MERIDIAN, Idaho — No matter what a child's situation is, we can take them anywhere with a book. A local author inspired by artwork at the Village of Meridian wrote a book called New Wings, about the endless possibilities of what happens when a child reads a book.
Ramona Merrill has been marketing manager at the Village at Meridian since its inception and was taken back when she looked at pencil concepts of the sculptures that would be placed at Fountain Square.
"I stared at the pictures of the girl with butterfly wings on her back and tried to understand what the sculpture was trying to say and thought of the impacts of books had on me as a child."
So she wrote the book, "New Wings" about the sculptor's daughter Malea, who was the inspiration for the artwork. Ramona called him about her idea on the book, and she said he literally pulled off the road and cried, and then he told her this.
"You told Malea's story and I said Who's Malia? He said it's my daughter, she's the girl with the butterfly wings on the sculpture."
Malea was adopted from an orphanage in China, a young girl looking for "New Wings". Over the next few months, Ramona read "New Wings" to hundreds of children across the valley. She was heartbroken to learn many kids never owned a hard-bound book.
When you give a book, great things happen.
To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Village at Meridian on October 7, where they will encourage children's literacy in conjunction with the Scripps Howard Fund, Idaho News 6, and the "If You Give a Child a Book" Campaign.
