“I’ve always been interested in writing, but I’ve kind of put on the back burner until we started having kids. Then you read hundreds of children’s books to your kids. I just really enjoyed children’s books I thought they’d bring joy,” said Mark Therrien.
His first book, The Megavan, was released in March of this year.
“I had an idea in our garage standing next to our minivan,” said Therrien. “I thought that the minivan really is kind of like the host for a lot of family experiences and shared experiences and it’s seeing everything that we’ve gone through. It’s brought us to places that we have great memories at, so I thought that would be a great kind of narrator for a story.”
The new book is for sale online and in stores and it’s also available in Blaine at the Northtown Branch Library.
“We love supporting our local author community because it connects both authors who live in Minnesota with their local readers as well as opening up opportunities for our readers to maybe try something that they wouldn’t have tried typically,” said Anoka County librarian Jess Whitehead.
Therrien and his family are regulars at the library making weekly trips to refresh the collection of kids books on the bookshelf.
“I typed the final draft of The Megavan at the Johnsville Branch at a computer so it’s kind of full circle,” said Therrien.
Therrien says he hopes his story will resonate with the community because it’s about much more than just a van.
“It’s really about the young family, and it’s about shared experiences. It can relate to any kind of relationship or team or friendship or marriage or anything like that. I hope everyone can take something away from it it’s just about being around those closest to you for big moments of your life.”
