Where is Malibu Maine?
Malibu Maine is an imaginary town and home base of The Maine Birthday Book, Hop Onward Rabbit Rabbit and a new book, The Moon Over Malibu Maine.
In Malibu Maine, we love wildlife, imagination, space, the seasons, stories, exploring outdoors, discovering things, learning, and having fun. And snacks.
I wandered into this imaginary place in 2016 when the little kid inside the getting older me wanted a place to play. It felt like an invitation to reconnect with the things I loved as a kid. Having an imaginary town was a way for little-kid-me to meet up with adult-me and hang out with curiosity and creativity and see what happened. Over time, Malibu Maine became the unofficial setting for the children’s books that came along, and I made it more official with the new one.
Built into Malibu Maine is the influence of my Mom. You can scroll down to learn a little more about her and about the origin and making of Malibu Maine.
Thank you for visiting,
Tonya Shevenell
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.”
logo by peter shevenell
In memory of Diane E. O'Donnell Shevenell, Malibu Maine is symbolically established on her birthday, July 24th, so that the town will have an extra special reason to celebrate each year. Diane is the mother of Malibu creator, Tonya Shevenell.
My brother, Peter, listened to my every thought bubble while designing the logo for Malibu Maine. The barn and its alewife weathervane are nods to the natural beauty of Maine and to two of its enduring industries. Where farmlands meet the sea are places of "ancient conversations" and inspiration. I walk along one of these places every week, and it's where ideas seem to find me; including the one for Malibu Maine. The barn represents creative space where ideas grow and develop; its doors and window both invite light in and let it shine forth as a beacon. The weathervane shows direction. Alewives are sea-run fish indigenous to Maine, that once could be found migrating in any stream or river near the Gulf. Their journeys from ocean to pond or lake are symbolic of timeless persistence and exploration. Malibu Maine is all about imagination, creativity and the spirit of place.
Diane O’Donnell was born in Portland, Maine and graduated from Deering High School. She spent her childhood between Portland and Chebeague Island, where her Mother’s side of the family has called home for generations. She went to the University of Maine at Portland (before it merged with the Gorham campus into the University of Southern Maine) and after two years, transferred to the University of Maine at Orono. Second semester junior year, she did an internship in Washington D.C. with Maine Congressmen, Stanley R. Tupper (pictured).
In Washington D.C., she met Ray Shevenell, a senior at Georgetown University. He was from Portland, too, and even though they had grown up less than a mile from each other, their paths had never crossed. They were married at St. Joseph’s Church on Stevens Avenue in Portland in May, 1965.