There are moments from childhood that stay with you long before you understand why they mattered.
For me, one of those moments happened in kindergarten at Crossroads Preparatory Academy.
I became the reading book champion.
At the time, I was simply a little girl who loved books. I loved reading, learning new words, discovering new things, and realizing that every page could take me somewhere I had never been before. I didn't have language for what reading was developing inside of me. I just knew I was good at it—and I was proud of that.
Now, all these years later, I understand that little accomplishment differently.
Reading was building me.
It was developing my curiosity. It was teaching me how to communicate. It was expanding my vocabulary and showing me that there was always something else to learn. Most importantly, books were quietly teaching me that my mind could take me places my circumstances hadn't introduced me to yet.
And somehow, life has brought me right back to books.
Sometimes You Have to Return to What Made You, You
As adults, we can become so consumed with careers, responsibilities, technology, deadlines, family, goals, and simply trying to keep life moving that we lose touch with some of the things that once came naturally to us.
I've realized that I want to tap back into reading not simply because reading is "good for you," but because I remember what it did for me.
Reading slows me down enough to think.
It challenges me to learn.
It strengthens how I communicate.
It introduces me to ideas I might never encounter otherwise.
And in a world where we can consume information in seconds, I think there's still something incredibly powerful about sitting with words long enough to understand them.
That realization also made me think about our children.
Children's Books Are Bigger Than the Story
When a child opens a book, we aren't simply teaching them how to recognize words on a page.
We're helping them develop language, imagination, comprehension, confidence, curiosity, and the ability to think beyond what they already know.
That's one reason I believe we shouldn't be afraid to introduce young readers to meaningful vocabulary and bigger concepts. Children are capable of so much more than we sometimes give them credit for.
Give them the word.
Explain what it means.
Put it into a story they can understand.
Let them ask questions.
Let them be curious.
That's learning.
And learning doesn't only happen sitting behind a desk.
It happens while reading with Grandma.
It happens while listening to stories from Grandpa.
It happens while helping Mom in the kitchen.
It happens while reading a recipe, measuring ingredients, discovering a new vegetable, setting the table, or listening to the grown-ups talk while dinner is being prepared.
Those ordinary moments can become extraordinary building blocks.
That thinking became part of the heart behind my first children's book, A to Z Soul Food for Curious Children.
The Table Was Teaching Us, Too
When I think about food, I think about so much more than what was on the plate.
I think about my grandparents.
I think about my mother.
I think about conversations in the kitchen and around the table.
There was wisdom there.
There were stories there.
There were instructions, traditions, laughter, corrections, questions, recipes, and lessons that you didn't realize were lessons until you got older.
Cooking required reading. Recipes required following directions. Preparing a meal required patience. Sharing food taught community. Sitting together created conversation.
The food fed us, but those experiences were feeding our minds too.
That's what I wanted to capture for children.
A to Z Soul Food for Curious Children celebrates food, but the message reaches beyond food. It's about curiosity. Vocabulary. Reading. Healthy choices. Quality time. Family. Gratitude. Tradition. And giving children opportunities to learn through experiences that already exist around them.
And Then There Are the Obstacles
I also want this journey to represent something for the adults reading this.
Life doesn't always move according to the beautiful timeline we imagined for ourselves.
You can be talented and still encounter obstacles.
You can be educated and still have seasons where you question yourself.
You can have an idea that sits untouched because life demands your attention somewhere else.
You can experience disappointment, delays, changes, and moments that make you wonder whether you should keep going.
Keep going.
Sometimes an obstacle isn't the end of your story. Sometimes it forces you to rediscover a part of yourself that you forgot was there.
For me, creating this book brought me back to that little kindergarten girl at Crossroads Preparatory Academy—the one who loved books enough to become the reading champion.
She couldn't have known what her life would look like.
She certainly couldn't have known that one day she'd be creating a book for another little child to hold.
But she was building something.
Page by page.
Word by word.
Book by book.
And maybe that's the lesson I'm carrying with me now:
The things planted in us as children can become the very things we use to pour into the next generation.
So I'm reading again.
I'm writing.
I'm creating.
I'm learning.
And now, I'm an author.
My hope is that somewhere, a curious little reader opens A to Z Soul Food for Curious Children, learns a word they didn't know yesterday, asks a question they hadn't thought to ask before, and begins discovering just how capable they really are.
Because I was once that little reader.
And look what a book can become.
— Ashley Deneen
Author of A to Z Soul Food for Curious Children
Stories by Harmony