Author Denisa Hanania’s books have very different topics, but a similar theme runs through all of them.
“A lot of books focus on either making someone up entirely or someone really famous,” she said. “My heart goes to the people that aren’t famous, but they’re still worthy — we can learn a lot from them. I choose people that the rest of the world is going to be better off knowing this person, but they’re not going to get the chance. So, I’m going to give them that chance.”
On the comfortable front porch of her Geist-area home, Hanania leafed through her newest book, “The Secret of the Brownie Lady,” a children’s picture book with colorful illustrations and a positive message about the power of generosity — and delicious baked goods. She said she would love for families to read it together and consider how they can make a difference.
“What’s something that you like to do and how can it be done for someone else?” Hanania said as a suggestion of what a family could discuss. “For a family of all ages to read that together and then talk about it and say, ‘OK, you’re good at this. You’re good at that.’ And for the parents to be thinking in terms of, ‘Hey, I do this. How could that go beyond just meeting my own need or my own family’s need?’”
Keeping with her tradition, the Brownie Lady character is based on a real person.
“She’s actually my aunt and … she makes the best brownies in our family,” Hanania said. “Every time we have something, she’ll cook. She may cook the whole meal, pretty much, but she always makes sure there’s brownies. People started asking, ‘Oh, could you do the brownies for this fundraiser? Could you do them for this?’ And we would all say, ‘What is it about her brownies?’ Because everybody in the family has tried to mimic them and we can’t imitate them. I think what it comes down to is just, when she’s giving it to you, you feel so special, you feel so loved.”
Although she can’t make brownies that match her aunt’s, Hanania has her own talent — words.
“What goes through my mind with every book is, how much good can I do out of this?” she said. “This needs to be more than a story. How can I give my reader a gift?”
Hanania is a Christian and said that while her faith informs everything she does, she doesn’t consider herself a Christian author. She’s an author who is Christian and she wants her books to add goodness to the world.
Hanania has written stories ever since she was a kid. She said she feels more comfortable communicating through writing and telling stories helps her make sense out of life and understand people’s motivations. While her most recent book is for children, she writes for all ages.
“For instance, one of the books I did called ‘The Traveling Cabin’ is the story of Bob Hesson, here in Indiana,” she said. “His family were some of the first people … in Indianapolis. In fact, their land was where the State Fair now is.”
When Bob was a teenager, he told his grandfather he wanted to build a shack for a clubhouse, but his grandfather told him they would build a real cabin from start to finish, including cutting down the trees. After some trial and error, they managed to build a cabin that’s lasted through many years and locations.
“The cabin, at different times, was moved,” she said. “It was in four locations and it still exists. It’s (now) on Fall Creek.”
Readers can get invested in her stories. Hanania said she had one reader mad at her because a certain plot didn’t end happily for the characters. Another of her books, “A Talent to Deceive,” is a mystery with a scene that takes place in southern Indiana. Hanania said she was giving a talk at a library and a woman from that part of the state asked her about the driving route she had described in the book.
“I said, ‘Did I not get something correct?’ And she said, ‘Well.’” Hanania said. “And her daughter was sitting beside her, and she said, ‘You didn’t take the route she would have taken.’”
Hanania’s books are available on Amazon.
School readings and inclusivity
Author Denisa Hanania said she is happy to visit schools to read her children’s books out loud to kids. One of her picture books, “Me and THAT BABY,” is about a young child who just got a new sibling and is dealing with feelings that a lot of young kids experience.
She also makes sure her picture books show children of different backgrounds and abilities, such as a young man who has a small hand due to a birth condition and a girl with Down’s syndrome who doesn’t have hair.
“I want lots of kids to look at these pictures and say, ‘OK, that’s me,’” she said. “As I’ve talked to different people, I have found out how important it is to them individually and I’ve made it a point to always include more diversity in the book, not as a political statement, but just going back to that idea — how much good can I do?”