First illustrated children’s book
Echo Lewis’ new book, The Wagon Lady and the Basement Brigade in the Grand and Glorious Christmas Parade is the first illustrated children’s book produced at Madonna House Publications.
Echo died just as the book was sent to the printers. We are grateful to God that she had seen the book in the digital format.
The truth of the matter is that MH Publications doesn’t publish children’s books — at least not until now. It just wasn’t possible. We didn’t have people with the skills needed for this type of work. It involves a very different type of production, and colored illustrations substantially increase printing costs. Yet, here we are now with a splendid Christmas book for children.
This unprecedented project began in 2023. Echo, who was living on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, contacted Victoria Fausto, the Director of MH Publications, to talk about ideas for a new book. Previously, we had published Echo’s biography of Catherine Doherty, the foundress of Madonna House, entitled Victorious Exile. It is an extremely well-researched and beautifully written story.
Echo told Victoria that she would be happy to write another young adult biography.
However, the young adult audience (readers from twelve to eighteen years old) were now living in a different age since the publication of Victorious Exile ten years earlier. Young adults were now on their smartphones and social media sites. Books had a lot to compete with.
In years past, Echo had written stories for children which she handmade into small books. We knew she had a gift for understanding and appreciating the unique nature of a child. So, Victoria asked Echo if she would write a children’s Christmas story rather than a young adult book.
Echo told Victoria she would see what she could do. Victoria was somewhat relieved that it would take time for the book to be written. MH Publications was juggling so many other projects, including creating a new website, that it wasn’t possible to take on another book at that time.
Then, in 2024, MH Publications almost ground to a halt. Our design and layout person was assigned to another department, and several months earlier, our sales manager of many years had suddenly retired due to ill health.
We scrambled to keep up with the work and prayed for more staff to fill these gaps. Until this happened, we had to set aside any manuscripts waiting for publication. Then, Echo sent a completed manuscript to Victoria.
Echo’s story was uplifting, delightful, and captured our Madonna House spirit. It brought the lines of the beatitudes to life: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land; Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (Mt 5:3,5,7). It was clear that somehow this story needed to be published, whether or not it was even realistic to do so.
The major challenge was to find someone experienced at illustrating children’s books who wouldn’t be too expensive to hire. Would they be open to discussion about our Madonna House way of presenting a story? Would they consider giving us a discount since we are a non-profit business? A professional illustrator would charge about $30 an hour. And it could take several months to complete the work. That’s “a chunk of change,” as they say.
Echo and Victoria were in touch with several different illustrators. It took some time to contact each one, tell them about the project, and then look at some of their past work. One of them was willing to do the project and was a good fit. Echo was excited and so were we. The book was on its way now. A few weeks later, the illustrator told Echo she would be unable to do the work because of family responsibilities. This was a blow.
It was now October 2025. Victoria reached out to a close friend of Madonna House, who had recently taken on learning the typesetting of our books. Nothing to do with illustrations. However, we were aware she was a painter and keenly sensitive to beauty.
Best of all, she had been visiting Madonna House since she was a child, absorbing our way of life and spirituality as she grew up, and now, as a wife and mother of two little girls, the MH spirit was a foundation for her family. This was Polina Rukosueva.
Polina felt honored and excited to be asked to do the work. “I read the manuscript and so much loved the story; it will be a great joy for me to create illustrations for this book,” she told us. So Polina contacted Echo, and right away they resonated with one another’s creative vision. They discussed at length how to present the characters and soon we received scans of Polina’s work.
We were astonished. The characters were absolutely delightful, the colors were vibrant and pleasing. You would have thought she was a professional illustrator of many years. All the illustrations were hand painted in watercolors; a medium she was very familiar with, and gifted at using.
In the meantime, Echo had been begging funds to cover the cost of producing the book. Her benefactors were so generous, that the entire production of the book was paid for including advertising the book in print and digital publications.
Most publishing houses carefully plan their future titles, and know exactly what they will be working on many months ahead of time. MH Publications has tried to operate this way. However, as we come to work each day in the basement of Loreto House, the true publishing work invades our nicely organized calendar.
Catherine Doherty wrote many books, and her husband, Fr. Eddie, was a newspaperman most of his life. No doubt they, along with Our Lady of Combermere, are the ones really directing the work of this basement brigade, not to mention our beloved Echo Lewis who is also watching over us now.
Patricia Lawton, a staff member, is part of the team at Madonna House Publications.
