Loretta (Lolo) Smith is an educator, writer, and co-founder of a not-for-profit organization. She has written three other books, "Mr. Jordan Goes To Washington," "Sista CindyEllaMae," and "The Tale of the Gold Medallion." Lolo has developed two unique programs to create a love of books in children (Reading Is Toyrific, in collaboration with Wood-to-Wonderful, and Living Storybook.) She was raised and educated in St. Louis, Missouri but has lived in Washington, D.C. for more than forty years. She has one adult son. Lolo Smith is launching a brand new book, I Know My Community Workers." The book is set to go live March 24, 2016, available at Amazon.com and is expected to become a big hit with fans of the Early Elementary School aged children world.
More information on the book can be found here: http://www.dothewritethingdc.com.
This is the fourth book Smith has authored. The book was written with the aim in mind to introduce young children to various career options (such as doctor, chef, astronaut, train engineer). There's also particular excitement about this launch because images of living children from various ethnic groups are used to portray the characters in the book. This will delight and excite young readers because they will see children just like themselves dressed in the costumes of community workers.
The book sets its main focus on various careers. Readers will likely find a particular interest in the four pages of activity sheets in the back of the book. There are also paper dolls with matching clothing/uniforms for seven of the community workers available for free download at: www.buildabookworkshop.com/files/paperdolls.pdf. The book's cover art was created by Gloria Marconi and the book is being released by Do The Write Thing Foundation of DC.
Loretta Smith has a background in education. This helped shaped the creation of the book by providing 20+ years of experience working with young children of various literacy levels.
When asked about why she wrote the book, Smith said: I wrote the book to address the lack of educational materials that feature children from multi-ethnic backgrounds."
Smith has hopes that the book will encourage children from different ethnic backgrounds to begin thinking about career goals at an early age. This positive outlook from the author is certainly testament to Smith's optimism considering some of the mishaps during its creation. For example, multiple photo sessions had to be scheduled at different locations in order to have multi-ethnic characters and on one occasion the photographer wound up at the wrong site.
In a recent interview, the author made a point of thanking Jarmal Harris, of the Jarmal Harris Project, by saying: I would like to thank Jarmal Harris for styling the children for the photo shoots needed to create this book."
Those interested in learning more about the book can visit here: http://www.dothewritethingdc.com
