As a teacher, I adopted the mantra “I am the creator of fun. I control how the day will go”. Half of that was a plea made to the behavior gods, the other half was my motivation for creating every lesson plan. I didn’t want to be stuck in that classroom all day, any more than those 1st graders did. Spend guided reading outside in the grass on a beautiful 75° day? Why not! Learn how to use a ruler by measuring fruits and vegetables, then have a taste test to talk about describing words, while also going over the life cycle of a plant? Sign me up! We’re reading a book about prickly pear cactuses and no one has ever tried one? Of course, I’m running to the grocery store over lunch to buy prickly pears just so we can find out they taste like watered-down watermelon! This mantra is what inspired me write children’s books. I want to create new spaces for kids to learn and get that head-to-toe cozy curious feeling I’ve been chasing since the 90s.

After 5 years in the classroom, I made the transition into to real estate. To offset this soul-sucking career, I joined our office’s Social Equity Taskforce. We hosted events and brought in speakers to inform other agents of the wrongdoings of our agent ancestors (Redlining in Kansas City still affects communities today, only look it up if you want to be mad). I was fortunate to be raised by a devout social studies teacher who emphasized the importance of celebrating other cultures and being a lifelong learner. Being on the taskforce, I quickly realized that most people only know the history they were taught decades ago in high school and that their cultural biases are based off of what they heard on a 2 minute new segment or a quick social media read. The strangest thing happened, the more informed these adults became, the more understanding and compassionate they became….. Now, what if we could get other cultures and backgrounds into the hands of young readers?