Author and Illustrator Team
Author, Terry Thornton, and illustrator, Sandy Wenell Thornton, have been married since 1975. They share a love of children’s stories that began many years ago when raising their own two children.
Terry spent 35 years as an elementary school teacher and administrator and his story ideas originate from discussions and experiences with the children he interacted with every day.
Sandy has more than 40 years of experience in both fine and commercial art. She has illustrated educational and children’s books with her appealing style that combines her background in graphics, cartooning, and love of painting.
Terry and Sandy live in California.
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Sandy is a Watercolor painter, see her work at…
Fine Art America https://fineartamerica.com/art/sandy+wenell+thornton
Our Story
Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, when their two children were in diapers, a young couple with a love for writing and illustrating decided to try book publishing. Little did they know that publishers tend to dash dreams with rejection letters. But with persistence, they attracted the interest of a few publishers and were able to see their words and illustrations resting on store bookshelves.
Fast forward 37+ years they have both retired from their careers, their kids are grown and married with children of their own. Now, mature and graying, they have come full circle and once again are writing and illustrating.
Questions
Bluetree123... What does our name mean? Roots of the tree keep it healthy and growing. Likewise we endeavor to publish books that can help enhance children’s academic, social, emotional and spiritual roots, while using fiction as a tool... thus the blue tree.
What is our vision? Our vision is related to our name. It is our sincere desire that our books will help children clarify or perhaps even establish ways to confront every day problems and issues in a way that is based on moral principals and values.
What do we like? We like traveling, reading, walking, nice dinners, sports, but we love our friends, our children and grandchildren, and God who gives us life.
What do you care about? We care about people, our family, what children read, the condition of the world, and we also care about little things like watching the expression on our grand children's faces as they open up Christmas presents and of course the laughable hope that any of our favorite teams will win the Super Bowl, the World Series, or the NBA Championship!
When did we start? We published our first book, Grandpa’s Chair, in 1987. Sandy had been doing freelance graphics and art work as well as watercolor painting for a number of years before that, but the book was our first venture together. After that, we published several other books before taking a long time off. We started this site in 2011 to take advantage of the latest technology and methods of printing and selling books.
When you buy...You give! Besides our desire to instill positive values through our books, BlueTree123 will donate 10% of the profits for every book sold to charities that aid children including Solutions for Change and Alabaster Jar (Vista, CA).