More about Natalie Tinti
Natalie Tinti is a student in the fourth grade at the Vintage Hills Elementary School in Southern California. With her passion and talent for illustrating, she has won many awards for her excellence. Back in 2004, as a five-year-old, Natalie won first place for the poster contest at the 4th Annual Artists Event hosted by Great Graphics Bella & Animal Friends of the Valleys.  That same year, she achieved first place for the Visual Arts Primary Division at her school for the Reflections theme “A Different Kind of Hero.” In 2007, her art piece was placed in the Promenade Mall at the Youth Art Exhibition hosted by the Temecula Valley Art Council. Recently, Natalie's book, Sewing a Friendship, was awarded a Silver Medal in the 2009 award contest hosted by the nationally recognized Readers Favorite Book Reviews under the Children-Chapter category.  In addition, Miss Tinti received a certificate of achievement and was recognized as an honor student at her elementary school.
 
Currently, Natalie is helping to promote the theme “Kindness is Cool” at her elementary school. This includes assisting others by writing gratitude letters to students in response to their kindness. Through these efforts Natalie stresses the importance of friendships and how students should persevere in being nice to everyone.

 Natalie's Philosophy
Natalie wrote this children-chapter book, Sewing A Friendship, about girls who became wonderful friends, to empower children to use their own talents and imagination, and focus on the importance and power of true friendships. The characters of this book learn to use their differences to complement each other without any judgments and worked together to sew a beautiful friendship by creating an awesome pink sleepover.

Natalie believes that friendship is one of the important parts of our lives and could be created when we have the courage to include others. Having fun is our way to be a part of the Universe!

The story starts with a group of girls who are all different in their own way of understanding and expressing themselves in the world, but they also knew how to have fun together.  The most unique part of this children's book is that each character holds a personality that is real to the world and no matter who you are, you should never be afraid of showing the world who you really are on the inside.

Friendships Forever!

More about Cathleen & Dad aka Mike McRitchie
Mike McRitchie and Cathleen McRitchie are the father-daughter team creators and publishers of a new, original children’s book called Best Friends.  Best Friends tells the heartwarming story about the relationship between kids and their stuffed animal friends.

Mike, the Dad, wrote the story while Cathleen, Mike’s 11 year-old daughter, created and penned the illustrations, which capture the story’s essence from the child’s point-of-view.  It was only natural that Cathleen be the illustrator considering her love for drawing.

The McRitchies, including Cathleen’s mom, LeaAnne and her brother, James, have lived in North Texas since 1995. Mike, originally from Canada, is an electrical engineer by training and has worked at a global technology company for 25 years in a variety of roles.

Best Friends is Mike’s first book and he thoroughly enjoyed the creative experience. Cathleen attends public school in McKinney and is a very busy 11 year-old. She is a member of the school Safety Patrol and also the school Choir, which has given several performances. Cathleen is a 3rd degree Black Belt in Taekwondo and was the triple-crown Texas State Champion in her division in 2008. Cathleen also plays softball in the local Girls Softball Association, helping her team win several seasons.

Cathleen and Mike are working on more books and plan to release additional titles soon.