Ball by Mary Sullivan

Ball by Mary Sullivan

A 2014 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book

A dog with a ball is one of the most relentlessly hopeful creatures on Earth. After his best little-girl pal leaves for school, this dog hits up yoga mom, baby, and even the angry cat for a quick throw. No luck. Forced to go solo, the dog begins a hilarious one-sided game of fetch until naptime's wild, ball-centric dream sequence. The pictures speak a thousand words in this comic book-style ode to canine monomania. Ball? Ball.

Mary Sullivan resides in Central Washington with her husband, Jack, and their shih tzu, Bella. They have a son, Mitch, who passed away from pneumonia three years ago and a daughter-in-law, Holly, who also lives in Central Washington. Their daughter Castilia and her husband, Juan, live in Florida. Mary and Jack are proud grandparents of seven grandchildren, two of whom are grandsons (Austin and Nico) and five granddaughters (Jade, Jewel, Mercedes, Tru, and Anya).

Mary enjoys being with family, camping, boating, and being around people in general. She also enjoys fishing and RVing with her husband. Her favorite pastime is painting. She loves to paint with acrylic and oil paint on canvas, tile, glass, and even rocks. She also enjoys teaching others her God-given talent of painting.

She didnt start painting until one day she woke up from a dream that she had of her mother. In this dream, she saw her mother in a beautiful garden in heaven. Mary had actually lost her mother to a brain aneurism a few weeks previous to this dream. The dream was so vivid to her with all the flowers and colors. She remembers that in her dream, her mother seemed so peaceful in Gods garden. She knew she had to try to at least draw or paint what she saw in her dream. So she did just that. She then made copies of her painting and gave a copy to each one of her seven siblings. She has been painting ever since that day and either sells or gives her paintings away. She loves to see the smile on someones face when she presents him or her with the gift that God has given her, her talents in the form of paint. Some of her drawings in this book go back about ten years or more. Her talent has improved since then, but she wanted to include some of her older drawings as they were part of her journey while writing her story.