Kyla Saphir
Books
About Kyla Saphir
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Kyla Saphir is a mother, yoga instructor, early childhood educator, and now the author of the new children’s books On Brighter Days and I Love Nature School. She lives in Columbia, South Carolina with her husband, daughter, and their wild dog, Nia.
The inspiration for the book, On Brighter Days, came from Kyla's personal experience with secondary infertility. Kyla is the youngest of five children and wanted her daughter to have siblings as well but was not able to make that happen. When she looked for books for her daughter to read about their experience, the bookshelves were empty.
Kyla is passionate about high quality children's literature and so she and her daughter decided to write their own book addressing these feelings for other parents and only children. She also couldn't find books to read to her Nature preschoolers about their first days of school, so she wrote her own!
When not busy writing and hanging with her family, Kyla loves to read, practice yoga, walk with Nia, and play in her garden. She also teaches Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga around Columbia.
"My brothers and sisters hated me because I was an only child."
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Why a book about Nature Schools?
The inspiration for I Love Nature School comes from Kyla's experience teaching at various nature preschools around the US.
When looking for books about the first day of nature preschool, there were none to read to her students. Every book focused on indoor preschools and didn’t show the magic of learning outdoors.
Kyla decided to create a colorful story to introduce little ones, their parents, and teachers to the wonders of nature school and learning outside of four walls.
Don't have much access to nature?
Here are 10 ideas for backyard nature activities:
School Visit
Kyla spoke with elementary students at Brockman Montessori School about how to become a published author in November 2022.
*Contact me for an Author visit*
Blog Post Interview
From Only Child World blog writer Natasha R:
I’m so excited to share this interview with Kyla Saphir, the author of a new children’s book.
Kyla’s new book is delightful, candid and a moving read for every only-child family! ☺️
Want to write your own Children's Book?
Writing your own book can take many forms now that's its easier than ever to self publish. However, I recommend having some guidance from someone who has already been through the process in order to do it successfully.
My journey into publishing my first children's book happened with a little luck and lots of patience. I had an idea, made sure there weren't many books on the topic, and started talking about it to others. My friend (and now Publisher, Caitlyn Jones at Artist Madrid Books!) had just self-published her first children's book and was interested in expanding to publish other books.
Caitlyn knew how to get an illustrator, she had a printer she worked with, knew how to edit a book, and taught me about presales and promotion.
For ON BRIGHTER DAYS, we set the wheels in motion in August 2021 and the book came out in May 2022. For I LOVE NATURE SCHOOL, we started working on it in June 2022 and it launched from Barnes and Noble in December 2022.
This link below lays out 12 Steps to Publishing your children's book written by an editor.
The Impact of On Brighter Days
This book will hopefully fill in the void of books representing only children and their families. There are many families that have only children for a variety of reasons, either by choice or circumstance, and they take many forms - two parent families, single parents, gay families, and families of all colors.
On Brighter Days shows this diversity since representation matters! All kids and families should see themselves in high quality children's literature.
Help me spread the word and grow this body of children's literature!