New York Consul Hosts Children’s Book Authors
4 August 2022
Today, Saint Lucian children’s authors Kashama Leo-Henry and Abigail Edmunds will celebrate the publication of their books You Have A Friend In Me and I Can! Just Not Like You! respectively.
This event, hosted by the Consulate General of Saint Lucia in New York, will be held at the Saint Lucia House, 438 E 49th Street (between Church and Snyder Avenues) in Brooklyn. Both authors will read from their new release.
Kashama Leo-Henry is the founder of Sand Castle, established in March 2021 with the mission of promoting books that represent children of colour, thereby lessening the disparity in their representation.
Leo-Henry is a mother, early childhood educator, and advocate, with over twenty-one years’ experience working with children and families. She has worked as a preschool instructor, resource teacher, infant and toddler specialist, site director, and quality enhancement specialist. She additionally provides consultation, support, technical assistance, coaching, mentoring, and staff training geared toward developing equitable learning opportunities for all children.
Leo-Henry is also an instructor at North Carolina Community College, teaching early childhood courses at two campuses.
You Have a Friend In Me is about diversity, focusing on empathy and consideration for others. The book discusses what it means to matter and be accepted as you are. It encourages children to concentrate on similarities rather than differences, thereby emphasizing the need to treat others as you wish to be treated.
Abigail Edmunds’ passion is working with exceptional learners. An avid reader who loves learning new words and their meanings, she completed two bachelor’s degrees from Brooklyn College, one in Early Childhood Special Education and the other in Children and Youth Studies. She went on to obtain her master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Relay School of Education.
Edmunds has served as an elementary school teacher and a special education instructor, and taught English as a Second Language at a charter school.
She now works as a Special Education Teacher Support Service (SETSS) provider, where she works one-on-one with learning-disabled children, providing remedial and supplemental support, along with research-based interventions to help lessen academic gaps.
Edmunds said her new children’s book I Can! Just Not Like You! highlights inclusiveness, equity, and tolerance, and shows how friends navigate through life in their own special way. It emphasizes that what may seem like an unconventional approach to a problem or a task to some can still get the job done.
Copies of the two publications will be available at today’s event, and are available as well online at www.sandcastlebook.com.
The Consulate General invites all Saint Lucians and their friends to attend, and support the exceptional work being created by the Saint Lucian literary community.