Within the competitive world of children’s book publishing, a different angle, a persistent mindset and 32 words were what it took to transform Sarvinder Naberhaus’s life and give her hope.

Naberhaus, an ISU graduate and Ames resident, recently published her first children’s book, “Boom Boom.”

On Dec. 6, children and adults gathered for story time and a book signing at the University Book Store with Naberhaus. As Naberhaus turned the pages of her book, children read the words aloud with her — “Boom boom, flash flash, drip drip, splash splash.”

“Boom Boom” tells the story of a group of preschool children who experience the sights and sounds of the seasons together. It is a 32-word poem made up of 16 words, each repeated twice.

“I love the four seasons, and I love patterns, but there’s about a million books that have been done on the four seasons, so I knew it would never get published,” Naberhaus said. “Writers rarely talk about sounds or smells, so I thought, what if I just repeated the sounds of the seasons and didn’t have a story?”

Writing picture books is perfect for Naberhaus because her brain thinks very simply, she said.

“My brain thinks in very basic, teachable bites,” Naberhaus said. “I’m a teacher, so I guess I like to break it down into the basics so that you can easily understand and explain it to somebody else.”

Naberhaus has lived in Ames since her family came from India when she was 4. Along with writing, Naberhaus is a substitute teacher at Ames and Gilbert community school districts.

She graduated from Iowa State with a degree in elementary education, but being a children’s book author was always in the back of her mind.

“When I was a kid, I loved reading, and it brought me such joy,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to bring that joy to other kids and readers.”

Naberhaus said she has at least a dozen books on her hard drive waiting for revision, but the trial and error process of finding an editor who will read the manuscript and like the story is challenging.

At a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference, Naberhaus had 10 minutes of one-on-one time with an editor to review her manuscripts.

Her editor, Allyn Johnston of Beach Lane Books, which is a division of Simon & Schuster, was also the editor of the children’s book “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.”

Before their meeting at the conference, Naberhaus checked out all of the books Johnston had edited from the library and figured out which of her manuscripts matched best with Johnston’s style.

“The only thing I could come up with that I thought matched her was ‘Boom Boom,’” Naberhaus said. “I sent her a collection of poems, and ‘Boom Boom’ was the last one in the stack.”

During her 10-minute critique with Johnston, “Boom Boom” was the only poem that made Johnston pause. Naberhaus took that as a positive sign. 

“Once she paused, I thought, ‘Well, it’s now or never,’ and I jumped in and explained my vision for the poem,” Naberhaus said. “She hemmed and hawed, and I’m like, ‘Just say you’re going to keep it.’ And she finally did.”

After their meeting, Naberhaus checked the mailbox every day for a rejection letter. Six months after the conference, Johnston called and offered her a contract.

From there, Johnston selected Margaret Chodos-Irvine, an award-winning illustrator, to tell the poem’s visual story.

Chodos-Irvine, who currently lives in London, said Naberhaus’s text was unique to work with because there wasn’t a narrative or characters.

When Chodos-Irvine gets a manuscript, she reads it and takes notes on what she’s visualizing for certain parts. Once she sits down to work on the project, she begins to map out the framework.

“In [Naberhaus’s] story, I thought it would be more interesting if I told a story rather than just illustrating the words,” she said.

Chodos-Irvine said she is drawn to stories of friendship, so she developed characters and examined how to tell a story of friendship over the course of four seasons. 

Naberhaus said she never had contact with Chodos-Irvine throughout the process.

“They want illustrators to be free to do how they see the words and not to stifle their creativity,” Naberhaus said.

The editor serves as the middleman between an author and an illustrator who potentially have different visions, Chodos-Irvine said.

“What authors do best is the writing, and what illustrators do best is the imagery,” she said. “It’s easier for the publishers if they have that editor who is the link between the two. If the illustrators and the authors were talking, sometimes it would really bog things down, and the editor keeps the project moving forward.”

Chodos-Irvine described the process as a relay race. The author hands the story off to the editor, who then hands it to the illustrator, who then hands it back to editor, and they hand it to the designer, who hands it to the publisher.

“Everybody does what they do best,” she said.

Chodos-Irvine uses printmaking techniques in her illustrations. Printmaking involves transferring color from one surface to another to gradually build up an image from flat layers of color. She said it is a very long and slow process, and a book usually takes her eight or nine months.

“I like the process, and I like the way the craft influences the results,” she said. “You don’t have as much control, and I like that. Printmakers, we kind of have a little screw loose.”

Naberhaus said she continues learning more about the illustrations each time she looks through the book and reads it to kids.

“I had to look though the book to discover all of the subtle things that are in there,” Naberhaus said. “Every time I read to kids, I get more and more out of her illustrations and my words because they all see it from different points of view.”

As Naberhaus begins her journey with professional writing, she advised people of all ages — whether students or adults — to pursue their dreams.

“Your dreams are given to you. They’re inside you when you’re born, and they go hand-in-hand with your talents and your abilities and what you love,” Naberhaus said. “If you pursue the things that you love and you’re good at, then you’re bound to be successful.”

Her next book signing will be from 4 to 5 p.m. Dec. 20 at Books-A-Million in Ames.