IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Julie Welch Horning

‘P’ for pickleball, and ‘B’ for Boca Grande

Above, Julie Horning with husband Dan and parents Craig and Mary Welch. Photo submitted

Fresh off her children’s book about Boca Grande, Julie Horning has now come out with a sequel about the exploding trend of pickleball, a sport she routinely dismissed until she moved to a new California city to be with her pregnant daughter.

“I felt so happy to be able to be here, and also believe that it was all part of divine timing that I was supposed to be here,” said Horning, who ended up in Newport Beach because their house at the Dunes of Boca is yet to be put back together.

The book is “P is for Pickleball,” and it is the successor to “B is for Boca Grande,” which started because she realized there were no serious children’s books to interest kids in the history of Boca Grande.

“I was looking for an alphabet book for my grandchildren, and there wasn’t one, so I just thought, well, I’m gonna write one,” Horning said.

The Boca Grande book came out last summer. Just this week, the second book came out. It has the same look, illustrated by Noah Warnes.

She dedicated the pickleball book to her parents, Craig and Mary Welch, who encouraged her to try the sport. But it is written for ages three to seven to introduce children to the game.

Horning married her husband Dan in 2014, having grown up visiting Sanibel. Julie’s parents eventually moved to Bokeelia on Pine Island. Her father suggested that they move to Boca Grande. Her parents followed her after COVID and soon took up pickleball in their 80s.

They are active, and the sport keeps them social.

“It’s really opened up a world to them, and they kept kind of trying to talk me into playing, and I just like a lot of people was like, ‘Oh, that’s not really a sport,’” she said. “That’s kind of how my attitude was.”

She decided to begin playing in California, as she knew no one there, only her daughter and son-in-law. “What I didn’t expect is the community that was so embracing,” Horning said. “The sport is very welcoming, and it made me feel like a part of something.”

The book has lessons larger than pickleball. For example, she had a discussion with her editor about the “M is for Miss” part. Horning thought it important to leave in, as missing the ball is a real part of playing pickleball, and important to the sport. “I want that, because the lesson is sometimes you swing and miss, and that’s okay,” Horning said. Another was “Q, for Quiet,” which children can learn as they watch others serve.

The book is definitely for children, even though pickleball has mainly been an adult sport. However, it is becoming more popular for children as its popularity grows. She said that at family gatherings, they might have three generations playing together, which is due to the ease of learning the sport. At a family tournament in the summer in Michigan, for instance, they even had a fourth generation running around the court with paddles, not doing anything.

“It was just kind of fun to see how it brought everyone together,” Horning said.

“B is for Boca Grande,” is an ABC book for children, with history stories of the island. The main character is Chico, the monkey at Whidden’s. She thought for the second book, Chico could return as narrator.

“Wouldn’t that be cool?” Horning asked. “To have Chico learn to play pickleball.”

When she began thinking about it being a word book, she also had to consider different angles, and research them to make good illustrations. For instance, indoor pickleball had people in wheelchairs, and others with prosthetics.

“So I have a cat with a prosthetic, and we have a fox in a wheelchair playing adaptive pickleball,” Horning said.

From friends, she has had a lot of fans of Chico, and suggestions to make him a puppet or a stuffed animal. He is very well drawn by Warnes, an English illustrator and linocut artist. His work is well known, but he is famous as the son of Tim Warnes, who is responsible for “I Love You to the Moon and Back” and “The Great Cheese Robbery,” both children’s classics.

Warnes has taken direction from Horning, but not too much.

“Noah had never been to Boca Grande. I just sent him pictures, and he was able to capture the essence of Boca Grande and the spirit of Boca Grande with his illustrations. And same with pickleball,” Horning said. “Noah’s very like ‘Don’t talk, just give me a little bit of direction.’”

Julie and Dan have four grandchildren together, and two more on the way, as their children all got married around the same time.

“I just think of it being something that I am able to leave for my grandchildren and for the people that I know,” Horning said. “We’re all streaming Netflix, and I’m the most guilty. But there’s something about reading. Slow down. Sit down and read a book with your grandchildren or your kids and take the time out.”

For more information, visit juliehorning.com.