Balling Onward: Athlete To Successful Business Person

If you follow my social media accounts and/or are a friends or family of mine, you may have seen that I just recently wrote my first children’s book. The book is titled, “The Playground Queen” and was written to teach our youth how to deal with rejection, how to uplift our community, and how to forgive. As you may know, I am a busy mommy, a busy technology consultant and a busy person in general (lol), so you may be curious to know why I decided to write my first children’s book.  So, here it is…

I have always wanted to write children’s literature and just needed to set aside some time to put my creative ideas onto paper and inquire the right person to bring my ideas to life through beautiful illustrations. Luckily, after researching what it would take to write and self-publish a children’s book, I just got more excited and motivated to make it happen.  I guess the next question may be, so why now?  So, here it is…

The year of 2020, and now 2021, presented many unprecedented times, causing all of us to live in ways we had not prior to COVID-19.  We are watching the television more than we ever have before.  To ensure we are keeping our families safe and informed, many people have relied on the news, which has been extremely divisive.  Our kids, particularly youngers ones, whom although may not listen to the news, hear the conversations and opinions that their parents have more now than ever before.  Some conversations that younger kids may not have had in the past at such a young age within their group of peers will happen when our kids return to face-to-face learning in school and even when meeting someone new at the park down the street. For example, Kylah, my 5-year-old, who was 4 at the time (when playing on her iPad, but obviously selectively listening to the news I had on) asked me “Why do police keep hurting Black people, Mommy? Are they bad people?” As a Black mother, I was prepared to have conversations around the topic when she was old enough but did not expect to expand on the topic with her at 5-years-old.

Although these unprecedented times are what prompted me to act on writing my first children’s books, the message in the story and its relevance to EVERY child of any race, background, ethnicity, gender etc. has an everlasting importance.

What’s It About?

The book is about a young first grader’s first day as a first grader.  The main character in the book’s name is Kya.  She was in Kindergarten the year before, where she became best friends with a young boy in her online Kindergarten class named Neo.  She and her friend Neo would stay on their video class online call after class just to talk about how excited they were to play with one another in the first grade, at recess. However, when they saw each other in the first grade for the first time, Neo didn’t acknowledge Kya at all and didn’t even play with her initially.  Luckily, Kya met a new friend in the first grade whose name was Malik.  Malik had a large group of friends who lifted Kya’s spirits and gave her the strength to overcome her nervousness.  Malik and her new big group of friends gave Kya the courage to forgive Neo, who ignoring her, and accept him back as a friend.

The Characters & The Message

Kya is a young Black girl. She finds a close friend in Neo while they were in online classes together.  Neo is a young White boy.  In his new First grade class, he finds a friend that looks more like him.  Neo’s new friend is also White and his is also a boy.  When Kya enters the classroom, she is ignored by Neo.  Already a super shy and nervous individual, Kya distances herself from the other kids in her class until she hears the voice of a young boy, Malik.  Malik is a young Black boy who welcomes Kya to play with he and all his friends at recess.  Malik and friend’s kindness gave Kya the strength to feel she was the Queen of the Playground.  Now feeling a sense of power over her emotions, Kya forgave Neo, and they became friends again.

Unfortunately, the reality is that we have so much longer to go before we ALL feel a since of equality, equity, inclusion and belonging.  Although it is not blatantly stated in the words within the book itself, this book is teaching our kids that they may feel some form or rejection in their peer groups.  This rejection may be projected onto our young kids due to the color of their skin.  What we do know, however, is that if our young kids are misled to believe that it is okay to treat someone different because of the color of their skin, it is a reflection of what their parents have said or believe and what they heard, and not their own beliefs. Because we know that these instances will most likely occur, how do we teach our kids through books created for younger audiences how to deal with these situations?  Well, here is what “The Playground Queen” demonstrates:

1. The importance of speaking strength into our kids as parents
   1. In the book, Kya’s Mom called Kya a young queen and told her to wear her lucky hat like the crown it is.
2. The importance of uplifting your community
   1. In the book, Kya is uplifted by Malik and friends. Without community, this one instance of rejection could have caused Kya to feel very alone in her new first grade environment.
3. The importance of forgiveness
   1. In the book, once Kya felt a since of belonging, she found strength to forgive Neo.
4. The importance of togetherness
   1. At the end of the book, ALL the kids created a pyramid together.

HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY! Purchase here:

https://linktr.ee/Caseynmorris