How it all began
Hi. I'm Donna Beserra, a Stay-At-Home mother who with God's inspiration and the help of my children, has successfully turned a family hobby into a publishing company. Since my children have always loved to act out fairy tales, I made costumes and let them perform the stories on home video. Eventually, I decided to create a story of my own. I invented a character called Twirly Shirley, a girl with wacky braids that spin when she gets excited. Our family got together, did special effects and acted the story out in photos and on home video. (Below, you can watch an entertaining video of me with my children in one of our news interviews.) We made a book and had it published. Our first book was titled Twirly Shirley In My Sister The Twister. In this book, Twirly Shirley got nervous while trying out for a play of The Wizard Of Oz. Her braids began spinning and she was carried off in her very own funnel cloud. Of course, everyone thought there was a tornado.After publishing this book, I went on to publish two other Twirly Shirley books, containing my children's photographs. I have recently published new versions of the Twirly Shirley books.
Artist Melody Karns Trone, based many of her illustrated characters on the actual living stars from the original stories. Below is a photo of the original stars of Twirly Shirley Books.
