Turning Inspiration into a Children’s Book
By guest blogger Chinyere Nwaoha
Me reading the book.
Chinyere discusses the process of writing her first picture book, Race to a New Start, why representation matters in children’s books, and how reading made her the author she is today.
I never thought I would become a children's book author, but the pandemic had a way of changing things for me. During this time, I found myself with more free time than ever before. I wasn't sure what to do with all this extra time until one day, inspiration struck. I had been thinking a lot about health and the importance of taking care of our bodies during the pandemic. Having worked in healthcare for a significant amount of time and obtaining a master's degree in public health, I knew firsthand the importance of maintaining good health. As the virus swept across the world, it became clear that our health was more important than ever. I wanted to create a story that would help children understand the importance of health and inspire them to take care of their bodies.
I sat down at my computer and started writing. The words flowed out of me like a river, and before I knew it, I had a complete story. It was a tale about two young boys named Martin and Malcolm, who love to run and share the importance of healthy habits to help them run faster. The story was filled with fun, diverse, and engaging characters, all of whom were dedicated to learning about taking care of their bodies and minds.
My book came to life thanks to three very important individuals in my life: my mom, my cousin, and my best friend. My mom has been speaking to us about being healthy for as long as I can remember so her influence was pretty strong. My cousin and I are in business together, and using some of the inspiration from his business with my mom’s healthy influence, the idea for my book came into existence. My best friend is an author herself and seeing her success helped me and motivated me to write a book of my own.
Front cover of Race to a New Start.
Because the inspiration for my book came from such strong influences in my life, my book was written in a couple of hours. Of course in the following weeks, time was put into editing and proofreading, but I wrote this wonderful book pretty quickly. I knew exactly what message I wanted to share and so, the ideas just flowed.
For some, writing can happen at an accelerated rate and for some, it can take a bit longer. For example, I am currently working on another book and I have been working on it for months now. I don’t believe that the amount of time spent is as important. What matters is believing in your story and having the confidence and determination to see it through. Our minds are full of wonderful ideas and sometimes we just have to get them out there.
If you are looking to write a book, I would start with figuring out what message you want to share. From there, you can develop the storyline and characters around that message. Never lose sight of your message and you’ll be surprised how far you will go.
The impact that representation in children’s books has on our children is profound and many do not understand its effects. Representation in children’s books matters because books influence how children see themselves and the world around them. If children are not seeing themselves represented in the materials that they use, it begins to alter their understanding of knowing themselves and loving the skin that they are in. They begin to want to look and feel different just to fit in with what they see around them. Understanding the major role that self-worth plays in the development of a child’s life and future should drive us to want to make sure our children are represented well everywhere.
One of the reasons I loved working with my publisher is because this is a mission of hers. When I first began working with her, she shared with me the statistics of lack of representation we were experiencing and how it was her mission and goal to change that narrative. She summarized the problem as she sees it: “With 58 percent of parents confessing that it’s difficult to find books that represent their young children and more than a third of children not feeling represented in the books they read due to gender or ethnicity.” We have a huge problem on our hands.
The first step in this process is acknowledging that there is a problem. We can only take active steps towards fixing the problem if we know what it is and decide what needs to be done to change it. We can write more diverse children’s books, speak out about representation more, show up in our neighborhoods to show them the importance of reading and why representation matters, and be the change that we want to see in our communities!
I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember and I believe that I can only attribute that to the reading habits that I developed as a child. Wherever there was something to read, I was reading it. But how did I develop such a love for reading that has led to becoming an author? I think one, having access to cost-friendly books and two, seeing my family and community around me make reading a point of emphasis really shaped my outlook and relationship with books and reading. In BBB’s mission, they emphasize that households with 100+ books had increased life outcomes for children and adolescents. Let’s make this a reality for as many children as we can. Their future and the rest of our lives depends on the effort we make to help them.
BBB publishes select guest blogs from community members whose work aligns with our mission to increase the number of 100+ book homes in NYC for ages 0-18. If you would like to submit a blog post for consideration, please contact us via our volunteer page in the category labeled “author/illustrator/creator.” Thank you!