Have bears, will travel

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When I was a kid I wrote stories, accompanied by illustrations, and bound them together with staples and Elmer’s Glue. I desperately wanted to get a book published but I didn’t know how to (and no one had heard of personal computers). But one day I had an epiphany: I’d bring one of my books, “Girl on a Picnic,” down to the town library and slide it in between some other books in the kids section. I even made a takeout slip. I often wonder what happened to that book. Did it find its way to a trash can or did someone discover it and take it home?

Nine-year-old writer and coder extraordinaire, Logan Caramanna, has far surpassed the book-making skills I had as a kid. He not only writes his own books, but he started his own small business called Bear Box Books, an independent publishing company located in Logan’s hometown of West Tisbury. 

Logan writes short stories about his teddy bears on the island of Teddy’s Vineyard. He self publishes the books and sells them on his website and on Etsy. This summer, he’s also selling them at the Chilmark Flea Market. Logan also makes wildflower seed paper notecards that he sells on Etsy, at MV Made, and at Rosewater Market. “I grind up some paper in a NutriBullet and then add wildflower seeds. Then I put the paper pulp into a cookie cutter shape on a frame with a screen on it, to let water drip through, and then I dry the paper shape for a day or two,” Logan explained. These cards are pretty but they also serve an additional purpose. Like any good small business owner should, Logan reinvests back into his company, using the money he makes from his note cards to print and publish his books.

Logan’s preschool teacher, Madeline Way, was instrumental in sparking Logan’s interest in writing books. “She said maybe I should write books about my bears, so I did, and that’s how Bear Box Books got started,” Logan said. “Bears have always been special to me, so I chose the bears that were sleeping on my bed with me that night and just started writing stories about them.” Eddie was Logan’s first bear. “I decided to make him the main character. And then there’s Freddie, who isn’t the main, main character, but he does things in the stories with Eddie, well, most things anyway.”

As is often the case with bears, Logan’s bears often get into mischief. In the end though, they always do something good and learn a life lesson. The topics that Logan has written about include: scuba diving on the Port Hunter, running the drawbridge as a summer job and causing a traffic jam, calling 911 without it being an emergency and getting in trouble, trespassing at the DQ and giving out ice cream without permission, and falling into a tuba at a Pawston Pops concert. 

“These stories are about life lessons, and stuff like that. So I decided that some kids might relate to the stories and call this a new favorite book if I publish it,” Logan shared. “Some of the stories, like for example the one about the 911 call, actually happened to me. And for some of the other stories like, ‘Out of the Suitcase,’ well, I’m pretty sure that the bears slept the whole way (on the trip) and didn’t really come out of the suitcase.”

Logan takes his storytelling seriously — gets his information straight from the horse’s mouth — by interviewing people who are professionally linked to the topics he writes about. He’s interviewed Sgt. Christopher Wiggin of the Oak Bluffs Police Department; Earl Littlefield, who is a drawbridge operator; Dr. Sonya Stevens, Pediatric Department, at M.V. Hospital; Christopher Celeste, former owner of Edgartown Dairy Queen; Colin Ewing, the Cape Air station manager at the MVY airport; Brooke Avakian, program coordinator of Early Childhood Programs at MVCS; Mary Jane Aldrich-Moodie, the Oak Bluffs Public Library children’s librarian; Maestro Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops; Arnold Carr, an underwater explorer and marine biologist, and Ed O’Brien, who is a diving operations manager of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“It was pretty fun, and I got to meet people who do different jobs, and had fun chatting with them and learning about what they do,” Logan said.

Aside from interviewing people, Logan uses a well organized planning system to create his books. His storyboard chart is broken down into sections that ask him to consider: Who (characters); What (the problem/scenario); Events (where the events take place,); and How (problem solving). 

Logan’s mom, Kate Ferrucci, has been a team player with Logan from the get-go. “We did homeschooling this year and writing this series became part of Logan’s writing curriculum,” Ferrucci said. “He wrote a book each month during the 2023-24 academic year. He learned how to develop a story plan, how to structure a story from the beginning to the end, how to develop a story idea and create characters, how to take photos to illustrate the story, proofreading, what an ISBN is and how to request one, and having a book printed.”

Logan takes many of his own photographs for his books. “For the scuba diving story, I put Eddie and Freddie with suits on into the bathtub. Then I went in, with my regular clothes on, with a camera and held my breath and went under and took the photos,” he said.

I asked Logan if he wants to be a writer when he grows up. “I want to be a coder,” he quickly answered. As a matter of fact, the day we met to chat about his business, he had just come back from coding summer camp, which explained how he chose some of the names for some of the other bears in his books. “The name Bnobu is an evolution of the word Ubuntu, which is the Linux operating system that I use. I really like open source,” Logan said. ”The name Bondu was originally Boundaries because he helped me learn my boundaries, but then Boundaries got shortened to Bondu. Bondu, Bnobu, and Bullseye are cousins. Eddie and Freddie are twin brothers. They’re the main characters in my stories, but I also have a lot of other bears who might be characters in future.”

Have books will travel, they say, and this summer Logan went to Washington, D.C., and delivered a copy of his books to the Library of Congress for their permanent collection. “Logan met with Lynn Glascoe, who is a publisher liaison of the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Program at the Library of Congress, to deliver the books,” Ferrucci explained. “They don’t usually accept books that you bring in yourself. It was a pretty amazing experience.” 

Logan has also dipped his toe into the pool of merchandising. Aside from his books, he sells Bear Box stickers, and teddy bears, along with his notecards. The teddy bears come with a letter that reads: “Hi! Please take me on an adventure and write a beary good story about me!” 

Coming up next, Logan is creating a Podcast, and wants to rebuild his Bear Box Books website himself using html. He also has another book underway. “The books are for all ages. Young kids can learn lessons from them but adults can too,” Logan said. From the mouths of babes. 

Intrigued? Check out Logan’s website at: bearboxbooks.com, his instagram page at: @bearboxbooks, or at Logan’s suggestion, make it simple and visit linktr.ee/bearboxbooks.