MOWMT: Mentor Texts with Small Regional Markets by Jena Benton

March 11, 2025

[Note: Click on the Titles to Buy Books.]

Reading mentor texts can help in many ways you might not anticipate. When I was first preparing my “chicken” story to go out to publishers, a writer friend of mine was brave enough to tell me that it would never sell. My story of a young barn yard rooster who was too shy to crow due to stage fright and call the flock to feed when the farmer came was TOO similar to other books on the market. When I searched out other rooster stories, I knew she was right. There were MANY stories of roosters in the barn yard struggling to crow.

So I took a hard look at my story and asked myself why I wrote about chickens in the

first place. I had been inspired because of my honeymoon on Kauai and a moment

where our car had been surrounded by wild “jungle fowl” (as they’re called in Hawaii) at

a lookout. Was there a regional press in Hawaii that might be interested in my story?

The answer is yes.

I had been traveling to Hawaii for years (a lot of Alaskans vacation there as it helps to

handle the long winters) and because of my love of picture books, I was constantly

buying local Hawaiian books for my classroom for many of my Pacific Islander students

(a lot of them move to Alaska). By doing so, I was unwittingly studying the market there

and using mentor texts for a potential publisher one day. This was how I discovered

Island Heritage Press.

One of their picture books is LIMU THE BLUE TURTLE. It is still one of my favorite classroom reads (my students love it). It tells the story of Limu, a sea turtle, who isn’t the same color as the other turtles and gets made fun of. Yet through his life at sea, he makes friends, has adventures, and learns to love himself.

Another of their picture books is HUMU THE LITTLE FISH WHO WISHED AWAY HIS COLORS. This tells the story of a little humuhumunukunukuapua’a fish who

is able to magically wish his colors away because he’s tired of standing out. But he

quickly comes to regret this decision because no one recognizes him any more.

TOO MANY MANGOS is a picture book about two young kids help their grandfather pick mangos from the mango tree in his yard. They pick so many they overload their small wagon. As they wheel it around, they share with neighbors and learn many ways to enjoy this fruit.

LITTLE CALABASH is a newer picture book published by Island Heritage Press and written by Margo Sorenson whom I had interviewed on my blog. Every dish in the kitchen has an important job, but little calabash gets overlooked quite frequently and goes unused. He worries that he’s too small to do any good but soon learns this isn’t true.

Reading all these books to my students over and over again, they became mentor texts that jumped readily to mind when I thought of my own “chicken” story. What did they all have in common? Strong main characters with an urgent emotional need that was inherent in their surroundings. All these stories also used Hawaiian nature or culture.

When I reflected on the common strands, I knew what I had to do for my own story.

I realized that if I changed the location of my story to Hawaii (instead of a barn yard) it

would increase the urgency of calling the flock to a potential food source (i.e., every

time a car pulled into a lookout). I overhauled the manuscript and changed the location

and name of my character to the island that had inspired it all. I sent it to Island Heritage

Press via snail mail during the pandemic. They accepted my manuscript and published

it.

KAUAI’S CALL is the story of a young rooster who struggles to learn to crow like his dad (and call the flock to potential food sources) because of stage fright. Yet with persistence, patience, and practice he learns that he can do it after all.

It was a dream of mine to have a book published by Island Heritage Press and it came

true in the best way, all because of all the years of mentor texts I’d collected from them

and read over and over.

Island Heritage Press website: https://ourislandheritage.com/collections/hawaii-

childrens-books

BIO: Jena Benton is an author-illustrator, a poet, a tea drinker, an ocean lover, an elementary school teacher (Kindergarten), and a lifelong Alaskan. Look for her Simply 7 interviews with many amazing picture book authors and illustrators on her blog. Visit her at: https://jenabenton.com/

Visit her blog: https://jenabenton.com/category/simply-7-interview/

PRIZE: Jena will be giving away a 30 minute picture book critique via Zoom (Limit 1,000 words). For an extra entry share whether you have a story that you will revamp with a different setting.