Glenview Dad Writes Children's Book

About a year ago, Glenview's Brian Brehart, 41, published his first children's book, When Naughty Was Nice. The short story about a well-behaved boy who suddenly starts acting out was written and illustrated by Brehart, with some editing help from his wife. 
"The irony is, my kids will not let me read it to them," Brehart said.

Brehart has two daughters, a three-year-old and a one-year-old. The three-year-old knows her dad wrote a children's book, but he says she's still only interested in Where the Wild Things Are.

Brehart works in IT and occasionally illustrates marketing material for his wife's theater company.

"I'm actually a professionally trained fine artist, but then I realized you can't make any money off that," he laughed.

Although he has worked in IT for most of his adult life, Brehart still finds inspiration in comic books, cartoons and other fiction. 

"I've been reading so many children's books lately, I get fascinated by all these different stories," he said.

When Naughty Was Nice is set around Christmas, but feels timeless. Brehart says it's not necessarily meant to be a Christmas story. The 28-page picture book is aimed at children ages 3 to 7, and reads fast enough to be an ideal bedtime story.

"I wanted to talk to kids from today," he said. "I wrote it so everyone could relate to it regardless of setting."

The book is available in paperback on Amazon for $8.99. A Kindle version is also available for 6.99.

Brehart grew up in Glenview and graduated from Glenbrook South in 1990. He even lives in the house he grew up in, which he acquired from his parents when they decided to move. Today, his one-year-old occupies Brehart's old bedroom.

Brehart is already working on another book, tentatively called What Would Peter Parker Do?, a look into the life lessons taught in comic books, meant for parents and an otherwise older audience.

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