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“How Righteous Ray-Ray Was Born”
As a young child, my favorite character in books was Curious George. I enjoyed reading about all of the adventures he would get into. When I walked to the store, I would pretend to be Curious George and do something silly to make an adventure out of the two-block walk. I would read anything I could get my hands on. However, as I got older, I began to notice that there were not many books that had characters or situations that I could relate to. While in college...
Straight from the Author!
Here you will find exclusive insights from the author of Righteous Ray-Ray, Raymond Smith!
“Why Righteous Ray-Ray”
As I went through my teacher training in college, and with my service at Bethel-Imani CDF Freedom School, I began to notice how disconnected young children were from reading. I began to think about how different my life would be if I had not developed a love for reading at an early age. I don’t remember exactly when I learned how to read, but I do remember that I was reading before I went to kindergarten. Reading made me want to understand, it gave me a thirst for life...
“Finding Righteous Ray-Ray's Illustrator”
I love writing, but art and drawing are not a particular skill of mine. With that being said, as a Children’s Book writer, I had to find an artist to make my words come to life through images.
Just because someone can draw, that does not mean that they would be good Children’s Book Illustrators. I had to learn that the hard way. As teacher, I encounter many students that are talented artists. My first encounter came the summer after my first teaching job at DuSable Leadership Academy. I wanted to be a mentor to this talented, but troubled young man who was a student in my classes there. I left the school after the first year...