“The arrival of the chicks coincided with our youngest set of twins’ third birthday, and they decided that the fuzzy little guys were just the most amazing birthday present ever. The chicks were held, petted, kissed, decorated, wrapped, fed and fondled. On a sunny afternoon, I was in our kitchen when one of the three year olds came rolling in, elbows chugging like a little Popeye, and singing, “Yo ho‚ ho, 16 chickens on a tram — po — yeeeeen. I bolted out the back door and there on the canvass were chickens clucking crazily, and his twin brother merrily bouncing them through the air, the birds cackling wildly and feathers flying.” — Excerpt from Faye Lippitt’s Sixteen Chickens on a Trampoline.
Lippitt will be in Vernon to present her hilarious book of very short true stories Aug. 26 at the Vernon library. As a passionate advocate of literacy, all the net proceeds of her book sales go to Literacy Is For Everyone (LIFE) through Rotary Sunrise in the Cayman Islands, where she is a member of their executive team.
She and her husband raised six children including not one, but two, sets of twins who all arrived within eight years. While husband Greg was busy with his chiropractic practice in Calgary, Lippitt was on their little acreage enveloped in daily bedlam.
“I could have yelled, I could have cried, but instead I chose laughter and wrote about their exploits in my journal, which later led to a magazine monthly humour column,” she says.
With the kids grown, Faye and Greg moved to Grand Cayman Island and Faye decided to put those magazine articles together in a book. It is a how-to book, or perhaps a how-not-to book. Or how-to with the peace and release of laughter. It’s for the busy mom or dad. Or for grandparents with bouncy grandchildren. Or for anyone looking for a little gift for parents in a hectic household.
It is a selection of frank anecdotes that leave us laughing out loud in recognition, but at the same time reminds us that the choice of laughter in sticky situations can be just the key to stress relief. Faye Lippitt’s writing style conjures an uproariously animated movie in the reader’s mind, infused with human insight through the funny-bone.
In addition to being active on the literary scene on Grand Cayman Island, Lippitt had an opportunity to launch the book in New York City. She shared the evening with Dr. Robert Zuber, director of UN Global Action to Prevent War and Armed Conflict (GAPW), and they discovered they had much in common, working on ways to empower the underprivileged.
Co-sponsored by Okanagan Regional Library, Vernon branch, Lippitt will read a few short anecdotes from Sixteen Chickens on a Trampoline and be available for book signing and questions Aug. 26 at 3 p.m. The Vernon library is at 2800 – 30th Ave.
