A DIVERSE CAREER

FSU Higher Education Alumnus Becomes Published Children’s Book Author

By Josh Duke

Like many of us, Dorsey Spencer, Jr. found himself with a little bit more free time this past year because of the pandemic. Nightly events were cancelled, social hours postponed and travel for events came to a halt. As most of us discovered, we needed a pandemic project, but while some of us were busy perfecting sourdough starters and reorganizing our closets, Spencer decided to accomplish something he had wanted to do for a while: write a children’s book. It just so happened to be his new year’s resolution that year, and with so much extra time on his hands, he realized it was the perfect time to accomplish his goal.

Spencer has spent much of his professional career working with students. While earning his doctoral degree in higher education from the FSU College of Education, he served in a number of roles at FSU, including as the director of administration for the Division of Student Affairs, before becoming the dean of students at Colgate University last summer. While he has worked with college-aged students for most of his career, he recognizes the importance of supporting young children. But he wanted to go beyond just encouraging literacy and provide young readers something he missed growing up: representation.

“I wanted to write a book with a Black boy as the main character,” Spencer says. “Growing up, I don’t remember reading many children’s books with protagonists of color.” His research interests inform his understanding of representation and the power of positive role models, and he focuses much of his work on issues of student success, leadership learning and Black men in higher education.

As a Black man, he wanted to be sure that young children could find someone who looked more like them in their earliest books. “I believe it is important for children to see themselves reflected in the books they read,” he says. “It is equally important for all children to see main characters from diverse backgrounds.” Finally, he wanted to be sure that the book included a “positive relationship between a father and son, like I have with my own son.” In this way, the book draws on his own experiences and insight as a parent.

GONE FISHING

With all this in mind, his book started to take shape, and “Worms Are A Yummy Snack” solidified. The book tells the story of a father and son who go fishing for the first time. Through their day, the son learns that fishing is much more involved than he imagined, but that the experience is worth it in the end. Spencer hopes the reader learns about the importance of patience and resilience, especially when trying something new.

The book is intended for readers aged 5 to 8, and like many books at this age level, it presents a colorful exploration of important life skills through beautiful illustrations and easy-to-understand language. Spencer wrote the story but wanted to find an illustrator that could bring to life his vision for the story. That proved to be trickier than he thought and turned out to be his biggest challenge.

“Obviously, illustrations are a critical component of a children’s picture book. Great illustrators, while worth it, can be extremely expensive.” Finding an illustrator both in his price range and with the right style took up dozens of hours as he pored through hundreds of portfolios. Even when he thought he had found the perfect match, things didn’t go exactly according to plan. “We began working together, but things ended up not working out, so I had to go back to the drawing board,” he explains.

Ultimately, all his hard work finding the right illustrator paid off, as the book has won a number of awards and Spencer has been asked to read the story at schools around the country. He says that the latter recognition means more to him than anything, as it presents an opportunity to see kids enjoy his story directly.

Another reason why his book resonates so well with younger audiences is that he chose to let the morals arise organically in his work. “I wanted life lessons to emerge from the activity instead of forcing life lessons into what the characters were doing,” he says.

“In an age where people are always seeking instant gratification, I think it is important to help children understand the importance of patience. For me, growing up fishing and crabbing with my dad was one of the ways I learned both patience and persistence. Generally speaking, I think society does a poor job of helping young boys and men express and manage their emotions, so I was glad when this arose as a theme in the book.”

Cover of Spencer's children's book

NEXT ADVENTURES

Spencer hopes that this isn’t the end of his children’s book writing career. He is already penning a book about a little girl and has a number of ideas forming. Regardless of which one becomes his next children’s book, he knows that the main character will be a person of color and will focus on “the concept of joy.” He also hopes to one day write a book series for children with autism that teachers can use in their classrooms.

Whichever idea emerges first, Spencer says the key is to “just start writing! You will inevitably come up with dozens of reasons why you can’t do it or why now isn’t the right time. Ignore them all. Create a timeline for publishing the book with specific deadlines and benchmarks.”

Another technique that helped him achieve his goal was accountability partners—particularly his family members. “Every so often, one of them would ask where I was with the book and give me some words of encouragement.”

Beyond any financial success the book may bring, Spencer sees the ultimate award as something bigger. The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education Cooperative Children’s Book Center reported in 2018 that there were “more children’s books depicting animals as characters than African/African American, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian Pacific Islander/Asian Pacific American characters combined. My hope is that my work addresses the lack of representation of people of color in children’s literature.”

At the end of the day, Spencer says he is excited to write more children’s books. “There are a lot of steps to publishing a book. You experience many highs but also some lows. There are takeaways from both types of situations—embrace them.” The process offered him the joy of creativity while offering a fulfilling opportunity to address a problem in children’s literature, and that is perhaps the best story of all.