Where Imagination Comes Alive
Discover The Secret Place, a children's adventure born from a dream and inspired by author Vernis Rucker's own childhood imagination.
from$12.95The Secret Place
By Vernis Rucker · Ages 8+
Cure has a secret place of her own — a hillside of flowers, a big blue lake, and animals she loves. When she finds Zeek, a tiny injured visitor from another world, hiding in the grass, an ordinary afternoon turns into an adventure about friendship, courage, and finding your way home.
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Enter the Secret Place
Grass to lay in. A lake to dream by.
Past the flowers and the hillside, past the big blue lake where the ducks swim, there's a place no map will show you. It's where Cure reads to her animals, hosts tea parties with her imaginary friends, and lets her mind wander wherever it likes.
And on one ordinary afternoon, something small, green, and very far from home was waiting for her there.
Meet Zeek in The Secret Place
The Story Behind the Story
Every child needs a place that's just theirs.
Long before The Secret Place became a children's book, Vernis Rucker had a secret place of her own. Growing up as one of sixteen children in Coldwater, Mississippi, she found peace exploring the woods with her father — a landscape all her own, where she could dream, imagine, and let her creativity come alive, not so different from the hillside where Cure spends her afternoons.
Years later, the idea for the story came back to her through a dream. Cure, her secret place, and a tiny visitor named Zeek began to take shape on the page — carrying that same childhood feeling of wonder into a story she hopes will give other children permission to dream, too.
Meet Vernis
Vernis Rucker
Author · Freelance Writer · Storyteller
Vernis Rucker was one of sixteen children born in Coldwater, Mississippi. As a girl, she loved exploring the woods with her father, who taught her to find beauty in nature. Without much television to watch, her imagination became her closest companion — she'd host tea parties with imaginary friends and dream of meeting a little visitor from outer space.
That same imagination later carried her into music: in 1993, her recording "Stranger in the Sheet" reached audiences around the world. When illness slowed her music career, Vernis discovered her deeper calling — writing children's books that help young readers unlock the same richness of imagination she found in her own secret place.
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Hear Vernis on 87.7 FM / Podcast Center
Vernis Rucker is heading to 87.7 FM / Podcast Center this month to talk about The Secret Place. Exact date and time coming soon.
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