touch. The smell of grass instantly reminds her of days after a rainstorm, seeing for miles while the grasses on the range waved in the wind.
From the velvet of baby kitten ears to the mud that squished between her toes as she played barefoot along the banks of the Yellowstone River, the textures and wonder that came to her broadened her horizons, and gave her a rich perspective on what joys life has to offer everyone who is willing to explore and find them.
Taste, oh the taste, of freshly picked chokecherries, echinacea, and fresh baked whole wheat bread hot out of the oven with sweet cream butter on it. On the prairie, long before dentists, Native people, cowboys, and pioneers chewed echinacea to numb toothaches and mouth sores. The sounds of cattle lowing, wild turkeys gobbling, the breeze rustling the leaves of a cottonwood tree, and the water swirling in the creek or river, added to the world Whipper called home. Her senses were not overwhelmed but heightened, because she learned how they all connected her to the experiences around her.
Whipper loves animals, and her dog Blue, a blue heeler, whose job was to protect and watch out for Whipper and her family while working the cattle, was with her every step of the way. He explored right alongside her, and she learned to attune to his senses too, when hers were not as strong. They made a great team. Caring for animals was her expression of empathy, and in turn they brought her into their world as they saw it. Whipper got to see kittens being born, raised fawns as pets that later would go back to the wild, and stayed with calves in the cold winter winds until they could nurse and grow strong.
Whipper's brain worked differently than most. She is neurodivergent, a big word for this: her brain is wired a bit differently than what is often considered normal. Her whole family was! Because of that, she was rarely told that she couldn't do something because she did it differently. She was expected to figure it out, and she saw that as a challenge, even if the end result was achieved through unconventional means. She is small, and she learned to use her brain, since her strength was limited. Lack of strength was never allowed as an excuse. This made her stronger, because she found ways to do things that grew her strength of mind and body. Being a girl was never an excuse either. She learned to drive tractors before she could reach the pedals, and vehicles she couldn't see over the dashboard.
Part of my inspiration was to share stories of my childhood and my family, a legacy that is so often lost with the passing of generations. The stories of old are being lost, and I did not want that to happen for my children and their children.
Through raising three children with neurodiversities, and with learning differences and sensory processing challenges, I have seen that the world can shun those who think and are wired differently because they don't do things the "normal" way. This kind of limitation, in the name of conformity, has made children and adults alike shy away from their true superpowers in the name of being more like everyone else.
My mission with the Whipper books is to connect the young reader, and their parents, teachers, and friends, to the best of what and who they can be, by stepping into the qualities that make them special, like curiosity, questions, and learning through their senses, and to give them license to be the best version of themselves each and every day.
I want parents to enjoy reading with their children, whether that is to learn and practice, or simply to bond and connect through storytelling and sharing. My children's favorite memories are of me reading in fun voices what the characters were saying. I did that to make the books more interesting for me, and to rivet my children to the story.
Whipper books are more than just stories. They are meant to lift the child up, to see possibilities, to explore, to be curious, and to have fun learning while they do it.
I am also a huge advocate for sensory learning. We experience the world through our senses, and connections for memory and retention grow when we use all of them to learn reading, or any subject. That is why I include a scripted sensory activity in the back of every book, and why the Whipper newsletter will share sensory activities, tips, and resources for parents and teachers. I had that growing up in my own backyard, but as a parent outside the farm and ranch lifestyle, I was sometimes lost as to how to bring this to my own children.
Whipper is a movement to connect children and adults to the power of using their senses to learn and experience the world without judgment or critique.
Another big part of the Whipper books is the Magic 8. The Magic 8 is the Infinity Model, explained at a level a child can understand, and yes, even the adults.
Framework created by Greg Kimble.
Dr. Greg Kimble created the Infinity Model, a picture of how four pillars in our lives flow and connect, like an infinity symbol on its side, a sideways 8.
Mindset, values, standards, and how we think.
Skills, purpose, and what we do.
The energy of our life force, rest, recharge, and wellness.
Who we surround ourselves with, who we listen to, and who we are human with.
These pillars flow into each other. What we think shapes what we do. What we do shapes how we feel. How we feel shapes who we gather around us. And the people around us shape how we think.
As an Infinity Coach, I have seen how true this model is in my own life. Too often I saw people, including myself, going down a linear path. I thought I had to focus on my business at the cost of my health, or put all my focus on my health at the expense of everything else. The Infinity Model shows that energy is ever flowing. One area may need more attention at a specific point, and that does not have to come at the cost of the other areas. All of them can grow and expand, instead of break. If you are feeling stuck in one, that is a signal to do work in a different area, and relieve the pressure there.
In the books, the Magic 8 is not a lecture. It is interwoven throughout the stories. Another hope I hold for the Whipper books is to bring this way of seeing to younger generations. I have seen adults get blocked in life and not know what the block is, or how to move through it. I believe that if more children could recognize how to move through a block earlier in their lives, more people would grow with more ease. Big dreams, I know. These books are the part I can do. If everyone did their own small part to make the world better, you would be amazed at what the world could look like.
If Whipper feels a little like your child, or a little like the child you used to be, you are in the right place. Come along.
