Mountain View High School graduate Jodie Antypas, vice president of consumer marketing for Electronic Arts, has dreamed of being an author since she was young.
The Los Altos native achieved her goal in November with the release of “Just Like an Astronaut,” a story that follows curious child Grace on a day when everything goes wrong.
“Astronaut” started as a bedtime story Antypas said she created for her two daughters. Someone told one of her daughters that she was too curious, which her 6-year-old daughter took to heart. The author said curiosity is an important characteristic of children, and she did not want her daughter to stop being curious.
“One day, when my now-8-year-old was 4, she said to me, ‘I liked the story, but it needs pictures,’” Antypas said. “I had shared (the story) with a couple of friends who were early-childhood educators, and they were saying, ‘I need this book.’ So, I thought, ‘My kids want pictures, and people are telling me this is a really great story for kids, maybe I should give this a shot.’”
Antypas then talked to friends who had published novels and met with an agent before deciding to work with Mascot Books in early 2021. While promoting her book, Antypas said she reached out to some friends and asked if she could read it at their children’s schools, especially because some schools have not had assemblies in a few years.
“The feedback I’ve been getting has been amazing,” said Antypas, who was a standout volleyball player at the University of Pennsylvania. “I’ve been reading to classes at some local schools and doing full school assemblies, and kids are loving the message of staying curious and learning that it’s OK to make mistakes. I’ve even had some older kids, who are 10 or 12, read the book and understand more of the deeper message around the embarrassment and shame that the book covers.”
The San Mateo County resident said some of her favorite memories from creating “Astronaut” include seeing the physical copy of her book for the first time and placing the illustrations and the words together. To get to that point, Antypas said her advice to aspiring authors is not to give up.
“At one of the schools, I asked, ‘Where are the third-graders?’ and then said, ‘I wanted to be a writer (in third grade), and it took me 30 years to make it happen,” Antypas said. “There are so many people out in the world willing to help you that I’ve discovered through this process. I would just encourage people to look for others who can support them and encourage them to go after something that they want to do.”
“Just Like an Astronaut” is available at Linden Tree Books in Los Altos and other independent bookstores, along with major retailers such as Target, Walmart and Amazon.
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