Sherri Graves Smith is an award-winning author of children’s books and a popular, motivational speaker. She currently has three picture book series with more than 50 titles in print: the Lil’ Sherri series, the Game Day Rules series, and a series of counting and alphabet books.

Is My Cup Empty? (Mascot Books, 2014), the first book in the Lil’ Sherri series, is about hope, optimism, and perseverance. Sherri’s inspiration for this series is very personal and best understood in her own words, which also provide some biographical information: “Many lessons instilled during my childhood prepared me for the adversity that I faced as an adult, including books that I read such as Happiness is a Warm Puppy and The Little Engine That Could. The lessons in my book stem from my outlook on life after battling Stage IV cancer for the past eight years. I was only 36 years old when I was diagnosed. I found out that the cancer had metastasized one week after returning from my honeymoon, and I found myself in a position where all of my hopes, dreams, and plans were empty.” [Read more…]