Every Story Connects & Gives Back

This is the book that broke the mold.

It started as another story.
It ended as another way.

Somewhere in the middle of shaking out Billy’s “too many thoughts,” my son barged in and said:
“If that kid is supposed to be me… a monkey with cymbals should be falling out of his head.”

I probably should’ve paused and scheduled a therapy appointment.
Instead, I created Participatory Publishing.

Because that cymbal-clanging monkey?
It wasn’t just a punchline.

One hand held anxiety, the other expectations, and they’re banging together so loud Billy couldn’t even think.
And while we don’t all have a literal Bear to grab us by the feet and shake loose our “shoulds,” we do have art.
Music.
Movement.
Creativity.

That’s where joy gets unstuck.
That’s how we start shaping our world—on purpose.

That cymbal-clanging monkey became the blueprint for something bigger:
A model where kids don’t just sort expectations… they set them.
A model where kids don’t just read stories… they shape them.

Because when we stop listening to the noise that doesn’t belong to us—
we finally hear the parts that do.