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About the book: Vally the villo is ready for an adventure! Vally is finally old enough to
take a solo peek at her outside world, (with her mother's permission of course! ) Never has she climbed a tree, met other
villo families or run through the hills on her own but today is the day for her to start her new adventure. She brings with
her the wisdom her mother has taught her to help make her way safely and be back home in time for dinner. Vally is a character
called a villo. To most, a villo is an unknown animal species. In fact, there is no reported documentation of such an animal
anywhere in the world. However, in the mind of the author of this book, villos did exist. According to Abbie, villos
walked the earth millions of years ago, just like the dinosaurs. They had very large families, were full of energy and were
very kind. Abbie is happy to introduce Vally, the villo. Part of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go toward the
Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation
Click to order from Books-A-Million
click to order from Borders bookstore
Click here to order from Barnes & Noble
Abbie had a book signing at Barnes & Noble in March of 2008 (see picture below.) Also, a book signing in April
of 2008 at Von Liebig Author and Book Festival.
 About the author: Abbie was born on the Virgin Island of St.
Croix, (her father is the owner of Tip Top Construction, tiptopvi.com, in St Thomas and St Croix.) Abbie has the pleasure
of visiting her father frequently on St Croix. She is a boisterous child who has a gift for creativity and
we are very pleased to share a part of her imagination with you! Abbie made her Villo character up in 2006 when
she was 5 years old. Abbie made several short stories about them on scratch paper. We decided to make the
book while, unknowingly, Abbie was in the early stages of her disease juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. During the
process, Abbie was [unusually] not able to be active outdoors because of the painful arthritis, so instead she drew pictures. Shortly after
her symptoms started, we rushed her to St Mary's hospital in Rochester, MN. After a two week stay at St Mary's
hospital and much medication, we put the story together and sent it off to be published.
Abbie's JRA was caught early, which in turn, spared her internal organs from damage due to inflammation.
The JRA immobilized her before the aggressive drugs were prescribed to her by Dr. Chacon, in fact, she could not walk AT ALL. She
needed to be carried everywhere and she was crying every day for about two weeks. She now has an Enbrel shot,
(which worked like magic the first time it was administered,)every week to keep her symptoms and disease under control. Dr.
Chacon will slowly decrease her medication while carefully monitoring her blood levels and physical symptoms in hopes
she will outgrow the disease. We are very
happy and thankful that Abbie is doing exceptionally well. She is almost 9 and finished her 3rd
year in ballet and her 2nd year of gymnastics and piano. Abbie has responded incredibly well to her treatments and it
is impossible to tell by looking at her that she has JRA. There are about 300,000 children with some form of arthritis and
only 300 juvenile rheumatoid specialists in the US. We will donate a portion of the sales from the book to
the Arthritis Foundation to help further studies of the disease and it treatments. To
the upper right, the first picture is of Abbie in Colorado, Easter of 2008(on left). She learned to ski down
the green trail during a full day of ski school. The second photo is Abbie (on right,) in Colorado ski school in
Feb, 2009. She did an excellent job skiing once again that year! Also, she took her first horse riding lessons
this past summer 2009. The bottom picture is from our most recent ski trip to Colorado. Abbie did well once again, she
accidently went down a blue circle hill but pizza sliced it down to stay in control and remained to stay on green hills the
remainder of the trip! UPDATE: In August, 2010, Dr. Nickeson announced the fantastic news that Abbie's
arthritis is GONE!!!! We pray it does not return but very hopeful and absolutely thankful with all of our hearts that she
is healthy again.
Read her most recent article ( pdf page 4, )from December 2008
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE, APRIL 2008
TO ORDER CUTE GREETING CARDS CLICK ON THIS LINK
Also, our kind-hearted Mayor of Naples, BILL BARNETT, asked for a signed copy of Abbie's book to put in his office.
Bill Barnett said he is happy to buy a book knowing that part of the proceeds are going toward a good cause, that is, the
Arthritis Foundation. Ernest Hemingway has a grandaughter, Mina, in Naples and she owns a bookstore called
Hemingway Florida Bookstore. Mena invited Abbie to bring some of her books into her store to be sold. Mina has a 10 year old
grandson who recently had a book published! And a special thank you to Dr. Rivas Chacon at the Miami Children's Hospital,
who treated Abbie's JRA for two years and did a wonderful job with his treatments for her. We have recently changed her doctor
to Dr. Nickeson at All Children's Hospital because he is in a more convenient location and we are thrilled to have
him treating Abbie as he is outstanding with his treatments as well as his relations with his patients.
Abbie on left, Colorado ski school Feb, 2008
Abbie on right, Colorado ski school, Feb 2009
Abbie at summer camp 2009
Arapahoe Basin, Colorado Mar, 2010. abbie and molly dodge
Abbie finished a triathlon in June, 2010
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