‘You make me smile’

     Kelli Naylor has a simple explanation for the vision she had to create “You Make Me Smile,” the 2012 children’s book that honors the memory of three deceased Iowa children.

     “God just hit my heart,” Naylor said.

     The Monticello author will appear at a book reading event Monday, May 1, 5-7 p.m. at Shine On Gifts and Specialties, 408 E. First St., Monticello. The event is geared for kids ages 10 and under, both girls and boys. The cost per child is $6.

     The event will include the reading of Naylor’s book, a craft of making May Day baskets and filling them with goodies, as well as a visit from Elsa, from the movie “Frozen.” Elsa will be available for pictures and autographs. Naylor will also autograph her book.

     The book includes illustrations of the three children doing the things they loved, as Naylor’s writing describes the activities. The illustrations, by Australian Sienna von Nossum, were taken from photographs of the children provided by the families.

     Naylor wrote it under the pen name “B. Nayberly.” The “Nay” comes from her name, “ber” from Farber, the last name of three of her six children; and “ly” from the name of one of her nine grandchildren.

     The idea for the book came after Naylor had heard about Benjamin David Ricketts, a 23-month-old Cedar Falls boy who was the victim of an accident, and was hospitalized for several days before he died. Ricketts is not one of the three children depicted in the book, but it is dedicated in his memory.

     “I had been praying for this little guy,” Naylor said. “On the morning of May 25, 2010, I was praying for him, and I did not know at the time that he had died.

     “And I got hit in the heart. I had a vision of this book. It was so huge, it was so powerful that the name of the book was immediate. It never changed.”

     She balked at first, knowing that a book that involved interviewing the families of deceased children could be agonizing.

     “I kept ignoring it,” she said. “But almost every night, I would be woken up, and there would be another idea. Finally, in September of 2010, I sat up and said, ‘All right, already! But it will have to be totally led by You.’ And then I slept.

     “There were so many God things connected to this.”

     Naylor went on to meet the families of three other young children who had died. One came through a church that the family, and Naylor’s brother and sister-in-law, attended. The second one came from a connection through a church in Dubuque.

     Naylor was led to the third family in a bizarre set of circumstances. Vanessa Husmann of Hopkinton, the three-year-old daughter of Vaughn and Rhonda Marty Husmann, died in March 2011.

     Naylor and her husband, Dave, were at a Christian retreat weekend. A man who was working in the kitchen at the retreat received a phone call, but didn’t answer because he didn’t recognize the number, Naylor said.

     The man decided to call the number back, and it turned out to be Vanessa’s grandmother, who was in California, frantically trying to contact her son after learning of Vanessa’s death.

     Days later, Naylor said, four people from the retreat were led to attend the visitation, and met Nancy, the grandmother, and the rest of the family.

     “When Jesus is involved, it’s not random,” she said.

     In each family’s case, Naylor approached them and asked to interview them. Once the families agreed, Naylor showed up for each interview with a box of tissues under her arm.

     “We all cried,” Naylor said. “I felt so humbled and so privileged and so honored. The families were so honored and excited that their child was chosen.”

     After the interviews, which she described as “joyfully sad,” Naylor pored through more than 100 hours of videotaped interviews, along with photographs, videos and cellphone footage of each child.

     She needed an illustrator, and through Internet searches found von Rossum. The artist’s paintings were so realistic, Naylor said, that at times it was hard to tell that they weren’t photographs.

     Naylor started her own publishing company, and had members of the family work on various facets of the book.

     “It’s been a family endeavor,” she said.

     Shine On decided to host a local author and craft, owner Denise Miossi said, “to keep kids engaged in the community.

     “It’s sort of a farewell to winter and hello to spring,” Miossi said. “We wanted to do something different, and this opportunity just fell in our laps.”

     Naylor said she’s excited about the event.

     “And I’m so glad that I’m not reading it,” Naylor said. “I have yet to get through the book without crying.”

     Her daughter, Britni Farber, playing the role of Elsa from “Frozen,” will read the book and show the illustrations.

     “The illustrations are super accurate,” Miossi said. “Kelli never met any of the children depicted in her book. She just got to know them from photos and from their loved ones left behind. She felt guided and inspired to write this book.

     “The book is such a good fit to sell at our store.”

     Copies of Naylor’s book will be available for purchase.

     (Editor Kim Brooks also contributed to this article.)