A story of a young girl who waits “A Very Long Time” for her father to return from serving in the military in a foreign country. Based on the real life story of Army Specialist Adam Timperley and his daughter Kylee who were separated for A VERY LONG TIME while Adam served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
From the Authors
You don't have a dad!" Those were the words my son Adam's three-year-old daughter, Kylee Timperley, heard from a little boy at daycare after her dad was deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2003. Kylee responded, "I do too, he's just at drill for...a very long time."
I looked around for a children's book that might help Kylee grasp the meaning of time and how long it would take for her father to return. Finding none, my daughter, Nikki, and I wrote our picture book, A Very Long Time, to help Kylee and other children generate the tools they need to deal with the separation that might otherwise seem to never end.
As it turned out, Adam came home early. He was the first Minnesota Army National Guard member to be wounded since WWII. The armored vehicle he was driving was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) but he and the other soldiers in his humvee miraculously survived.
Having suffered through the strains and pains of Adam's injury, recovery, and return home, we are now focused on gaining the greatest possible distribution for the story. Not the story of his unexpected return, but of his leaving and its impact on a young daughter. We are particularly interested in placing the book in the hands of families of service men and women with children between the ages of four and eight years old. We will give a portion of the sale of each book to MN Military families through www.thankMNtroops.org.
If you are in position to help us place the book where it can be found and purchased by those most likely to benefit from its story, please contact us by email at info@averylongtime.com
Below is a picture (L to R) of me, Marlaina Kopietz, Nikki Arro and in front Kylee Timperley. My daughter Nikki and I co-authored a book, illustrated by Marlaina called "A Very Long Time". It is a book for little people ages 4-8. It is a story of a little girl whose father has been deployed overseas and how long a long time can be for those who wait for his return.
Timperley, mother of three adult children, has worked for 22 years in the Robbinsdale Area School District as a counselor. Arro has taught 1st grade for 12 years, also in the Robbinsdale area. The mother of two young children, Arro says the book wasn't written just for her niece, but for all children who have a parent in the military and for all children who have no idea what "a very long time" means. Children like Arro's daughter who prefers a sandwich for lunch because macaroni and cheese takes "a very long time" and she doesn't want to wait.
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