Heather Austin, teacher at Thousand Oaks High School, wrote and published the book “The Brand New Day.” The story is told from the first-person point of view of a little girl named Brookie (after her daughter Brooke) as she tries to fit in with her friends, who are not attuned to the true meaning of life but are instead glued to their cell phones. A phone is not actually mentioned in the book but is referred to many times. In the story, Brookie is not satisfied with her social life because all her friends have this thing in their hands that absorbs their time and keeps them from talking to her, so to fit in, she asks her parents for one. Brookie soon realizes this thing is distracting her from her beautiful childhood and everything around her. She decides to take a leap and leave this thing at home. She goes to school that day and realizes that life is missed amid distractions, and that there is no greater power in childhood than simply looking up, both symbolically and physically.
The deeper message within this story is that there is more to life than what is in one’s hands, and this message is not only for young kids, but teens and adults too. “Let’s start to honor time again,” Austin said. “We live on this earth for a very limited amount of time, and it is very fortunate that we are here, so it is important to value your time and ‘look up.'”
On Apr. 18, Barnes & Noble at The Promenade in Westlake Village held a book-signing event where Austin read from her book to a group of young kids in the bookstore’s children’s section. “It was like a dream,” Austin said. Many of Austin’s friends, family members, and TOHS English teacher colleagues showed up in support of her achievement.
The book was written by Austin and illustrated by her daughter Brooke, then self-published, which was the most important value of the book to her. There are two more books Austin is planning to write in the coming years.
Austin always thought she was destined to write a children’s book. Before she wrote it, she thought, “What is the biggest time suck of all? Phones.”
“If I could leave one thing behind for my kids before I leave this earth, it would be the gift of time,” Austin said.
