Inclusion Through Picture Books: Jo Mach
Photos by JOHN BURNS
Jo Mach believes all children should see themselves in the books they read. A retired occupational therapist who worked with families and children with disabilities for 36 years, Mach struggled to find books that featured the kids she worked with. So, she made some herself.
With her TARC colleagues, Mary Birdsell and Vera Lynne Stroup-Rentier, Mach published the first book of what would later become their publishing company, Finding My Way Books.
“Kids learn by being included,” Mach said. “They also learn by following what they’re really interested in.”
Their first title, I Want to be Like Poppin’ Joe, tells a story about Joe, a man with Down syndrome and autism, who tells Dylan, a child with Down syndrome, about his popcorn business. Since it was released in 2014, Mach and her small local publisher has a big mission to share the stories of kids with disabilities.
Jo Mach and team have published 39 more books and sold 8,500 copies around the world. Mach has spent seven years learning the publishing industry from the ground up – and is still learning. Her efforts are focused on one mission: helping children with disabilities be better represented in children’s literature and school programming.
“It’s like so many things, you have no idea what you’re getting into,” Mach laughed. “It’s been a huge amount of trial and error, but you eventually move forward.”
REAL KIDS. NO CARTOONS.
Mach’s passion stems from witnessing the struggles of families with kids with disabilities.
“Those parents were afraid their children wouldn’t be included,” Mach said. “They needed to know their children would grow up and be part of their world.”
One thing Mach and her co-authorsavoided was cartoons.
“We didn’t want the books to be cute and precious,” Mach said. “We wanted them to be real and fun.”
Birdsell took photographs of the kids in the stories and Mach and Stroup-Rentier wrote their stories. Each of their books, like Marco and I Want to Play Ball and Waylen Wants to Jam, reflect real kids’ passions and interests.
“They’re about children doing things all kids like to do,” Mach said. “They may need a little support, or do things a little differently, but they have a lot to offer.”
SHIFTING TO SCHOOLS
Mach, Stroup-Rentier and Birdsell soon shifted their focus from selling to families to selling to elementary schools. In addition to writing books, they also developed curriculum around inclusion.
“We wanted teachers to be able to link the books to lessons and have students realize the kids in the books were just like them,” Mach said. Mach and her team soon discovered selling to schools is difficult. Contracts with big publishers like Scholastic make it hard for Mach to get traction.
“There’s so much for teachers to deal with. To get them to consider our material is a challenge,” Mach said. “But we still have something that no one else has done, and we feel it’s really important, so we aren’t giving up yet.”
A LIBRARY OF CONTACTS
To help her reach more markets, Mach turned to local resources like the Washburn Small Business Development Center and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. Through the Washburn Small Business Development Center, Mach connected with professionals in the marketing, publishing and legal fields who donated their time to advise her.
“That made a huge difference,” she said. “Topeka is a nice, supportive community when you’re trying to do something new.”
Mach’s growing local network connected her to organizations like the Children’s Book Council. When Mach was struggling to get into schools, the Council connected her to an educational consultant, who introduced her to Brown Books Publishing Group. The publisher eventually picked up the Finding My Way series. Mach also established a connection with the CEO of bookshop.org, an online bookstore that supports independent book shops. Mach started submitting book lists, a prominent feature of the site, that promote inclusion. While she sometimes includes her own books, she mostly features Finding My Way books or for help including them in curriculum, visit findingmywaybooks.com or the Round Table bookstore located at 826 N Kansas Ave. A few times, her lists have been posted on the site’s homepage.
She scored a big win when her inclusive holiday list was picked up by NBC’s website. Mach said her lists have helped her brand herself as an inclusion specialist.
“You think it’s about creating the book, but it’s really about getting out there,” she said. Mach reached a global audience through her participation in Skype in the Classroom, which connected her to teachers around the world, including those from India and South Korea. Through video conferences, she’s visited 35 classrooms in eight countries in three years.
Mach said the books are always a hit with students.
“They’ll say, ‘Is he really alive? Is this really true?’ They can’t believe it,” Mach said. “We wanted them to see that, yes, these are real kids, they’re fun, they’re interesting, and they have their own passions.”
Mach’s hustle and drive to gather books into the world has led her to several hundred new contacts who support her mission to promote inclusivity.
“It’s a really hard path to be a teeny tiny publisher in this huge world with major publishers dominating everything,” she said. “But you can do it if you really want to.
