Dr. Shanessa Fenner
There’s only one Dr. Patrinia Bryant. Embodied with sheer determination and unyielding commitment, the budding talent had a vision from God to write a children’s book. And she did just that. Bronze Magazine recently caught up with the diligent author to discuss her new children’s book, the inspiration behind it and future projects.
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Dr. Patrinia Bryant and I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I am an Assistant Principal at an elementary school. I am married to my husband, Leonard, and we have been married for 30 years. I have three grown children and I am happy to be a part of the education field.
I understand that you have written a children’s book. Tell us about the book.
Yes, I am so excited. This book is called “Ruby and Adora.” It is a bilingual story and activity book about the first day of school. A little girl has moved to a new military duty station with her parents. Like many children, Ruby is excited and also a little nervous about going to a new school. She is concerned if she is going to be able to make any friends at this new school. Not only does Ruby make friends, she also experiences a new language, and that language is Spanish. The book includes activity pages that focus on learning in both English and Spanish as well as enhancing comprehension and writing skills.
Share the inspiration behind your children’s book.
This book has been inspired by God because my desire has always been to be an educational leader for all children. This book is just the first of four books that will support positive relationships between children from different ethnic backgrounds. It is very important that every child feel that they are important and appreciated for just who they are. That is the reason that I wanted pictures to depict the students as close to the race that I was talking about at the time so that when children look at the book they can see themselves.
Tell us about the other three children’s books that are in the works.
We are now in the process of working on the second book which is called “Ruby and Gabriel.” This book focuses on the French language. It involves a little boy named Gabriel and he is coming from Paris, France. He is sharing his life, what he has done and famous places that he has visited in Paris, France. The third book is “Ruby and Huan.” Huan is from China and she speaks Mandarin Chinese. Her focus in the book is on computers and computer science. She is sharing some information about technology in her book. Huan happens to be a child in a wheelchair. My desire is to reach out and touch students with special needs and my desire is for every student to feel that they are important and able to be successful regardless of any limitations that their body may have. The fourth book is “Ruby and Kwame.” Kwame is from Africa and his language is Swahili. We wanted to share his message with the boys and we wanted them to see Kwame’s dreams of being an Olympic participant who is involved in racing. He wants to run in the Olympics and represent his country. We are going to find out a little bit about him and what he does when it comes to running and preparing himself as an athlete.
What is your ultimate goal for your children’s book collection?
My gargantuan goal is for my books to be a part of the military school system as well as book stores around the world. Right now my book is on The Reader House, Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles, iTunes and Google Play. The hope is for Cumberland County Schools, the school system that I work for, to pick the book up and use it as a tool to support EL (English Learner) students and to allow parents who are coming into our country and speak Spanish, the opportunity to learn English in a noninvasive way. This will allow them to spend time with their child in reading a book and working through the activity pages that are in both English and Spanish for our readers.
What kind of advice would you give an individual who has an interest in writing a book?
The advice that I would give them is to understand that it does take time to do a task like this. You have to be all in. You can’t do this part of the way and you want your thought process to be completely thought out. You want your book to flow and have a really good grip on what it is that you are trying to convey. Also, you want to be able to express the main purpose of the book. For me, I believe that children need to be able to market themselves more globally and one of the ways they can do that is to know another language. Whatever your focus is, stick to that focus and carry it all the way through. There is nothing wrong with going to other people who have done what you want to do. Ask them questions and allow yourself to be taught by them so you can miss some of the pitfalls that they had in producing their book. That is really what I have done which is to glean from others. So have a good thought process, follow it through and understand that the process is going to take some time. And last but not least, understand that if you want your book to be marketed well, be willing to put in the finances behind it to get it pushed out into these areas that will give it the best opportunity to grow and for others to take notice of it.
Final thoughts
Please take the opportunity to share this information with other people. The more people that share it, the more opportunities the book will be picked up and children can really enjoy it.
The book, “Ruby and Adora” can be purchased at:
https://www.pagepublishing.com/books/?book=ruby-and-adora
It can also be purchased at The Reader House, Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles, iTunes and Google Play.
