EAST LONGMEADOW – Maureen “Mo” MacPhail, a resident and assistant kindergarten teacher at Meadow Brook Elementary School, recently published her first children’s book “Little Blue.”

McPhail told Reminder Publications the book is about the kindness and bravery of two little girls rescuing a baby blue jay that fell out of its nest and was inspired by a similar event from her childhood.

“When I was younger I was with my sister and in the book it says we were just playing and all of a sudden we heard this crying that sounded like a baby,” she explained. “And we said, ‘What is that?’ and we went and looked and it was this little baby bird on the ground and a cat was trying to get it and eat it. I ran in and asked my mom to help and she gave me the laundry basket and we went out and rescued it.”

She added that the book has been shared with Meadow Brook kindergarten students.

“It was kind of great time for publishing because it came out and we opened our writer’s workshop for kindergarten with me reading parts of the book and to try to inspire in them that they too have a story inside them and we should share them [and] write them down,” MacPhail said.

The main theme of Little Blue is compassion and caring for one another, she explained.

“In the book I mention, ‘fighting the good fight,’” MacPhail noted. “A good fight is taking care of each other. A good fight is taking care of what’s in front of us  – that’s what we should be fighting for in this world and in this life.”

MacPhail said it took her about one year to write the 24-page illustrated book, which went through at least 10 different drafts before it was published by Tate Publishing. The illustrations were created by the publisher..

She added she plans on writing more children’s books in the future.

“Mostly I like writing and trying to inspire others [to] write down their stories,” she noted.

Any profits from the book will be donated to Haiti180, an organization that constructed an orphanage and state-of-the-art school, which houses, feeds and cares for children and villagers in need of support, MacPhail said.

MacPhail is currently working on a master’s degree in education and lives in East Longmeadow with her husband and two sons.

A book signing is scheduled for Dec. 12, tentatively set for 10 a.m. at the East Longmeadow Public Library.

The event will feature other local authors, including two teachers with whom MacPhail works.

For more information about MacPhail visit www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978168187721. Little Blue is available to purchase on barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com as well.