The incredible author event from the St. Louis County Library Black History Month program went very well. It was good to see some familiar faces and some unfamiliar faces in the audience. My presentation (after a brief introduction and some background information about my novel My Invisible Father) started with explaining the importance for parents to read to their children when the kids are young (before they are school age). I presented information about how children whose parents don’t read to them early in their lives and who don’t begin to read themselves are subject to lacking the necessary skills to be proficient readers in school, thus derailing their chances to succeed in various areas of academia. A continual snowball effect of this can lead to ills such as illiteracy, poverty, and crime.
I then transitioned into how essential it is for young children to hear others read to them and how hearing language develops their learning. This segued into the importance and effectiveness of music in our lives and how music develops specific modes of our brains and plays a significant part in our learning. It’s why kindergarten and early elementary school teachers sing songs about numbers, the alphabet, and other things to students. It helps them remember and understand concepts better.
From this, I introduced why I chose to use music with my book so readers who struggle can use the music and music videos to “see” and “hear” the story in hopes of better comprehending the plot and understanding the plight of the characters. And for those readers who don’t struggle with reading, the music provides context to the novel’s culture.
While I played three music videos, I gave insight into the story’s three main characters, and listeners got a good glimpse of what the book is mainly about.
I wanted my author talks to be like a mini concert while describing my books, and this one was exactly what I envisioned.
Check out the pics from the event.