FERGUS – Kasandra Coleman writes colourful picture books with bright messages: lessons of inclusion, friendship and celebrating people’s differences.
The Fergus author brings her books to local elementary schools, including Elora, Salem and J.D. Hogarth public schools, to teach children about “the special message” each book carries.
Elora Public School principal Natasha Skerritt said Coleman creates “an environment that [is] welcoming and accepting of all our students.”
Coleman has published three rhyming picture books so far, each illustrated by Kristyn Watterworth.
The books encourage children to accept and love themselves, and those around them, for all their unique characteristics.
The You You are is Perfect
The title of Coleman’s most recent book is something she often reminds the children in her life, especially when they compare themselves and their abilities to those around them.
Coleman used to run a home childcare program, and when the kids fretted about not being as fast as other children, Coleman said she told them “you are just as fast as you are supposed to be.
“The you you are is perfect” is a lesson Coleman admits needing to remember herself, and something her friends bounce back at her at times when she expresses her own self-doubt.
Coleman has the words tattooed along her arm as a permanent reminder to herself.
Art Brings Friends Together and The Pieces of Lola’s Heart
Coleman’s first and second books both depict a main character’s wide variety of friends, and the impacts the different friendships make.
It includes characters with a range of genders, shapes, sizes, colours and disabilities, including an amputee, nonbinary characters and a family with two dads.
The Pieces of Lola’s Heart is inspired by Coleman’s mom, who died in 2021.
It’s about how relationships “become a part of us and stay with us,” each connection helping to mould who someone grows up to become.
Future stories
Coleman has two more books on the way, and a seed of an idea for another.
One is aimed at children in shelters and foster care, to help them feel safe and secure during big life transitions.
Coleman worked with a counsellor at a women’s shelter about what messages the kids need.
Coleman is seeking an illustrator for this book – anyone interested can email kasandra.coleman@rlb.ca.
I’m Still Learning
Coleman has written a book inspired by something her son, Dakota, said to her after she had a rough day. Coleman said she apologized for yelling at her children and her son said, “It’s okay mom, you’re still learning.”
In the story, this message is passed from one character to the next, as a reminder that “no matter how old we get, we’re always still learning, [and] the messages we teach our children go out into the world,” Coleman said.
‘All the ways we say I love you’
For her sixth book, Coleman is considering writing about all the different things parents say that really mean “I love you.”
When parents tell kids to put their coats on, what they really mean is “I love you, I don’t want you to be cold,” and when they tell them to eat their vegetables, they mean “I love you, I want you to be healthy,” Coleman said.
School visits
Coleman decided to start presenting her books at schools because she realized the kids who most needed to hear the messages within them were not hearing them at home.
She said at Elora Public School, after discussing the disabilities represented in her books, a couple kids told the group about their own disabilities.
“It felt like they were proud to say, ‘yeah, we’re different too,’” Coleman said.
That was an amazing moment for Coleman, which made her feel like she was “doing something right.”
At the Eden Mills Writers Festival, Coleman said someone told her their son “ranted and raved” about how great Coleman’s presentation at his school was.
The student was so inspired that he got a notebook and started writing his own stories, Coleman said.
She said another student said she wanted to grow up to be “an author and a mom like Kasandra.”
Coleman describes herself as an “accountant by day, writer by night,” and notes the flexibility of her employers at RLB LLP is a big part of what enables her to fulfil her passion for writing.
Her books are available at Magic Pebble Books, Brighten Up toy store, and online.
Coleman will be at Indigo in Guelph on Oct. 19 from 11am to 4pm and at Book Bash at the Guelph Farmers Market on Nov. 3 from 1 to 4pm.
