Life on Scramble Street

For the past year, I’ve felt a gentle tug on my heart to write a children’s book inspired by my hometown of Marietta, Ohio. The idea has followed me like a warm memory, urging me to return to those early 1980s streets where my world first took shape. For a couple of years, I lived on Scammel Street—though, in true childhood fashion, I proudly called it “Scramble Street,” as if it sat beside a plate of scrambled eggs.

While I plan to let my imagination roam with new names and whimsical twists, I want to honor the places that shaped my earliest sense of wonder. A local grocer. A service station. A gift shop with treasures stacked just high enough to catch a child’s eye. I still remember the feel of those days: my beloved jelly shoes slapping the sidewalk, my little jacket zipped tight, and my firm refusal to wear jeans because they felt far too rough for my liking. Sensory details like these don’t just enrich a children’s book—they transport young readers straight into a story.

During a visit to Marietta this past spring, my family and I stayed in a beautiful old home built with oil-and-gas wealth at the turn of the century. Its tall rooms and the steady presence of the courthouse clock tower carried me right back to those first years of discovery. The nostalgia surprised me. It’s astonishing how many memories have surfaced since our stay, as if the town gently handed me a map to places I hadn’t visited in decades.

Editing Reaching for Reveries and finding inspiration inside a home in the Mid-Ohio Valley

And perhaps the most encouraging sign of all: in recent weeks, I’ve learned that other children’s books may soon be joining the Janine Chellington Press family, penned by fellow authors moved by their own imaginations. As these projects take shape, I can’t wait to share updates and cover designs as they emerge—each one a reminder that stories, especially those rooted in home, have a way of finding us when we’re ready to tell them.