Sjoblom-Bay was moved when she first heard that Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan by Islamic militants in 2002. A year later, she wrote and created a limited hand-bound edition of the fable, The Boy and the Pearl, as a tribute to Pearl's family.

The book artist, who individually assembles and binds each book, convinced good friend and book illustrator Diane Salter to create pictures for the fable. Each book has handpainted covers and is painstakingly hand-bound with an ancient Ethiopian Coptic stitch. Sjoblom-Bay spends about three to four hours putting together each copy. The stitching alone, which runs down the spine of the book and resembles braids, takes an hour. The handbound edition is limited to 40 copies.

Sjoblom says she was inspired to create such an elaborate book after learning about the strength Pearl's family showed in the face of adversity.

"Rather than using his death to fuel hatred and divisiveness, the reaction of his family and friends was to celebrate his life and promote the values that were important to him, which was a cross-cultural understanding through music and communication," Sjoblom says. "The Boy and the Pearl is a reminder that even in the worst of circumstances, we can find hope."

This fall, Sjoblom-Bay, a faculty affairs administrator at the department of orthopedic surgery at Stanford University, will spread the book's message to a wider audience.

She is in talks with a book publisher that has expressed interest in printing the story. The tale is about a boy who wants to share the beauty of a pearl he finds, but the gem is ultimately smashed.

"The fact that the beautiful pearl in the story is destroyed doesn't mean that it ceases to bring happiness to people," she says. "It simply sends its message in a new and unexpected way. Similarly Daniel Pearl's message has found new conduits."

To bring her message to a wider audience she will read the book on a dedicated Internet radio station as part of Daniel Pearl Music Days in October, an annual event honoring Pearl's love for music.

Sjoblom-Bay says if she is able to seal a deal with the book publisher, she plans to donate a portion of her royalties to the Daniel Pearl Foundation, a nonprofit organization set up by his family to promote cross-cultural understanding, combat geographical and religious hatred, encourage responsible and creative journalism and unite people through the universal language of music.

In the past two years, Sjoblom-Bay has sold 20 of her hand-bound copies, at prices ranging from $50 to $90. She has donated $10 from each sale to the foundation.

Sjoblom-Bay says this is her most ambitious project by far, as well as her first attempt at writing a book.

"The first thing I did was just think about the story for a year. I wanted to do it right and I wanted to be respectful to the Pearl family," she says. "When I was finally ready to write it, it was essentially unchanged from when it first came to me."

It was by chance that Sjoblom-Bay stumbled into the world of book art five years ago. At the time she was dating her now-husband, Stephen Bay, and wanted to find a unique gift for him. "I was browsing in a bookstore and found a book about book-binding," she says. "I made him one book and then another. I realized he probably didn't need as many books as I wanted to make."

Sjoblom-Bay, who is also a member of Bay Area Book Artists, a volunteer group that promotes book arts in the region, started experimenting with different book-binding techniques, creating works of art for herself and the public.

Book arts gradually became a part of her life. Sjoblom-Bay even incorporated book art into her 2003 wedding, by creating little invitation booklets and having a wedding "book-quet" made from different flower books handmade by her friends in Bay Area Book Artists.

Sjoblom-Bay, however, isn't the only one with artistic flair in the family. Her husband recently secured a deal to publish a book of photographs of Los Angeles. Bay, a computer scientist by day, started dabbling in photography in his final year of graduate school at UC-Irvine in 2001. A month ago, a publishing company stumbled upon his website and approached him with a publishing offer.

"I probably wanted to escape from working on my dissertation," says Bay, who exhibited six of his photographs at Foothill Park in Palo Alto last week.

The couple, who met through an internet website, Match.com, in 1998, feed off each other's artistic energy.

"When we first met, he wasn't into photography and I wasn't really into book arts," Sjoblom says. "It's just great that we both found creative hobbies that are turning into something bigger."

The couple gets inspiration from "just about everything," Sjoblom-Bay says. In their free time, the couple hike, travel and spend time with their dog and five pet rats.

Inspired by their rats, Sjoblom-Bay just began work on a chick-lit novel, The Holy Ratrimony, a story about a woman who lets her pet rat rule her dating decisions. She also plans on writing two more children's stories. For now, though, Sjoblom-Bay is just excited about spreading a positive message through her fable.

"Horrible, tragic things happen far too often, but we should never lose hope," she says. "Every bit of pain is an opportunity for us to learn and grow and hopefully be inspired to make the world a better place."

For more information about the Daniel Pearl Foundation, visit www.daniel pearl.org