Peggy the Panda Book

The Story

When she was eight, she started writing a story — one she’d carry for years before the characters even had names. Eventually, that story became A Beach Day with Peggy: Understanding Lupus, about a girl named Peggy and her best friend, Spike. The girl who accepted her lupus without hesitation, and who helped make her childhood feel full and joyful despite everything.

The Process

After more than 100 rejections from traditional publishers, Candy decided to self-publish. That’s when I got pulled fully in.

Designing for someone you love is its own discipline. And when the person you’re designing for is still living the story they’re trying to tell — still navigating a condition that hasn’t gone away — the work carries a different kind of weight. You have to hold their vision carefully. Your job isn’t to make it yours. It’s to make it more theirs.

The road from manuscript to finished book was longer and harder than either of us anticipated. Over three years, I stepped in at different points to help move things forward — developing the initial character designs, laying out scenes when the production process stalled, and eventually building everything you see at peggythepanda.com from scratch.

In the End

None of this was clean or linear. Most meaningful things aren’t. But the book is real, the site is live, and Candy’s story — the one she’s been carrying since she was eight — is finally out in the world.

If you know a kid living with a chronic illness, or one who wants to understand what their friend is going through, this book is for them. It’s for the Spikes of the world, too.

Go take a look: peggythepanda.com