I’ve blogged about my family’s homeschool journey since roughly 2016! My main blog, Able to Teach Homeschool Collective is about my children’s lives as homeschoolers and my life as their mother.

Over here, my hope is to shed light on the process I’ve undergone to become a best-selling children’s author. Recently, I accomplished a personal milestone of forming a small publishing imprint. Stories for Us LLC exists to share stories from the truth of God’s word for the dignity of the people He has created, with the love of Christ. 

Truth:
We will implicitly and explicitly convey truth from the Bible, which is God’s holy and perfect word. The purpose of which will be for practical instruction on how to live in this world.

Dignity:
Our stories will focus on the breadth and beauty of the Black experience. Historically, this has not been the case as a result of the sins of White Supremacy and Systemic Racism in our country and world. To that end, our stories will accurately depict people from the Bible as well as uplift stories about people of color. This will be a counter to the assault on Blackness in our world. Stories for Us aims to shift from the Eurocentric narrative of many stories already available, on to the many diverse peoples in this vast world.

Love:
Our stories will communicate God’s love for humanity. In the Bible, true love, which is God’s love, is not measured by human standards. Love cares for people, protects the vulnerable, and calls to action. All of our stories will be robust with one or more of these elements. 

Stories for Us serves to highlight the beauty of the Black experience with every child and family, no matter their skin color. Data from a 2019 survey conducted by The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), on diverse children’s and young adult books found that the percentage of children’s books by and about BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), only amounted to: 
Black/African: 11.9%
First/Native Nations: 1%
Asian/Asian America: 8.7%
Latino: 5.3%
Pacific Islander: 0.05%

For this reason, Stories for Us will add to the vast body of non-BIPOC children’s literature already available to normalize Blackness. It is vital for a positive portrayal of Black joy to be characteristic to our stories. Books that feature Black and Brown characters are not only for people of color. In actuality, it is important for all children to see heroes they can look to in all shades. Stories for Us will solidify this truth in picture book form!

I hope you’ll join me in the dawning of a new day on this journey.

Blessings,
Courtney