Talking Location With Marie Unanue, Kindness Advocate and children’s author – Central Park NYC

29th October 2018

The author looking over Central Park

Marie Unanue is a Kindness Advocate, helping children and their families incorporate more kindness into their lives through her #LetsAllBeKind challenge. Her book features a cute cast of characters on an adventure in Central Park, and her focus, besides encouraging kindness, is on helping children to learn the 6 character skills that Angela Duckworth’s Character LAB has identified as most needed in today’s children. In her school visits with kids Marie brings a curriculum based on these ideas, giving away her branded learning tools as well as copies of her books!

Over to Marie for our #TalkingLocationWith… feature, sharing her love of wonderful Central Park, New York City!

Every morning when I wake up, I open the blinds, and the view of Central Park takes my breath away.  Each time I look out, I am marveled again and again by its beauty. Each season does its best to hold the park’s beauty to a new and higher standard than the last.  Living on Central Park has been one of the greatest joys of my life, sharing our view and our terrace with friends feels like the only natural thing to do.

As you walk through Central Park, even on a day in the rain without the bikers and runners zipping by, it only takes a second for you to feel the energy of the park. It feels alive. So alive that no matter the time of day, if you just sit on a park bench, and listen, you can all but hear the parks heartbeat.

I imagined that when kids hear the words, “Central Park” they picture the parks they have been to, perhaps parks with swings and slides and a field or two to play in. I am without uncertainty that what kids imagine doesn’t even begin to come close to the beauty and magic of the Central Park.  Central Park is like no other park in the world.

The very idea that there are so many kids in our country that have never seen the park, let alone have the opportunity to experience the park drove me to make this historic landmark the backdrop of my story.  As I imagined my characters on an adventure in Central Park, the story began to write itself.

Central Park is historic, full of magic and grand enough to add life and energy to even the most boring stories.  Kids needed to know the splendor and history of Central Park, the famous attractions such as the zoo, the Merry Go Round and Boathouse.  Phatty & Payaso’s story needed to make kids feel as tho when reading it, they were actually in the park, experiencing its beauty and all its wonder right from the comfort of their very own living room.

With every corner you turn, you find a hidden bench or pond, or a magical and shady tree to picnic under.  No matter the time, there will be dogs walking, people running or biking or the occasional family riding via horse and carriage.  There is something magical about Central Park that takes hold of you and doesn’t let go.  “The tale’s tour through New York City’s Central Park from a four-legged point of view makes the green space and its animal inhabitants important supporting characters in the story as well. ” 4 Star Review, Foreword Reviews

Having such a gorgeous park in the middle of the town that never sleeps makes you wonder how it’s even possible. How is it that that hundreds of species of birds, fish, turtles, raccoons, horses and so much more lives among New York in the wild.  It almost feels like something out of its own fantasy book and crazy enough to make you question how it is even possible how cascading waterfalls and ponds exist in what many call the concrete jungle. I’ve decided rather than asking how New Yorkers got so lucky to have this park, a landmark so popular that millions visit annually to enjoy, that I will not waste time questioning the how and just use that time to create stories that showcase everything the park has to offer.

The Adventures of Phatty & Payaso not only offers kids an adventure about friendship and kindness, but it also helps to teach and explain various essential life lessons.  As I close my blinds at night and look out over the park with its lit paths and picturesque beauty it almost feels like my own park, a larger than life backyard.  And now, thanks to this story, I feel like I have invited kids of different ages, backgrounds, and genders to join me in this park for a fun adventure.  One that will keep them turning the page and coming back to visit the characters time and time again.

Many years ago I ran the New York City Marathon, and as the race wound to an end through Central Park, people were gathered to cheer the runners on.  Despite my exhaustion and burning muscles, I almost had to pinch myself to remember that I wasn’t running through the suburbs of New Jersey or New York.  I was here, in NYC, surrounded by fall leaves, green grass, and ponds that are reminiscent of some of the greatest scenes ever painted.

Thank you so much to Marie for sharing such wonderful insight into this wonderful piece of greenery in the middle of Manhattan.

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