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Kathryn Varner has spent much of her professional life helping kids learn lessons in the classroom. Her messages are now reaching new heights.
The Dublin resident and Kolb Elementary School teacher has released her debut book, “The Wise Old Tree”, a passion project that took more than a decade to grow from the seed of an idea into an evergreen guide to share the wisdom of her lifetime.
“Though illustrated as a children’s tale, its wisdom resonates across all ages, offering valuable insights to every reader, especially those navigating the labyrinth of adolescence,” Varner told the Pleasanton Weekly over the weekend.
“Growing up I was confused with all the various messages that I was being told or shown by a variety of adults and experts in my life,” she said. “Having seen the changes over the last 20 years and how much social media has added to this confusion of growing up and learning about the world, I wanted to create a guidebook of sorts. Why did someone need to wait until they were in their 30s to figure out how to live in this world more fully, blissfully and abundantly?”
“With all the wisdom I had accumulated, I wanted to create a book that would cut the readers’ learning curve in half,” she added.
A Southern California native, Varner spent the first 10 years of her teaching career in Title I, inner-city schools before moving to the East Bay in 2013 — while also pursuing a relationship and expanding a business from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, she said. She taught at San Leandro and Mt. Diablo unified school districts before finding a home with Dublin Unified in 2016.
The inspiration for “The Wise Old Tree” first flickered for Varner in 2011, but it wasn’t for another seven years that she really started to focus her writing hobby on bringing that story to the page.
“Encouragement came from a variety of sources,” she said. “I am grateful for the support of friends and family and listening to my own intuition, as these combined, allowed me to write the story to fruition.”
“I really had no idea what the book-making process looked like; I just knew and trusted that the universe would provide me with whatever it is that needed to be done in order to make this dream a reality,” Varner continued, later adding:
“As the universe would have it, in the middle of the school year, a librarian started at my school site who just so happened to be an illustrator and animator. Learning about her and getting to know her through class visits, I approached her about the possibility of collaborating in creating my first book.”
Varner spoke highly of Dominique De Vera, the Dublin school librarian who became her collaborative partner on “The Wise Old Tree”, saying the amateur artist elevated the book “beyond my scope and imagination”.
“Although I provided her with a rough sketch of each page and how I saw the illustration coming together with the text, she put her own, creative artistry and flare into it and allowed the illustrations to really come to life,” Varner said. “Unlike a professional illustrator, De Vera worked on the pages in her free time as well. With this, and given that family, health and living always come first, the process took much longer than anticipated, but I knew it would get done in due time and at the right time.”
De Vera said she learned a lot from the journey in what was also her first professional collaboration in book illustrations.
“As first-timers, I quickly understood how important our own creative visions needed to be considered,” De Vera told the Weekly. “It was exciting to finally hold the book and see my hard work on the actual pages since this was a year-long project. The countless late-night drawing sessions were worth finishing it. This experience will be the foundation to my future projects that I will carry in my tool kit for sure.”
The illustrator said the process and result have inspired her to think about pursuing children’s books more in the future.
“I think this book personifies the concept of finding its place in the world and where it ends up considering this is Varner’s debut as an author and myself as an illustrator,” De Vera said.
“Although I finished this project over a year ago and would go back to fix a detail here or there, I learned to appreciate these drawings a lot more now. It was a chapter in my life that molded me in becoming a better artist and collaborator,” she added. “I have grown a lot and will continue making more refined works. After all, I do see how far I have gone with art from where I started. I’m glad I never gave up.”
“The Wise Old Tree” is now on book shelves and on sale online, published by Veronica Lane Books. The tale follows young Lee, a boy who works through life’s ups and downs with the help of a wisdom-imparting tree on his favorite hill to play on.
“Its core mission lies in imparting invaluable life skills, fostering values, and nurturing attitudes essential for the lifelong journey of personal and social development,” Varner said. “Delving deeper, the narrative spotlights the transformative power of truly universal wisdom which will ultimately help shape and guide young minds for adept decision-making, ingenious problem-solving, heightened emotional intelligence, and the finesse of critical thinking.”
In recent weeks, Varner has been busy experiencing “the marketing journey that first-time authors inevitably endure … During my travels this summer I encountered people and bookstores that are now helping to promote my book or selling it from Vietnam, to Canada and across the U.S. It has been an adventure, learning as I go.”
She’s also had her eye on starting her next book, which she said will be about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The academic calendar beckons too, as the first day of school is just around the corner for her new second grade class at Kolb on the east side of Dublin.
“Teaching is still what fulfills me … In a couple weeks I will again be excited to start another school year full of fun and learning, while also trying to dedicate time to all my passion projects,” Varner said.
