Sandy Hook resident Amybeth Laroche released Giuliana’s Big Move, a transitional book for children and adults alike, in September. Illustrated by fellow Newtown resident Kayla McClay, the book details the journey of moving to a new location through the eyes of Giuliana, a bubbly, pink poodle.

Giuliana is actually inspired by Laroche’s daughter, Giuliana, who was diagnosed with autism around the age of two. Laroche recently explained to The Newtown Bee that Giuliana’s Big Move was directly inspired by homework her daughter brought home to help with transitions in life.

“We forget as adults that … throwing out the garbage or just putting your cup on the counter is such a huge, different thing for them,” Laroche said. “Within certain big transitions for children, they need sort of a step-by-step of anything. Everything is so new to them.”

She added that activities such as the dentist, receiving a vaccine, or going to the doctor can be scary for any child, but “especially for a child with disabilities.”

“From 2½ to about 5 years old, we were given these transition printouts … they helped for certain things … but they weren’t very warm, they weren’t very friendly. They just sort of got the job done,” Laroche explained.

Then came the move.

When Laroche moved her family from Shelton to Sandy Hook, she was not given a similar “printout” for the move.

“This is just not okay. Before I did the printout … I noticed my daughter’s reaction,” Laroche said. She thought her daughter could learn how to be “flexible,” she said, and “learn how to go with the punches.

“Well I learned that that did not work for her … When I mentioned we were moving, she was packing up her things in her room and … thought it was the end of the world,” she added.

Laroche then started working with another Newtown resident Kayla McClay, who became the illustrator of Giuliana’s Big Move. McClay was the illustrator for the August 2023 release by Emily Anne, Little Bird.

McClay said the printouts Laroche were given were not “perfect.”

“[The printouts were] really kind of unfinished or half-done. They’re supposed to be personalized towards each person, but this was not great. So she and I worked together to give it some more polish and more color,” McClay said.

McClay added that Giuliana’s character is inspired by a stuffed poodle Laroche’s daughter has. Laroche said the poodle — which her daughter named Sparkles — was a gift from her father to her daughter before he passed away.

“She would carry Sparkles around everywhere she went,” Laroche said.

Laroche added that the book is not random images thrown on the page. McClay took great care in making the book very personal, including the old apartment building Laroche and Giuliana lived in when they were in Shelton on the back cover and the home they moved into in Sandy Hook on the front.

“It’s not just the cover page,” Laroche said. “It’s our life.”

Kris Kling, a partner and realtor at Around Town Real Estate, chimed in, “That’s the best part, you know, not to be cheesy and say you’re telling your story, but you’re literally telling your story with [Giuliana] through it.”

Kling met with Laroche shortly after the book was published. Laroche told Kling about the book, how she wanted to get the book into local hands. Due to the nature of the book being about moving, she hoped to get local businesses and local realtors to be involved.

Kling said, “Everything about our meeting and about the book, I just kept getting super excited about it … I was like, ‘Let me run up to my office … I’m gonna drive it to my office, let me talk to my business partner.’”

“I literally took my hard copy, I threw it right on [his] desk and I was like, ‘You gotta read this,’” Kling shared. He said he got a text a few minutes later from his partner that said “Yes, absolutely.”

Kling talked to Laroche more about getting Giuliana’s Big Move into the office, and now it is a part of their “buyer box.”

“This is something that is just fitting right in with what we’re trying to do … also just tying in this local footprint,” said Kling, who then said Around Town is giving the book out as a tool.

“This is another resource that we want to provide to any of our potential clients who are looking for a home,” he shared.

“We create home,” Kling said of Around Town, “And this to us right here is the definition of what we’re trying to do … [What] you’ll see us promote a lot of the time is ‘bringing local back.’”

Kling said the local details featured in the book, such as McClay’s rendition of the new home in Sandy Hook, were “hitting” him. “I know exactly which house that is … Our footprint here is so [local]. To be able to show this and be like, ‘hey this isn’t just some book that we got from Texas that has no idea what the local feel is.’

“This is literally from right around the corner, from an author right around the corner that lives in our town.”

Laroche added the book is not just for children, it can also serve as a tool to help adults not only navigate tough conversations with their child, but it can help them to remember how different everything is for children.

“We’re trying to help, and trying to help the community … We want to make Newtown better,” she said.

Giuliana’s Big Move is the first of many, many books to come, according to its author. Laroche is hoping to put out around 40 more books like this to help children navigate situations like going to the doctor, having surgeries, and even having a splinter removed, citing an incident of a splinter that Giuliana got from the deck at their new home last summer as inspiration.

She shared with The Bee a prototype of what a real Giuliana could look like and said she hopes to put out a stuffed animal companion with all the books she writes.

Copies of Giuliana’s Big Move are available on Amazon. The 24-page softcover sells for $14. If readers would like personalized copies of the book, Laroche said readers can contact her and she will ensure it gets done. She can be reached through Instagram at @amybeth.laroche.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.

Amybeth Laroche, the author of Giuliana’s Big Move, has partnered with Around Town Real Estate Realtor Kris Kling to distribute copies of the book as part of the Newtown-based firm’s buyer box. Copies of the book are also available through Amazon. —Bee Photo, Cross

This is a prototype of what a Giuliana doll could look like. Laroche hopes to have a whole line of stuffed animals to pair with her subsequent books to help children feel empowered to take on change and new environments.

Released in September, Giuliana’s Big Move — written and illustrated by Sandy Hook and Newtown residents, respectively — details the journey of moving to a new location through the eyes of Giuliana, a bubbly, pink poodle.