New Highland author hopes new book becomes spark for series

By Charles Bolinger

Editor • “It’s a Jeep Thing…you wouldn’t understand.” Bella Sparks is trying to overturn that popular advertising tagline from 20 years ago. She wants people to understand Sparky the Jeep.

Sparks, a Highland High School alumna and life-long Madison County resident, has recently penned her first children’s book, “Sparky Makes Friends.” In the book, Sparky is a Firecracker Red Jeep Gladiator, just like the real one Sparks and her husband bought a few years ago.

She visited and spoke with a reporter about her book on Dec. 30. She said this is her first children’s book but she has wanted to scribe one for a long time.

This first book targets children between ages 4 and 8 but she said she hopes to focus on kids as old as 14 and 15 later in the series. This first book is also more than just a story to be read to kids; there are puzzles and games to complete, places to color and draw.

“Just based on a lot of feedback I’ve gotten, a lot of adults are ready for these books, too,” she said. “To read with the kids and grandkids. It’s just kind of taken off for me (the story book business.)”

“In November 2023, my husband and I bought a new Jeep Gladiator,” she began, explaining Sparky’s origin story. “It was going to be a daily driver for us; we had to replace a pickup truck so we compromised and got the Jeep Gladiator.

“We took it off-roading to some of the fire roads in the Shawnee National Forest [289,000 acres nestled between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in southern Illinois],” she recalled. She also remembers being unsure if she could and should drive the vehicle off-read because it was still stock. 

“We came home and that was the start of it. We joined the Jeep Club in St. Louis and we just immediately took to the lifestyle.

“We went to Jeepstock in August of 2024. It was amazing and we were hooked! Each spring is Chicks in the Sticks and every fall is Jeepstock.”

Sparky being stock also prevented the couple from doing any serious vehicle modifications (mods) to it until the vehicle was paid off so as not to violate any of the vehicle’s factory warranties.

“We came back from Jeepstock and we said, ‘We gotta get a lift, we gotta get bigger tires.’” A lift kit raises the vehicle’s body higher than stock, usually to allow for larger tires and wheels to fit within the wheel wells. The addiction was quick.

“It was something the two of us could do together, something we enjoyed and we both worked from home at the time,” she recalled. It also gave them a social life outside of their home, she said.

“The more things we did to Sparky, the more he became a character,” he said. “You know what? I would see families with kids on the trails and some of those kids were scared, some were excited. I never would have done that with my kids when they were little.”

She said this was part of a broader effort to get children away from screens—mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and televisions—and teach them trail etiquette, such as if you see trash on the ground, pick it up and dispose of it, even if you didn’t drop it on the ground. Another goal is to teach children things without the kids realizing they are being taught.

Panda Pro Publishing handled the book’s initial publication but after Sparks looked closer, she could not see where the book’s illustrator was named. Sparks quipped that she can’t even draw stick figures. 

She said it took about three months to get the book to this point, she said as she lent a reporter a sample book. “I had the story written in under a week,” she said. 

As a sneak preview, she said she came home from a Christmas parade this year and wrote a Christmas story in one evening for a 2026 Christmas book, due out next year. Formatting and illustrations took up the remainder of the time.

“When I started the project, I reached out to my Jeep club members because I wanted a child to illustrate it. I have a friend who has a teenage son who does really good artwork but he does not think he’s any good at art, so he wasn’t interested in contributing.

“If a kid illustrates it, what better way to make some money to start saving for college or for a Jeep?”

She said she didn’t receive much feedback about that portion of the story. 

Jessica from Panda Pro reached out to Sparks via a Facebook group and offered to do a cover for her as an example of their abilities. Sparks said she also wanted to avoid using any artificial intelligence (AI) programs to create the book. 

“I wanted to be original and as life-like to Sparky and the other characters as it could be,” she said.

Jessica and her team assembled Sparks’ website and going forward, she believes she found the team to collaborate with for the future books she imagines putting out. They are currently designing the second book.

She sought a watercolor-like, cartoon motif and the end product strikes a good balance between them. 

“The message I want people to take away no matter how old you are is: ‘Even if you’re afraid to do something, do it anyway.’ There’s some good parts to fear and I think you have to face them. If I’m going to live with regret, I’d rather it not be the regret that I didn’t do something. I’d rather try it and fail than not do it at all.”

She said the Jeep community has been a real positive for she and her husband. Chicks in the Sticks is the club’s way to get more women involved and drive the Jeeps rather being what she referred to as “a passenger princess.”

“I learned that I’m more capable than I think I am and my Jeep’s more capable than I think it is sometimes, and to just trust the team that you’re with.”

As for the first book, it is already available. 

“It is ready [to purchase]; it’s live on Amazon,” she said and she provided a reporter with a link: Amazon 

“I have author copies coming; they’re supposed to be here in the middle of January. I’m hoping to have some that I can sell myself.

“I will be doing vendor fairs; I’m hoping to do some library and school visits [surrounding the book] in the area to come in and do readings and activities,” she said.

She said another facet to the Sparky series is a standalone activity book that is currently in the works, she said. 

Local brick ‘n mortar stores that should carry the book include Addley’s Attic at 1007 Washington Street in Highland near Broadway Battery and Tire and Bargain Bubbles Social Shop at 906 Broadway, also in Highland.

Beyond that, Sparks hopes mega-retailers like Walmart will stock the book along with Barnes & Noble. To check out her website, visit https://bellasparkbooks.com/