Me and Dad Cooked a Duck
by
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A few years ago when I was an even younger boy, me and my dad would go to the local park to feed the ducks. We would take crackers and bread, crumble them with our fingers and fling them into the water or drop the pieces on the ground and the ducks and geese would gather around us to eat. The birds moved fast, sometimes with their wings thrusting in the air and they would peck the ground hard, and try to take as much bread as they could. I would get scared sometimes, which always made my dad laugh. The ducks didn't seem eager to share the crumbs with each other, something my dad was always encouraging me to do. Since I'm an only child, I'm always assuming he wants me to share more with my cousins and friends.
That was when I lived in Atlanta, Georgia the first time. Me and my parents moved to Arkansas a couple of years ago when my dad got a new job there. He's an Arkansas native, and from a small town named Clarendon. The state has lots of trees and water, and the town my father grew up in is surrounded by two rivers. It's located at the mouth of the Cache River, where it flows into the White River. My dad told me plenty of stories about growing up in Arkansas. He has great memories of his grandparents, Joe and Selvie. Dad and his grandparents lived on the same street when he was growing up. They are deceased now.
When we first moved to Arkansas, dad's mom, grandma Irene still lived in the same house where my dad grew up. She and dad laugh a lot, because they both have a weird, slightly wicked, sense of humor.
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About the Book
When Junior’s parents break up, he reflects back to a simpler time when he and his father would visit the local park and feed the ducks. In an effort to bridge the past with his current reality, Junior asks his dad if they can visit a restaurant to eat duck during his next visit to Atlanta over the Thanksgiving holiday. His dad suggests they cook a duck instead. They not only cook it, but they record it to create a lasting memory.
About the Author
In his debut as a children's book author, Wyatt stays close to his heart by telling a story that explores how his son interpreted the breakup of his parents. His son, Junior, doesn't handle the separation with anger or frustration, instead he chooses to cling to memories of he and his father feeding ducks at the local park. Though Wyatt was able see his son regularly, they were separated geographically - he in Northwest Arkansas and Junior in Atlanta, Georgia. He wrote the book as a way to cope with his new life as a co-parent to a son he was accustomed to seeing every day.
Wyatt observes his subject matter (son) with a keen sensibility and translates it directly to parents and children with a familiar tone. His hope is that families learn to heal and focus on positivity after experiencing potentially life transformational shifts.
For more than 10 years, Wyatt has enjoyed a career as an award-winning integrated marketing communications professional, helping some of the world's largest and most endearing brands propel to higher dimensions.