Becoming an author was never something senior early childhood education major Jessica Caceres considered.
But after writing a children’s book for a class project, Caceres wants to pursue authoring a full series.
Her first book, “Cora Lynn: A Butterfly’s Secret Tale,” tells the story of a butterfly’s life cycle in first-person. Caceres self-published the book and is selling an electronic version through Amazon.com.
“I also envision it in the stores not only as a book but as an icon,” she said, “like pillows and sheets, comforters—because kids love those things, especially if it’s a character that they love and they enjoy reading.”
Caceres first wrote the book for her educational psychology class. Her assignment was to create a project that catered to multiple learning styles, such as auditory learners and visual learners. She wrote the story and painted the pictures on several connected canvases.
Her educational psychology professor, Amber Esping, gave Caceres an ‘A.’
“I’m enormously proud of Jessica,” Esping said, “because one of the best things for an educator to see is that students can transfer what they’re learning in their coursework out into the real world. And she took this and ran with it.”
Caceres was proud of her project, too, so she decided to pursue publishing it.
So far, Caceres said she’s sold about 20 eBooks, having only marketed the book through social media.
She hopes the book will receive more popularity when published through TCU Press, Cacares said.
The director of TCU Press, Dan Williams, said the book is still in the reviewing process, but there’s an “excellent chance” they will publish the book.
Publishing can take several months and even years, Williams said, but he hopes have everything wrapped up by Christmas 2015. Caceres said she doesn’t mind the wait.
When the book is officially published, Caceres said she eventually wants to add interactive elements, including an audio CD and stuffed animals to go along with each part of the butterfly’s life cycle.
She also plans to write sequels for a series of books, “The Adventures of Cora Lynn,” Cacares said.
While she hopes the book will someday achieve success in stores, Caceres said the best reward is hearing that children are learning.
One parent sent an email describing how her 3-year-old son was able to recite a butterfly’s life cycle, thanks to Caceres’s book.
The parent called Caceres “amazing,” Caceres said.
“Just thinking of myself as a teacher, helping kids, you can’t ask for anything else,” she said.