Why I Wrote ‘It’s Only a Flower’

As a mother of an African American son I wanted to instill self-pride in him at a young age. One of the ways to do that was to read books to him where he saw other African Americans as the main characters. This was a problem for me though, as I read to my son every night and we would read several books a night. It was hard to find many picture books that had African Americans as the main character, let alone African American boys as the main character. I did read him books with other races as the main character and one of his favorite books was No David by David Shannon. I felt it important for him to see his likeness reflected in what I read to him. Due to the lack of books that I sought, I resorted to choosing books with animals a lot of the times. So, I decided that my first book should have an African American boy as the main character. At first glance my book is about plants and flowers, but the subliminal message in my book is the over use of technology, especially video games. This book also educates children about the life cycle and purposes of plants.