Reading Lessons
WEB-EXCLUSIVE: Local author Marian Keegan uses stories to teach life lessons.
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Parents will enlist a number of tools to try and teach their children about the world around them. Marian Keegan, of Laguna Beach, told stories.
“Victoria had seen so much tragedy,” Keegan says of her adopted daughter, so the new mother decided to “bring some levity to a girl that [had] seen so much hardship” through the story of Baluka – a whimsical yet awkward character that spends all his days and nights trying to fly.
Over 15 years later, that story has been published as Baluka and Friends, with more books on the way, and was recently released at Laguna Beach Books.
Keegan, the owner of Art of Fitness Gym & Day Spa in Laguna Beach, created the story in order to help Victoria adjust to her new life in California. Victoria was adopted at age five after her mother, Keegan’s sister, began suffering from bipolar disorder, according to Keegan. After an incident involving a police chase and car wreck, Victoria was taken into protective custody and Keegan gained guardianship, she says.
Through Baluka, Victoria was able to learn how to solve problems and adjust to life with her aunt-turned-mom. The message of Baluka and Friends, that thinking of others will set you free (this allows Baluka to fly), was used to teach Victoria how to fit in and make friends at her new school by caring about others.
Instead of lecturing and explaining in hypotheticals, Keegan creatively adapted reality into a fictional world with a charming tale including colorful and entrancing images. Over the course of 13 books, Keegan managed to teach Victoria everything she needed to know to grow into a “beautifully self-aware young woman.” Of all the messages Keegan taught her daughter over the years, she says that the most important message was “to treat everyone equally and not to judge.” Through Baluka’s adventures, this lesson is repeated in the rest of the still unpublished series. The second book covering the topic of bullying is on its way to the publishers, and Keegan is excited to continue reaching out to children everywhere through the colorful world of Baluka.
