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By Pam Avery with Illustrations by Tom Barnes
About the Book
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The author’s granddaughters call her “Tink” and love playing with her collection of scarves.
Sybil, the oldest, came into the kitchen for breakfast one morning, with one around her neck, one tucked in her pajamas like a tail, and sequined cat ears on her head.
The interaction made the author think about the free-spirits children have versus the demeanors adults acquire when they “grow up.” So, she wrote a poem for her granddaughters – a poem about how to hold on to that childlike wonder – no matter what one’s age is.
Avery shared the text with her friend, Tom Barnes, who is widely recognized both nationally and internationally for his distinctive style of figurative paintings. Within a few days, he began drawing, and “Tink” started taking shape.
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About the Author
Pam Avery
Pam Avery made up stories about imaginary characters at a very early age. She spent hours dressing up and pretending to be a movie star. But attending the University of Georgia was a more realistic goal. She graduated in 1972 with a major in journalism and a minor in marketing.
Her experience for the last 50 years includes banking, newspaper sales, teaching private dance lessons, free-lance writing, publishing two children’s books, working as a reporter, photographer, and columnist for a community newspaper group, and teaching media writing at Columbus State University.
In 2022, she published her first novel – “The Tanner Side of Town” – and is currently working on a sequel to it.
“What Tink Told Us” is her third children’s book and her first collaboration with Barnes.
Tom Barnes
About Artist
Tom Barnes has been doodling on paper all his life. He grew up immersed in the pine forests and coastal plains of South Georgia where rattlesnakes, shrimp, oysters, and double-bourbons were a real thing.
His first exposure to art was at the Telfair Academy of Art in Savannah in the 1960s, where he spent time visiting family during the summer. Besides the annual museum visits, Barnes was influenced by the extremely elegant fashion-conscious twins, Bess and Lila (his grandmother and her sister).
In 1992, he left the corporate world and began a career as a professional artist.
He won the Bronze Medal for Artistic Achievement from the Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Letters in Paris in 2011.
"What Tink Told Us" is his first published work as an illustrator and his first collaboration with Avery.
The illustrations are all original watercolors painted by the artist. Visit tombarnesfineart.com to see more works.