About the Author

Maryann Lucas was born in 1959 and very soon after began her life's work: making beautiful things. She started out using crayons to mark up the living room walls and eventually moved on to oil paints and canvas. She has made some very beautiful paintings and drawings in her lifetime, but her true masterpieces are her daughters. At first, she wasn't sure how to preserve and nurture their innately beautiful spirits. Luckily for her and her children, there were plenty of helpful parenting books available about raising a whole child and being a conscious mom. She read a lot of them. Now Lucas combines the broader experiences of parent and painter in her first children's book with its uplifting story and delightfully drawn illustrations. Lucas is represented nationally by several fine art galleries and is a member of The Copley Society of Art in Boston, MA. She received a wonderful liberal arts education at Georgetown University and earned her masters from the Columbia University School of Journalism. She worked at CBS News in New York City as a producer and as a reporter for WCAX-TV in Vermont. That was all a very long time ago. Today, Lucas lives in Sag Harbor, NY with her husband and two cats. Her daughters are still beautiful (inside and out), and live nearby. Stay in touch with Lucas about her book at www.maryannlucasltd.com and view her paintings at www.maryannlucas.com .

Reviews

"Seven circles of light explore mortality in this spiritual picture book. ... Lucas does an impressive job of making this philosophical theme feel approachable and grounded. ... Engaging conversation starter for parents and children about growth, change, death, and life."-Kirkus ReviewsFull Book Review from Kirkus Reviews: Seven circles of light explore mortality in this spiritual picture book.In a fairy-tale-like opening, the Brightest Light lives alone, content, in the Big Quiet. But "one day, a Sharp Desire came...and changed everything." The Brightest Light, looking like a soft white ball surrounded by darkness, encounters a prism that refracts light into colors. Now, the Brightest Light and seven balls of color live happily until the colors encounter a desire for more. The colors leave the Big Quiet for a world like Earth, becoming plants, animals, forces of nature, and humans. Violet and Red turn into lonely human girls who find each other and become friends, experiencing the strange feeling that they've met before. Eventually, the colors realize the time is coming to leave their incarnations and return to the Brightest Light, once again content until the desire for change resurfaces. Lucas does an impressive job of making this philosophical theme feel approachable and grounded. The author's images vary in style. One resembles a doodle in a digital paint program while the images on the Earth-like world are more detailed cartoon illustrations with full backgrounds and a diverse human cast. Her handling of time passing in a panel-packed page seems natural, and the hints at death feel merely part of a cycle rather than sad.An engaging conversation starter for parents and children about growth, change, death, and life.
"Lucas gives children and caregivers alike much to think about and explore in this thought-provoking and decidedly different children's picture book. Seven Circles of Light: How They Were Born and What They Became is most highly recommended."-Readers' FavoriteFull Book Review from Readers' Favorite: Seven Circles of Light: How They Were Born and What They Became is a children's concept picture book written and illustrated by Maryann Lucas. Until that sharp desire sparked and woke up the Brightest Light, it needed and wanted nothing more than to exist in the Big Quiet. That desire changed everything. Brightest Light felt unfulfilled until its need manifested as the Seven Circles of Light. The Circles were happy to live with Brightest Light until, one day, that sharp desire returned, and each circle became distinct and different, but they all felt the need to leave the Big Quiet, and off they went.
Maryann Lucas's Seven Circles of Light: How They Were Born and What They Became is a marvelous way to introduce children to color theory and how colors are all contained in white light. Her story goes further in assigning personality and physical form to each color and bringing them all together in a park on planet Earth. There's also a marvelous creation legend that expands from the one Brightest Light into the Seven Circles, which then contracts again in an endless cycle. Lucas gives children and caregivers alike much to think about and explore in this thought-provoking and decidedly different children's picture book. Lucas's artwork fleshes out the details beautifully, making this story as vibrant and rich as the Seven Circles when they first appear and begin to flourish. Seven Circles of Light: How They Were Born and What They Became is most highly recommended.