This Black, children’s author wants to pull kids out of their shells

Kwame Osei says his book is an extension of his passion for helping youth

I always love hearing about how new authors come up with the idea for their books. Kwame Osei already had a passion for helping kids and speaks publicly about the need to connect with youth. But it was a specific conversation that led to his second children’s book, Turtle in the Shell.

“I wrote it five years ago and the initial thought process behind it was through a conversation I had with a kid I was training at the time,” Osei says. “It was a soccer player I was training because I was also a personal trainer and the thing about this girl, she’s a great athlete, but whenever there’s a tryout, she would get nervous. And she would just not perform well.”

Osei said during one of his training sessions before her trials, he asked her a question.

“So I asked her, let’s say me and you are walking and we see a turtle shell on the ground. Are we seeing the turtle or are we seeing the shell? She said we’re seeing the shell. I’m like, okay. So let me ask you this question: when you had these trials and you’re scared and nervous and you don’t perform well, are the coaches seeing you for who you are, or are they seeing a lesser version of you? She said they’re seeing a lesser version of me…