Leadership Mountain Brook publishes book highlighting city workings

Those wanting to learn more about the city need to look no further than Leadership Mountain Brook’s latest project. Through their hand-illustrated, personally written book, “Buttons Explores the Brook,” readers follow a curious cat as it learns all about what makes the city run. 

Along the way, Buttons meets the Chamber Cats, Claire and Claudia; Joe the City Manager; Betty the City Planner; and Emmet the Owl, just to name a few. 

“We all went around and toured each of the city’s departments to get information,” said Leadership Mountain Brook student Anne Raines Doidge. “They all gave us an inside look at how everything works. What I really like about the book is that it calls attention to aspects of the city not everyone pays attention to, to areas we often take for granted. The book shows the kind of work that goes into making Mountain Brook, Mountain Brook.”

Though written as a children’s book, Leadership students agree it’s the perfect read for all ages. 

“I think even our grandparents will be able to learn something from this book,” said Mary Margaret Grammas. “I know that I now have a greater appreciation for all the city department heads, including fire, police, public works, all of the pieces that come together to maintain the city. It is geared toward children, but it will give everyone a greater appreciation of our city.”

Sarah Beth Daniel, who was in charge of illustrating the book’s many characters, said this is the first time she’s taken on a task like this. 

“I love art,” she said, “but I’ve never illustrated a book before. I didn’t realize until about halfway through how much work it would be.”

Still, the young artist said she is proud of how each of her hand-drawn characters turned out.

As a class, the students talked about different ways to represent each of the department heads, said Daniel, and from there, she would spend anywhere from two to three hours per night during the first semester sketching those ideas out. 

Daniel’s drawings were then superimposed over pictures the group took around the various parts of the city that had been outlined in the planning stages of the book. 

The students split into various groups, said Sarah Tate Kelly, each responsible for writing about and taking pictures for one specific city department. There was also an editing group, she said, which made sure the different parts flowed together seamlessly and contained no grammatical errors. 

The class used Morris Publishing, a self-publishing company, to help turn their manuscript into 100 hardback books. Grammas said the plan is to order more books in the near future. The books are currently available for sale at the Chamber office, 101 Hoyt Lane in Crestline Village, Smith’s Variety and Snoozy’s in Crestline Village and Swoop in Mountain Brook Village. Each book is $25, and all proceeds will fund future Leadership Mountain Brook city improvement projects. 

“We hope that kids and adults get a lot of fun out of the book and also learn about the community,” said Daniel. “I hope they learn how much work goes into making Mountain Brook great so we can all appreciate how blessed we are to call it home.”  

For questions about “Buttons Explores the Brook,” contact the Chamber at 871-3779.