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Panel of Judges for Baby Hearts Press Inaugural Children's Book Award Contest

Joslynn Jarrett-Skeleton
Author of
Charlie the Courageous
Almost four years ago Joslynn Jarrett-Skeletons third daughter, Charlie, was born missing the left side of her heart.

As a mom to two other girls, Makayla and Sawyer, Joslynn searched for ways to explain to her daughters what would be happening with their newest little sister, the open-heart surgeries she would have and the life they would have to live in and out of the hospital.
Unable to find a way to explain it to them, she decided to write her own story.

Since publishing her first book, Charlie the Courageous in 2015, Joslynn has published two more children's books. The second book she published is titled Love For Lawson and the third is Poppy’s Tall Tale. Four more books are slated to be published over the next two years.

These upcoming books will dive deeper into explaining other medical conditions like cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, and Down Syndrome. Joslynn has been lucky enough to travel all over the United States, speaking at hospitals and promoting her books. For every book purchased, a book is donated to a child fighting a life-threatening illness.

So far over 5,000 books have been donated internationally to children fighting serious medical conditions.
Anna Jaworski
Author of
My Brother Needs An Operation
Anna Jaworski is a wife, mother, the Host of Heart to Heart with Anna: A Podcast for the Congenital Heart Defect Community, a public speaker and an author. Her first published work was the end note in Critical Care Nurse just a year after her son, Alexander, was born. The piece set the tone for Anna’s future writing.
 
Distraught that she was unable to find a book to help her older son, Joey, when Alex was undergoing his second open-heart surgery, Anna decided to put together her first children’s book My Brother Needs an Operation. The book was illustrated by homeschooling mother, Linda Ball. The book was important to Linda because she had often been the child left behind while her sister was in the hospital during their childhood.


Anna is currently working on two new children’s books Rainbow Baby Brother and Rainbow Baby Heart Warrior, which will be published by Baby Hearts Press in 2019.
 
Lori M. Jones
Author of
Riley's Heart Machine
Lori M. Jones is an award-winning author of women's & children's fiction. Her first children's book, RILEY'S HEART MACHINE, was released in 2012 through Guardian Angel Publishing and her second children's book, CONFETTI THE CROC, in 2014.
 
Lori is a mother of two young daughters. Her youngest daughter's heart defect was the inspiration behind Riley's Heart Machine. Lori is currently on the national Board of Directors for the Children's Heart Foundation and the president of Pennsylvania Chapter. She was awarded the Community Quarterback Award by the Philadelphia Eagles for her work with the Children's Heart Foundation. Lori travels to schools and libraries delivering assemblies on writing stories from the heart. She is also on the writing team at North Way Christian Community Church. When Lori is not writing or spreading awareness for Congenital Heart Defects, she can be found cheering on her beloved Pittsburgh sports teams and participating in 5Ks.
Jean Clabough
Author of
Matty's Heart:
A Child's and Parents' Guide to
Open Heart Surgery
Jean Clabough was a Pediatric RN for 20 years. She became disabled with Myasthenia Gravis and Adult onset Stills Disease in 1996 and needed to retire. Prior to retirement, she had a tumor removed that encompassed 3 quadrants of her chest and the procedure was similar to open heart surgery. It was that experience and a grandson with congenital heart disease that inspired her to write Matty’s Heart. She felt strongly it was far less frightening to prepare a child for the surgery than to wake up connected to many tubes and on a ventilator.
 
Her grandson is now an adult with 5 children. He continues to require additional surgeries and had a valve replacement last year. The book helps his children understand congenital heart disease from a very personal perspective.
 
Jean is now 70 years old, living in the Pacific Northwest, active in her church and babysitting grand kids.
Martha Raquel Montero
Author of
Ian y Los Guerreros de Corazon


Marta Raquel Montero is a Heart Mom and the author of Ian y Los Guerreros de Corazon, a book which was inspired by My Brother Needs an Operation. When Ian needed open-heart surgery there was nothing in Spanish to help her explain what was happening to her children so she created this book. The production of the book is sponsored by Welch’s and is only available in the hospital in Puerto Rico where Ian had his life-saving surgery.

Not for purchase; only available in Puerto Rico at the hospital
Mike Proko
Author of
Pendleton The Penguin and his Magical Friends The Story Continues
As a writer of fiction, non-fiction, essays and columns, in 2006 Mike Proko turned his attention towards children's books. Pendleton the Penguin & His Magical Friends is an ongoing series of children's books that focus on the values of being assertive while at the same time being polite, respectful of others and seeing the magic in all that is around us on a daily basis. Time and time again, Pendleton shows us that our dreams can only be limited by the breadth of our imagination. The books are now being translated into different languages by students who are helping others around the world open their own imaginations by learning to read. Hopefully one day these children will tell stories of their own...