There are stories that are hard to tell plainly. Stories about loss. Stories about memory. Stories about history, family, grief, and finding a way forward.
In Episode 87 of Inside the Frame Podcast, Amanda Davis joins Frame Center for a conversation about those kinds of stories, and why picture books can be such a powerful way to tell them.
Amanda is an artist, writer, and educator whose work brings together language, image, teaching, and emotional honesty. Her books may live on children’s shelves, but the themes she explores are not small. They are the kinds of topics adults sometimes struggle to explain and children often need help understanding.
That is where her work becomes especially meaningful. She does not write down to readers. She creates an entry point.
From the Classroom to the Page
Before becoming a published author, Amanda spent years teaching art. That classroom experience still shapes the way she thinks about storytelling.
Teaching gave her a way to combine the things she loved: art, writing, conversation, and relationship-building. It also helped her understand how young people process the world around them. A lesson becomes more powerful when students can connect it to something real. A story becomes more memorable when it gives them something to see, feel, and discuss.
That connection between education and creativity runs through Amanda’s work. Even outside the classroom, she still considers herself an educator. Whether she is visiting schools, leading workshops, doing readings, or speaking with families, the goal is not only to share a book. It is to open a conversation.
The Flag That Became a Story
Amanda’s first published book, 30,000 Stitches, tells the story of the National 9/11 Flag. After the flag was damaged at Ground Zero, it traveled across all 50 states as people helped repair it using pieces from retired American flags.
Amanda first learned about the story while teaching and saw how powerful it could be for students. It offered a way to talk about September 11th through a lens of hope, healing, and community.
What makes the story so moving is not only the flag itself, but the hands that helped restore it. Each stitch becomes a small act of remembrance. Each patch becomes part of a larger national story.
Amanda approached the project with care, interviewing people involved so the book could be accurate, respectful, and grounded in real experience. That responsibility matters deeply to her. Before telling a nonfiction story, she asks herself whether she is the right person to tell it. In this case, the people connected to the flag encouraged her to continue, knowing the story could live on for new generations.
Picture Books Are Not Just for Children
One of the strongest ideas from the episode is Amanda’s belief that picture books are for all ages.
A picture book is not a simplified version of a story. It is a concentrated one. The words have to do important work, and so do the images. Together, they create a visual and emotional language that readers of any age can access.
Amanda talks about visual literacy, asking what we see, what we wonder, and what the pictures are telling us beyond the text. That matters especially when the subject is difficult. For topics like grief, tragedy, or substance use disorder, images can help soften the doorway into a conversation without making the subject less important.
A child may not have all the words yet. An adult may not know how to begin. A picture book can help both.
Writing the Books She Needed
Amanda’s work also comes from personal experience.
Moonlight Memories was inspired by the death of her father when she was young. Sometimes Stormy explores what it can feel like for a child when someone they love drinks too much. In the episode, Amanda speaks openly about how confusing and lonely those experiences can be for children, especially when no one talks about them.
That honesty gives her work a sense of purpose. She is not writing about difficult topics to make them heavier. She is writing to create recognition, comfort, and safety.
For a child to see their own experience reflected in a book can be powerful. It can remind them they are not alone. It can help them understand that what happened is not their fault. It can give families, teachers, and caregivers a way to start conversations that might otherwise feel impossible.
Chasing the Light
Amanda’s upcoming book, Chasing the Light, brings a slightly different energy. Inspired by a trip to Iceland and the disappointment of not seeing the northern lights, the story follows a mother and daughter as they search for beauty.
At first, they are chasing something specific. But as the journey slows down, they begin noticing what is already around them: animals, sounds, nature, and the love right in front of them.
It is a gentle reminder that sometimes the thing we miss leads us to something else. Sometimes the light is not where we expected it to be.
Everyone Has a Story Worth Telling
When Amanda visits schools, one message rises to the surface: everyone has a story worthy of telling.
That idea is simple, but it carries weight. Stories help us connect to one another. They help us make meaning from the things we have lived through. They help others feel seen.
This is true whether the story becomes a book, a painting, a photograph, a journal entry, a classroom project, or a piece of art hanging at home. Creative work gives memory a form.
The Art We Keep Around Us
Later in the episode, Amanda talks about the art, quotes, postcards, poems, and local pieces that fill her creative space. These objects are more than decoration. They are reminders, inspiration, and evidence of connection.
That is something Frame Center understands well. The pieces people choose to frame are often tied to a moment, a person, a milestone, or a feeling they want to preserve.
Whether it is artwork from a book, a meaningful photograph, a handwritten letter, a child’s creation, or a local artist’s print, custom framing can help protect the story behind the piece. Frame Center also supports creative projects through printing services, art digitizing, delivery, professional installation, and consulting for homes, offices, and gallery spaces.
The right presentation does not overpower the story. It honors it.
