APOLLO BEACH, Fla. — There’s a five-year-old in Apollo Beach who isn’t just learning how to read books. She’s writing her own, with a little bit of help from her mom.
The name of the book is “I’m Just Right,” starring River Demps, who is inspiring her entire kindergarten class at York Innovation Academy.
Ms. Quinn’s class loves story time, but this is a special treat because the pages of the book feature one of their own.
“It was actually hard to read the book the first time because every time I turned the page, they were saying, ‘there’s River, that’s River,’ so they were very excited,” said Amy Quinn.
“They said they love it. They said they love it,” said River.
The book features real scenarios from River’s life, captured by her mom and co-author Shaneka Demps.
“This book was born out of River just trying to go around our house, being helpful to our family,” said Shaneka. “So River will tell me her words. Basically, I’ll make sure that we capture those and write them down. We’ll get some illustrations in front of her. She’ll say, ‘No, that does not look like me,’ or ‘Yes, it does,’ so she’ll have the final approval.”
“My mom is the helper,” said River.
From making dinner to playing basketball, the story starts with things River can’t do and ends with what she can do, thus the name “I’m Just Right.”
“I feel like every child has these thoughts or feeling of when they are not right, not a good fit, feel different,” said Shaneka. “So this book is special for every child because everyone has something that is special about them, and I just want to pull that out of them, let them know whatever you have to offer, whatever is different about you, it’s perfect, it's just right.”
The book’s message has become a regular part of the kindergarten curriculum.
“We talk about things you might not be able to do yet, but you’ll be able to do soon, so we have some who might want to learn how to do cartwheels and write with their left hand,” said Quinn.
River’s favorite part was helping her mom pass out medallions to her classmates after reading the book. It was now their turn to share something that makes them special.
“I think it’s very good and very cool,” said River.
“We should know that we’re fine just the way we are. We don’t have to wish that we were anyone else, anything else, we have everything that we need, we’re perfect,” said Shaneka.
For more information on the book and where to purchase it, go here.
