Budding Novelist: Bigfork author releases first children's book

Jim Sticka’s ancestors come from deep in Germany near the Black Forest.

As a child, Sticka would listen to his grandfather’s stories about life in the old country. “His accent was so thick you’d have to hang on every word,” Sticka said.

One of the stories Sticka loved to hear as a child was about a boy named Jacob who ventured into the Black Forest to fetch fire wood and who met up with a giant. That family story, now told over several generations, is the subject of “Jacob and the Giant,” a new children’s book from Sticka.

The book has also a bit of a moral lesson in it, with Jacob doing some trickery to win his way out of the giant’s captivity.

This is Sticka’s first book. It is self published and funded by Sticka, a semi-retired cabinet maker who lives in Woods Bay. He is hard at work, though, on the second book in a trilogy. He said he hopes to have that trilogy of novels for young and adult readers by next fall. Sticka was able to live a few years with his own grandfather, and the novels explore the delicate, heartwarming relationship between a boy and his grandfather.

Sticka said he was fascinated by the interplay of the boy and the giant and how their relationship develops. The story is set in Europe in the 1700s. Sticka even throws in a bit of regional history, offering recipes for a traditional German dish called kaesnepla or “kiss nip,” as his family called it.

While reading the book you might also learn how to harness a team of horses. “I want to familiarize people with what it was like to live back then,” he said.

The book is detailed with 18 intricate illustrations by Kalispell artist Shane Morgan. Sticka, himself, comes from a family of 11 children, and he honors children’s places in families’ lives. He wants to donate 100 percent of the profits from the book sales back to children’s charities.

Sticka hopes the story about the little boy and the giant will be passed down through generations, much as it has for his own family. He’s seen how his own granddaughter became enraptured with the story of the boy in the woods, and how the boy found his way home.

Of course, his granddaughter loves to hear that “I told this story to your daddy when he was little,’” Sticka said.

Recently Sticka discovered that Jacob is one of the most popular boy’s names in the United States. He thinks that might help in the sales of the book. “It can’t hurt,” he said.

“Jacob and the Giant” is available at Harvest Foods in Bigfork, the Bookshelf in Kalispell, Bookworks in Kalispell and Whitefish, and at Brett Thuma Gallery in Bigfork.

It’s also available online at stickastories.com.