Laura Wootton JMS ’07, writer, yoga instructor, musician, and singer has published her first book, a children’s book titled “The Sun is Shining.”

Wootton describes it as a “simple yet powerful book with an inspiring message about managing the storms that arise in life.” To engage readers, she included interactive questions on many of the pages and also hid hearts throughout her illustrations. 

Wootton became a yoga teacher in 2010 after practicing yoga for six years. She enjoyed teaching mostly adult yoga classes until 2019 when she was given the opportunity to teach yoga to preschool students.

“I hope it gives comfort to everyone’s hearts,” she said. “I want the book to feel like a hug, a loving, supportive space.”

“In the last two years, various projects with children came up,” she said, “Kids found me.”

The initial idea for the book arose in July 2020 as Wootton was preparing to do a Facebook Live video for children, she said. Since April 2020,  she has been sharing performances of her music every week on her Facebook page. After learning from some viewers that their children enjoyed listening to her music and found it calming, Wootton said she decided to create a video specifically for children that would include “a bedtime story with a few lullabies.”

In the video, she chose to read “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy, which she described as “a story of kindness and friendship.” While she was reviewing the book and thinking about her talking points, “The Sun Is Shining” was born.

In addition to writing “The Sun is Shining,” Wootton has shared many stories on her blog Sprouting Lotus and her Facebook page. She often shares pictures of hearts that she finds in her everyday life: in a spilled cup of tea, in the sun shining through the clouds, and in the snow and ice, for example. Finding these hearts inspired her idea to include the heart scavenger hunt in her book. She began to see hearts “all the time, everywhere” following the passing of her father in 2017. Wootton said the hearts have become a reminder to “look for the love that’s all around, even when it feels like it isn’t there.”

Wootton said that although the book is a children’s book, she intends for adults to read it, too. “I hope that as adults are reading it to their children, the message resonates with them,” she said. “I actually received a picture of a 90-year-old woman reading the book, and it made me really happy. She liked looking for the hearts in the book and the message of it, too.”

“I hope it gives comfort to everyone’s hearts,” she said. “I want the book to feel like a hug, a loving, supportive space.”

Wootton said that the book’s “unofficial tagline” is “Every storm passes eventually, and the sun is always shining,” a message that can be applied to our everyday lives and especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think it’s a good time for people to look at things from different perspectives,” she said.

Throughout the pandemic, Wootton said she has been meditating, practicing restorative yoga, going for walks in nature, writing, drawing, and talking to friends. She also decided to share live streams of her music on her Facebook page to offer a “safe space to share soothing music.”

“This gave me a sense of purpose and a way to connect with people since I am not teaching yoga currently,” she said.

As a Journalism and Media Studies alumna, Wootton said that her favorite courses were with SC&I Professor of Professional Practice and Director of Undergraduate Studies Steve Miller because “he always had such a great grasp of what he was teaching and he was always very engaging and interesting,” she said.

Wootton is also working on writing and illustrating two more children’s books.

Interested in the Journalism and Media Studies major? Learn more on the School of Communication and Information website.

Image: Courtesy of Laura Wootton JMS ’07