Dublin husband and wife Benji and Jackie Bennett's wildest dreams have been exceeded with their book series Adam's Cloud about to reach one million sales.
The nine-book series has found a celebrity following including stars such as Adam Sandler and Michael Douglas.
The series will feature at the upcoming craft and design fair Gifted in Dublin’s RDS from this Wednesday, December 1.
Following the tragic death of their four-year-old son Adam in 2007, Benji and Jackie Bennett were inspired to write one book aimed at building love and resilience in children, and encourage other parents to spend ten minutes reading to their children at night.
Touching on Adam's story, mum Jackie said: "Adam got sick very suddenly with a brain tumour and was gone within 24 hours.
"We never did this for anything other than thinking that some friends might buy a few copies and the idea was to remind parents to read their kids a story before they go to sleep, but it took off from there.
"We’re very lucky, through the books we are able to inspire happiness and love for young families who read them. People who start to write books rarely do so for money, now it’s our full time business."
The couple, who have three other children, saw their first book Before You Sleep win Children’s Book of the Year on their son's anniversary in 2009, outselling popular titles like Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo.
Benji, from Stillorgan, explained: "The idea of the book came along and we just did it without any thought whatsoever."
Part of the proceeds from each book go to charities such as Make a Wish, Barretstown, Barnardos, LauraLynn and Anam Cara.
Contemporary craft and design fair Gifted returns to the RDS this Wednesday, December 1 and runs until Sunday evening. Benji and Jackie will be among the 500 designers, makers and artisan food producers at the fair.
The event is expected to attract 35,000 people and generate €5 million in sales.
The fair is Ireland’s largest collection of sustainable Christmas gifts. Vendors at this year's edition include award-winning Dublin jeweller Mark Newman and saddler Lucy Cushley, who recently worked on the set of The Last Duel starring Matt Damon.
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