Origin story of our books
There was a four-year-old girl in a HeadStart program who had a trachea tube in her throat because she was recovering from a car accident where her baby sister was thrown from the car and killed. I witnessed this child’s mother pick her up at the end of the day and put her in the back seat of the car, without a car seat or seatbelt and drive away.
The next morning, I wrote my first children’s book “Riding in Cars”. I wrote an additional 12 books addressing the health and safety challenges faced by children. When we provide children with information and skills they need to be safe and healthy, not only do they adopt those behaviors, but they share what they learned with their families and their peers.
What we do and why we do it
Our books are short, they rhyme and are colorfully illustrated, so not only do children learn information and skills to be safer and healthier, but the books get children excited about being able to read. These books were piloted in first grade classrooms in Sarasota, Florida. Teachers administered a short questionnaire before the books were introduced. The teacher reviewed the books with the children in the classrooms during the week and the students then took a copy of the book home with the assignment to read the book to their family members. Not only did they increase car safety for those students, but there was a measurable, positive impact on their family members, as well. Follow-up questionnaires were administered three weeks later with the following outcomes.
The use of seat belts increased from 70% to 100% among the students and increased from 42% to 70% for the adult and teen drivers in their families.
We worked with members of the Safe Kids Florida Suncoast Coalition to ensure their concerns were met before this printing of the books. Support was provided by Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital.
Getting children excited about becoming better readers is also a critical concern as we see literacy rates in the United States dropping since 2017. Results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress show that reading scores indicate that half of all 4th and 8th grade students fall below proficiency levels. Twenty-one percent of adults in the US are illiterate. Fifty-four percent of adults have a literacy level below 6th-grade. Low levels of literacy cost the US up to $2.2 billion per year.
Results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress show that reading scores continue to decline in Florida schools, as well as several other states. NAEP, or the Nation’s Report Card Assessments, says reading scores have decreased to their lowest levels in two decades, raising concerns for educators and officials about our literacy crisis
Research tells us that literacy is a primary indicator for success in adult life including in education, economics and health outcomes.
