St. Louis sisters write books for households, youngsters of shade

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — On the Ritenour School for Early Childhood Education, they all the time find time for story time.

And at present, these younger children are getting a lesson in shallowness.

“I hope that they start to see themselves as worthwhile. That they matter,” stated Aja Owens.

Owens and Adrienne Draper are sisters and the day’s visitor readers. They’re additionally the authors of the books they’re studying.

They grew up in Jennings, and even after they needed to keep put, it was studying and writing that took them locations.

“Truthfully, I began writing on something,” stated Owens with a smile. “I imply, I’d write on a serviette, a receipt, you understand.”

However as they acquired older, they began to consider the kids’s books they used to learn. And even those with illustrations lacked individuals of shade.

“We did not actually see a variety of characters that regarded like us,” Owens stated. “And so it was vital for us that as we’re sharing these narratives and these tales and the illustrations to appear to be the youngsters that we both see or know or ourselves.”

So, Owens and Draper began creating their very own tales. Collectively, they’ve now printed 5 youngsters’s books that mirror households and youngsters of shade.

“It is not simply African American characters,” Draper stated. “It is Hispanic characters, it is Asian characters. We simply need to guarantee that, it is the identical as what you see in your colleges, locally, in life.”

Throughout the pandemic, the sisters donated their books to some colleges and one ended up within the palms of Ritenour Principal Jennifer Singleton.

“And I pull out this ebook and I wasn’t conversant in it,” Singleton recalled. “So I am thumbing by way of it and I am studying it, and the message is rather like, it was so inspirational to me.”

The title of that ebook, “Rock what you Bought.”

“It is beginning that message very early that we’re all distinctive,” Owens defined. “As we develop, we’ll change however as we alter we’re nonetheless worthwhile.”

After they’re not writing, they’re working.

Draper is an educator with the Pattonville Faculty District and Owens is a neighborhood activist who’s working for mayor of Jennings.

However the plan is for extra books with the hope of passing their ardour on to extra children.

“Be taught to like phrases,” Owens stated. “Simply worth who you might be.”

Youngsters’s ebook authors Aja Owens and Adrienne Draper are writing new chapters on the significance of being totally different collectively.

“They’re inspirational,” stated Singleton. “They’re completely inspirational.”

To study extra about Draper and Owens’ books, click here.

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