Ellie Stoneley was inspired to write Milky Moments, her first book, after her daughter was born. Every book they were given depicted bottles, bottle feeding and spoonfuls of mush rather than breastfeeding when it came to showing babies, infants and toddlers being fed. In a world where mothers are encouraged to breastfeed, this seemed odd to her, she believed it important that children grow up seeing breastfeeding as a loving and normal part of day to day life. Read more about why Ellie wrote Milky Moments and how she met Jessica D’Alton Goode who became her friend, and went on to illustrate this lovely book. They are busy working on their next collaboration.
Jessica D'Alton Goode
Illustrator
Image courtesy of Scott Barton, copyright Jessica D’Alton Goode.
Ellie’s Story
Ellie Stoneley was inspired to write Milky Moments, her first book, after her daughter was born. Every book they were given depicted bottles, bottle feeding and spoonfuls of mush rather than breastfeeding when it came to showing babies, infants and toddlers being fed.
When she’s not writing, she’s generally singing songs about dingle dangle scarecrows and black sheep with her 3 year old daughter. Ellie also works freelance helping small charities and businesses to give themselves a louder voice online. She has worked all over the world, most notably helping teach Aboriginal children and mining opals in the Australian outback, and more recently, making a visit to Madagascar to highlight the issues many children face there, on behalf of John Humphry’s charity the Kitchen Table Charities Trust.
Ellie writes regularly about breastfeeding and being an older first time mother on her own blog Mush Brained Ramblings, for Huffington Post, as well as at Mumsnet, Midlife Mothers, What to Expect and Breastfeeding Matters. She has appeared on TV and radio to discuss a variety of issues from breastfeeding to the over emphasis on childproofing your house, to pregnancy, blogging and being an older mother.
Jessica’s Story
Jessica D’Alton Goode began illustrating children’s books in 2011 after studying film production and chemistry in Bournemouth and Cambridge. She has been drawing and painting ever since she can remember and loves to explore styles and mediums, all rooted in the heart of storytelling. Since stories seem to bring about the biggest adventures of her life – with hatching dragons, loving mothers, microscopic animals, giant colossi, and even small birds and jazz musicians (and all this in a dressing gown) – she has decided to stick with it.
Jessica has worked with award winning children’s author Pippa Goodhart, as well as with mothering writer and children’s author Ellie Stoneley with whom she created ‘Milky Moments’; a bright and beautiful children’s picture book aimed at normalising breastfeeding and supporting mothers everywhere.
A seasoned artist with many exhibitions under her belt, she now spends her time painting and creating stories with her partner Scott. She is currently based, along with three chickens and a particularly friendly bonsai tree, in Bournemouth in the UK.
Jessica produces cards and prints which are she showcases on her Facebook page.
Milky Moments is published by Pinter and Martin, an independent publishing company based in London and distributed worldwide. They were the first publisher Ellie approached with Milky Moments because of their superb reputation in their field and due to the fact that they have published so many hugely important books for parents, for women and on breastfeeding. Pinter and Martin also publish several of the very few children’s books on the market which depict breastfeeding at all. Ellie and Jessica were delighted and are very proud that Martin Wagner, the director of Pinter and Martin agreed to publish Milky Moments following Ellie’s visit there in August 2014. Milky Moments was first published as a limited edition hardback on 14th May 2015.
The Pinter and Martin motto is freedom to think.