Meet Lauren Bailey, Author and Illustrator of Finding Me Beneath the Kapok Tree

Lauren Bailey

Book: Finding Me Beneath the Kapok Tree (March 2018)

How to reach author: website: www.rebearthpublications.com; Facebook: Lauren Bailey; Instagram: Rebearthling1

Quote Bailey uses as a guide in life: “I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.”– Zora Neale Hurston

In her new children’s book, Finding Me Beneath the Kapok Tree, Birmingham native Lauren Bailey chronicles the life of a baby elephant that searches for an identity all his own. She hopes that through his journey of self-discovery, readers will, like the baby elephant, learn that they too already have everything they need for success in life on the inside.

Bailey will be among 39 authors and publishers featured at the Birmingham Public Library’s 2018 Local Authors Expo at the Central Library on Saturday, August 11, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

“I am beyond excited about participating in the Local Author’s Expo for the first time,” Bailey said. “This amazing opportunity gives me the chance to connect with others who are as passionate about art and literature as I am!”

Finding Me Beneath the Kapok Tree is simply about coming into your own by trying and failing, and celebrating the unique gifts others have to offer the world. Bailey said it was originally inspired by a close friend who was having her first child.

“I simply intended for it to be a gift and nothing more,” she said. “However, I happened to share this book with my sister before giving it to my friend. When my sister read it tears began to roll down her cheeks. She looked up at me and said, “You are the baby elephant.”

Bailey said she was taken aback because it had not occurred to her that she was the baby elephant.

“Then I realized that we all have been the baby elephant at some point in our lives or still are the baby elephant, and in that moment I realized that I needed to share this book with others,” Bailey said.   

Bailey is graduated from Auburn University with a degree in art and a minor in Mandarin Chinese. She is passionate about inspiring others through creative expression as well as maintaining and preserving the integrity of this planet’s natural resources and the life it supports.

Bailey’s passion for wildlife and the environment was inspired by her late father, Brian T. Bailey. She donates a portion of her profit from every creative endeavor she undertakes to a different wildlife or environmental organization in his honor.