Stories
That Inspire Generations Authors who connect across generations, create mutual understanding and forge life-long ties share a gift. They know how to bring children, parents, grandparents and seniors together in storytelling that’s truly meaningful and often magical. This quality is what the commentaries of Lexy Durand showcase.
 Explore Books Reader Connection New Releases Coming New Releases Coming Ms. Durand’s commentary is heartfelt and heart-warming. It is fused with spirited personal narrative, with messages that linger in the mind, in the heart and in the soul, and generate lasting habits of conversation across all generations. Each piece is crafted with the aim of making every single reader feel seen, heard, valued.
 New stories emerge at the dawn of each new day for authors. Concerned that kids need to learn the social skill of listening, with all one’s heart to the stories of others, so they feel valued, has sparked the new children’s book written by Ms. Durand called Are You Listening? In the epigraph, kids are reminded that if the colonists had not listened to Paul Revere’s advice to arm for battle, we could have lost the opportunity for independence back in 1775.
 Oftentimes we take our own stories for granted, but it is to be noted that new stories are on the horizon and each one is designed to cater to unlock curiosity, empathy and meaningful conversations.
Inspiring New Author to Watch

Meet Lexy Durand

Lexy Durand defied the notion of the times of her teens, the 1960’s, that only boys were worthy of higher education, because girls could just find husbands. She’s been an English teacher at the college level, turned into an author, simply by stepping back, slowing down and observing life around her. She discovered her ability to write, and connect, relatively late in life, but once she put pen to paper, the words flowed like a never-ending brook. Recently rescued before being thrown in the trash is this Haiku, scrawled by her, on a mustard-stained napkin.

Numbers confound me

Well-chosen words astound me

‘Tis an author I’ll be.

Growth in attitude through connection to the world’s diversity is there for all of us to experience. Prepare for the joy of learning.

Read My Story

Our Featured Release

traction

The women’s liberation movement, had it been consulted, would have coached Ms. Durand in how to gain traction in a man’s world when she suffered the misfortune of being born a girl in 1943. No one likes a chauvinist parent, especially when this parenting collides with the reality of two older brothers going on to architectural school after high school graduation, and she’s sent off to stenography school to learn shorthand so she could “take a letter.”

In this endearing, heartwarming, and often witty, self-deprecating memoir of a teenage girl’s struggle for traction – and more poignantly, a teenage girl’s search for personal acceptance through parental acceptance – Ms. Durand takes the bully by the horns.

Dad could not grasp the importance of education for daughters back in the ‘60’s. But enjoy the read, the honesty and the humor. Invest your heart and soul in this journey of one woman’s struggles to gain traction when so many other lovelies were stuck in the mud or treading water at high tide.

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Why i Write

Writing is painful. It aches to think that what one is producing might not meet others’ standards of perfection. There are readers and publishers to consider. Is this what they want to hear? Is my emphasis right? Are situations well-thought out? No worry if you’ve changed the ending readers were expecting, but has your sentiment, and, in commentaries, your opinions, shone through in a convincing manner that will open up eyes to new ideas? And have you done it in a way that teaches, amuses and entertains? Readers have paid $12.95 for your memoir; are you engaging them in what you have to say?

Writing keeps me up at night. New ideas disturb my REMS like lighting striking the silo on a weather-beaten barn. But I wake refreshed, complete, knowing that what I am capturing is true to my need for authenticity. That’s the piece that merits consideration for publication, and joy fills my heart.

In a fourth grade classroom I was teaching a year ago, a student came in with a cast on her ankle. She had broken it, or it had broken itself, while ice skating. Students gathered around her, in sympathy, while she fought back tears to explain what happened. One student, though saw this as an opportunity to boast about all the medals he had earned on the skating rink, with nary a broken bone or injury.

That’s wrong, and heartless, I thought. Kids need to learn the skill of listening, with all their hearts, to others’ stories, so they’ll feel cared about and loved. Are You Listening? debuts soon.

I write to make connections, through stimulating and provocative commentary that entertains, teaches and empowers.

Description of Are You Listening?

from publisher's press release

Lexy Durand's new book, Are you Listening? is a charming tale that unfolds in the produce section of a grocery store, where young Katie experiences an unforgettable moment of embarrassment. When her attempt to select three oranges from the bottom of a pyramid results in a colorful cascade across the store floor - with one orange finding its way to the dairy department where it meets an unfortunate end in the custodian's eye - Katie finds herself frightened and overwhelmed with shame. Yet, what could have been a defining moment of despair becomes something entirely different through the grace of those around her.

Are You Listening? teaches kids to listen without agenda or interruption. It reminds kids to listen with all their hearts.

Coming Soon

Little Teapot Trilogy

An enchanting new adventure for young readers! Are You Listening? is the latest children’s book by Lexy Durand, crafted to spark curiosity, imagination and a love for reading.
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Coming soon – stay tuned for updates!

Little Teapot Trilogy

May I correct you if you think this book is about teapots. The title comes from the author's brothers calling her ``Little Teapot`` cuz she played ``I'm a Little Teapot`` too much, on the piano, when growing up.

In ``So Sorry You're Bored,`` watch as Ms. Durand connects with middle schoolers saying they're bored, teachers struggling to engage them, parents and grandparents not liking the grades these kids bring home. It contains advice for how kids can take charge of their own learning. If a teacher or a tutor tells them Egyptians used the equivalency in weight of marble slabs to all the cars stacked between here and Mars, they could challenge the claim, research it for themselves and reap the satisfaction of providing other fun facts for the benefit of all.

``Pyramids on the Syllabus`` highlights the achievements of our seniors, who, visiting something as spectacular as the Smithsonian Museum, might feel overwhelmed as they move from room to room. The author steps in and reminds seniors that the pyramids that she gazed at decades ago, somehow wound up on her syllabus in the early 2000's. You'll nod in agreement, too, at her advice to octogenarians to stay out of corn mazes and Adirondack chairs.

Traction is Ms. Durand's memoir, reproduced in Teapot, for its immediacy and kinship with ``So Sorry You're Bored`` and ``Pyramids on the Syllabus.`` Without a hint of whining, she recounts her struggles to gain a college education after her dad, a chauvinist in the time of Women's Liberation, denied her a chance, because she, like ``so many other lovelies stuck in the mud or treading water at high tide`` could just find a husband.

What Readers Are Saying

Traction was like talking with a wise friend where it was also honest, funny and unforgettable.
Lexy Durand writes with such warmth that you feel personally invited into her story.
This was just the most beautiful reminder to all of us that it is never really late to go ahead and find your own voice.
Her book/memoir just spoke to generations in my family, from teenage years to grandparents in a way that nothing has ever done before.
Fully Insightful, moving, and quietly empowering. For me Traction is a must for all people to read.
Her storytelling shows just how important it is to listen, as it is one of the greatest gifts we can give. I have been endlessly suggesting her book to everyone out there.