When 11-year-old Chelsea A. E. Simpson of Cedar International School launches her illustrated children's book, entitled “Story of the Five Besties” on December 12, 2019, it will be the first publication for the young second-generation Author. Photo: Provided

'Story of the Five Besties' is a locally illustrated children's book penned by Chelsea A. E. Simpson. Photo: Provided

The book is scheduled to be launched on December 12, 2019, at 4:30 pm at Myett's Chill Zone at the Cyril B. Romney Tortola Pier Park and the family says Amazon and Barnes & Noble is next on the list of retail hopefuls to stock the publication. Photo: Provided

The daughter of Corporate Attorney-at-Law, Christopher A. Simpson and local Author Mitsy J. Ellis-Simpson, Chelsea's journey as a writer came when her mother noticed her storytelling skills during bath time. 

"The whole thing started with her playing with her toys in the bathroom... and we hear her speaking to her toys creating her own little story in the bathroom and singing her own little song... and based on what we were hearing we told her tell us what is happening," Mrs Ellis-Simpson told Virgin Islands News Online (VINO). 

Book Development 

She said Chelsea was then encouraged to start drawing the characters and scenes. 'She likes to draw in her own little time, when she is in her zone, so she was able to draw the characters for the book, sketch her own scenes and we were able to take that to an animator and let him digitally develop it," her mom said.

Earlier this year, Chelsea won an art award from the Virgin Islands Recovery and Development Agency (RDA) in the grade 4 to 6 category for her art piece, “Leave only footprints on the Beach”. The artwork promotes a greener and cleaner Virgin Islands. She also composed a nursery rhyme titled, “The Five Pioneers”, in relation to the short story.

The project started earlier in the year but, according to Ms Ellis-Simpson, in terms of her writing the story and drawing, it only took one to two months, "It's a short story, its just show words, lots of illustrations with five characters," she said.

December 12 Launch planned 

Prior to the RDA award, Chelsea founded a nature club for young children up to the age of ten, known as the “Worldwide Nature Club.” The Club visited various nature sites in the VI including beaches, the mangroves at Paraquita Bay, the J. R. O'Neal Botanical Gardens and the Sage Mountain National Park promoting environmental awareness.

With a total of 1000 copies printed, the family is bearing the full publication cost through an owned and operated company and is looking to gauge market response before ordering more copies to stock locally. 

The book is scheduled to be launched on December 12, 2019, at 4:30 pm at Myett's Chill Zone at the Cyril B. Romney Tortola Pier Park and the family says Amazon and Barnes & Noble is next on the list of retail hopefuls to stock the publication.