More Like Magnolia

Alumna Featured on New York Times’ Best Sellers List

MSUM alumna Elise Parsley ’11 (art) started college ready to learn–from scratch.

While many students choose to major in areas of pre-existing fortes, Parsley decided to study art. She’d never even taken a drawing class. She primarily doodled in the upper corners of her notebook during the duller moments in life. But the cheerful, petite and politely bold blonde knew she was up to the challenge of achieving her dream of becoming an author and illustrator of children’s books.

Equipped with only her passion for the field, her MSUM art instructors didn’t question her decision; they only encouraged it. “I learned everything at MSUM.” Parsley said. “I didn’t have any formal art training until I got there, which I think worked in my favor because I didn’t have to unlearn anything.”

Along with studying art, Parsley obtained her minor in creative writing, which she claims has been “incredibly useful.”

Flash forward a few years. Twenty-nine-year-old Parsley is just what she’d dreamed of becoming–an accomplished author and illustrator whose first book, “If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t!” landed a spot on the New York Times’ best sellers list. It was featured throughout the nation as Barnes & Noble’s picture book of the month for August 2015 and has been read aloud to thousands of children and parents during the popular bookstore’s reading hour.

“It’s crazy to think this kind of stuff can happen. I looked online wondering, ‘Is it true? Are they really reading my book in other cities?’ and they were,” Parsley said. “It’s still a surprise when somebody who’s not my mom likes the book. I know I have a fantastic publicist and such a great crew at Little, Brown and Company.”

Exploring the Character

In Parsley’s first book, a little girl named Magnolia has been given an assignment to bring something from nature for show-and-tell. Rather than bringing something standard, like a leaf or a hollow stick, she brings an alligator. Chaos ensues and Magnolia learns the hard way that bringing an alligator to school isn’t the brightest idea.

As an author begins writing a story, the personas of their lead characters must be constructed. The inspiration for Magnolia began with an image Parsley drew of a little girl in school perched next to an alligator, a teacher looming over them with a paper airplane stuck in her hair.

“I thought, ‘I need to explore this girl who is clearly in a tough situation here with an alligator,’ and the more I explored her, the more I realized that Magnolia is way cooler than I was in first grade,” Parsley said. “She has this gumption to try new things, and if it doesn’t work, she’s going to press on. She doesn’t even mind getting in trouble a little bit. She’s a crazy kid who is always going to take one idea and take it up several notches and go for it. I think she’s a girl I wish I could’ve been friends with in elementary school because she’s so bold.”

Parsley has two more books in the works that will feature the over-the-top, endearing character of Magnolia. Her sophomore project will roll out this spring and is also aimed toward 3-7 year olds.

“I hope people like these next two Magnolia books,” Parsley confessed. “I’m already nervous people will be disappointed because it’s a little different flavor than Magnolia’s first book. Several kids have asked when the next alligator book is coming out, and I have to tell them the alligator’s gone. He’s not coming back, but Magnolia’s coming back. So I hope they’ll accept my second book as a good story.”

As bold, brave and persistent as Parsley has been in achieving her dreams, it’s safe to say the author is a lot more like Magnolia than she thought, ready to take on the world of bedtime stories and reading times, inspiring imagination in the hearts of children and parents everywhere.

This story was first published in Moorhead Magazine, Spring 2016.