The book first came to her in a dream.
Twelve years later, Kristen Vann Griffith published that dream with her illustrated children’s book “Cora & the Whale: The Light That Found Her.”
“I’d never written a book before,” said Griffith, a professional photographer and graphic designer with her own creative agency, “but that dream was so vivid, and so magical — I’d never had a dream like this before — that I woke up and wrote it all down. I knew I couldn’t lose that story.”
“Cora & the Whale” is set in Iceland and follows Cora, a young girl navigating a move to a new town. Griffith, who lives in James City County, said she was inspired by her daughters’ experience moving from New Hampshire to start at a new school in Virginia: “They were nervous about meeting friends, and they were shy.” The protagonist is also drawn from her two daughters. “It’s kind of both their personalities, like the shyness and the excitement, but also their appearances.”
“Cora & the Whale,” an illustrated children’s book by Kristen Vann Griffith, is set in Iceland and follows Cora, a young girl navigating a move to a new town. (Courtesy/Kristen Vann Griffith)
Cora’s journey, and the book’s illustrations, are based on photographs Griffith took in Iceland. Though she originally planned to use the photographs themselves for her illustrations, she realized “it wasn’t meant to be photography.” Instead, she started with her own visual concepts — photographs and sketches — and used digital tools to “build out the imagery.”
In hindsight, she remembers her favorite class in college being book design — studying page layouts and prints — but for many years, Griffith had no idea how she would realize her book. Then a client hired her to do their book design, prompting an epiphany: “Why am I not doing this for myself?”
“I don’t know why I hadn’t done it sooner,” Griffith said. “I was like, ‘Wait, why am I just sitting on this book? I can do all of this by myself.’”
She said it’s always been her dream to write a children’s book. When she had the idea for the book 12 years ago, she was working as a preschool teacher.
“I could just imagine holding the pages up and reading it to them (the preschoolers) during circle time,” she said.
She designed the book’s illustrations with those preschoolers in mind. “I just remember the little preschoolers being like ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh,’” she said. “I wanted that. They have to be excited when I turn the book around and show them the pages.”
Though Iceland’s natural landscapes are central to “Cora & the Whale,” Griffith said the country wasn’t originally on her radar.
One of Kristen Vann Griffith’s photographs of the Basalt Columns at Reynisfjara Beach in Iceland, which appear in illustrations in her book. (Courtesy/Kristen Vann Griffith)
“In the dream, there was the little girl and the whale. I knew that they were on an island, but I didn’t know what island it was,” she said.
It wasn’t until 2019, when she first went to Iceland with a friend, that she realized: “This is where it needs to be.”
“The first time I went to Iceland, I completely fell in love,” she said. “It was cold and snowy and windy and absolutely magical. We danced under the northern lights, and saw the waterfalls and glaciers and Diamond Beach. We basically did everything that Cora does in the book.”
When she returned home, she was “talking about it so much” that finally her mother agreed to go back to Iceland with her. “We did the exact same trip. Except this time I went with my camera in hand, knowing that I was going to photograph the book.”
She soon went back again with her husband for a whale-watching tour. She remembers a moment when one whale swam close to the boat to feed. “I could have touched him, he was so close,” Griffith recalled. “And he stayed like that for an hour. It was the most magical thing I’ve ever experienced.”
She’s now been to Iceland five times and is planning a sixth trip this September with her business partner Anna Bennett — a massage therapist with expertise in yoga and wellness — to begin the process of founding a women’s retreat.
One of the illustrations of Cora and the whale in Kristen Vann Griffith’s book, with the Basalt Columns at Reynisfjara Beach in the background. (Courtesy/Kristen Vann Griffith)
“She’s done retreats, so she’s bringing the wellness side of it, and I’m bringing the ‘I love Iceland and know everything about it’ side,” Griffith laughed.
With each trip, Griffith is planning her next book. She envisions “Cora” as a series, with each book focusing on different geographic regions of the country.
This vision and Griffith’s ambitions for the series are largely why the book is self-published. “I actually had somebody reach out to me and send me over a contract,” Griffith said, but “it was terrifying. It was like signing away my dream, and I hated it. I was like, ‘I want so much more for Cora.’”
Griffith would like to see an accompanying coloring book, and stuffed whale plushies, and maybe keychains. “I didn’t realize how much she meant to me. It’s crazy a character in a book can mean so much to you, but she’s created from so much love that I didn’t want to just sign her away.”
Self-publishing meant more work, she said, but it was ultimately worth it. “I wanted to build this,” Griffith said. “It’s so exciting, but it was very, very nerve-wracking, because it was my dream, and I didn’t know how other people were going to take it.”
Griffith kept her project secret for a long time. In fact, even her mother didn’t know about the book until their most recent trip to Iceland, when Griffith surprised her with a finished copy. It ended up being “a really special moment,” she said.
Kristen Vann Griffith flips through the pages of her children’s book, showing illustrations that reflect Iceland, where the book is based. (Courtesy/Janet Hoffman)
To accompany “Cora & the Whale,” Griffith also published a travel guide of her photographs, facts and practical advice. Readers visiting Iceland can follow along, recreating Cora’s journey across the country.
Travel has always been an important part of Griffith’s life. Growing up, her father’s job as an airline pilot meant that she and her family could travel for free.
“My biggest memories growing up were traveling with my family,” she said. “My mom and I would just jump on a plane and fly wherever the airline would take us. And when I wasn’t jumping on a plane with my mom, we were in a camper driving around the U.S. I just grew up traveling, and it meant so much to me.”
She hopes her book will inspire children and their families to travel and make their own memories. Travel, she said, brings children freedom and an appreciation for nature. She also hopes her book will inspire others to travel to Iceland.
“I want people to see how amazing it is,” she said. “Because if you have never been to Iceland and you look at this book, I don’t think you would think it was real. I think you would just think it was made up, and magical.”
“Cora & the Whale” is available on Amazon or through coraandthewhale.com. Griffith can be reached through kristenvanncreative.com or kristenvann.com.
Lelia Cottin-Rack, lcottinrack@gmail.com