Oldest and youngest Verga brothers write children’s books

They will each be reading from and signing their new books at the Sawyer Free Library. Greg will read on Nov. 19 at 10:30ugg boots for kids ugg boots for kids ugg boots for kids a.m., and Mick will read on Nov. 12 at 11 a.m.
Greg Verga, the youngest Verga brother ugg boots for kids ugg boots for kids ugg boots for kidsand now a city councilor, has just finished writing a story about raising livestock that he started writing almost 20 years ago. At the time, he was working a 40-hour week and going to school part time for public relations. One of the possible electives he could take was children’sugg boots for kids ugg boots for kids ugg boots for kids literature.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be too challenging, like biology. It was more interesting and less challenging,” he explained. He and his wife had just started to raise chickens at their house on Revere Street, and so he based the story on his experience.
The book speaks from the perspective of a little girl who, with her father, starts raising chickens from the egg, just like Greg and his daughter. It teaches about cooperation and working together on a project.
Greg tried to get the book published after he finished it 20 years ago, but to no avail. “I was going to school and working full time. I didn’t have the time.” However, recently he has noticed a lot of individuals and families who are starting to raise their own livestock and produce. “It fits into the whole idea of being green, and being more confident in the product [the livestock] are giving you. It’s not just semi-rural areas that are doing it, either.” He heard a story about a woman in downtown Los Angeles who, in her tiny backyard, had carved out space enough for a small garden and a chicken coop.
Yet there was another reason why Greg wished to take his story out of his file-cabinet again. Readers will mention that the book is dedicated to Nana Martin, his wife’s grandmother. She would “always ask me, over the last 20 years, when I was going to publish my book. She died in April and that helped spark the revisit.”
With the help of Craigslist, Greg was able to find a woman, Rochelle O’Neal Thorpe, who checks the site looking for talent. She was able to find him an illustrator, James Balkovek. He hopes that the book will be sold in local bookstores and feed-stores in the area.
Mick Verga, the oldest son in the family, is proud to have just finished his story about adoption from China. Mick graduated from Gloucester High School in 1976, and took a job at Gorton’s. Thinking about joining the Marines or the Navy, he decided to just keep on working, never joining up or going to college. He worked the docks doing anything from fishing to pile-driving.
While working at Intershell, a Chinese friend of Mick’s showed him a picture of a pretty young woman he might be interested in. He asked where she was, and the friend replied, “China!” But that didn’t stop Mick from writing to her for two years. When they finally met in 1997, they knew it was meant to be. They were married, and a year later she was able to come to America. Now, they have a beautiful 9-year-old daughter, adopted from Chuzhou (pronounced Choo joe) in China.
While getting his degree in criminal justice, Mick also had to take an elective course, and like his brother, chose children’s literature. One of the assignments was to write and illustrate a children’s story.
“Now, the only thing I can draw is conclusions,” joked Mick. With the help of his wife, he completed his story based on adopting his daughter, Amanda, and when he reads it, “everyone gets teary eyed.” His teacher said it would make a great children’s book. He didn’t take action until the beginning of this year, but now the story is complete.
“The Lonely Little Horse” follows the life of a child abandoned at someone’s door in China, who is then put into an orphanage and later adopted. Like the child in the story, Amanda was found on the street with her “birth blood still on her, wrapped in a blanket.”
“I want people to see that adoption is a viable option, and so that kids can understand adoption better and be a little more understanding towards those who are adopted,” said Mick.
Is it coincidence that the two brothers are both now published children’s authors? According to them, they are both the only left-handed children in the family, and conversation was never stifled. This seems to be their opportunity to share that conversation creatively.