As I celebrate the two-year birthday of my picture book, It’ll be Irie, published in 2023 by Cardinal Rule Press, I reflect upon an interesting year of new possibilities and the promise of new collaborations.

In the last year, I have been donating copies of my book to deserving middle school libraries, thanks to the generosity of my dear friend, actress, Chrystee Pharris, who’d purchased twenty of my books for this worthy purpose. It’s always a delight to be able to read my book to students and share with them my journey as an author, inspiring them and empowering them to explore their own creativity.

Last year, CRP Editor-in-Chief and CEO, Maria Dismondy, had asked me if I would consider writing a children’s musical based upon my book. I’d never written a musical before, but I felt inspired to rise to the challenge.

The first thing I did was read my story and begin imagining how it might expand from a 32-page picture book into a full-length musical production.

I realized I’d created a pretty studious, ambitious character in Raymond, a boy who was very passionate about his soon-to-be new city and country, so I just extended that and discovered he was a kind of geek who’d learned all these interesting factoids about New York City that he loved sharing with his classmates in Kingston, Jamaica. In fact, his friends good naturedly tease Raymond as a kind of “know-it-all”, the smartest kid in their grade
who is destined to succeed in America.

I then gave Raymond and his parents the last name of Bailey as well creating Raymond’s classmates both in Jamaica (Gregory and Sheryl), and later, in Queens, New York (Bobby, Sunita and Tricia). I gave them names and then began developing their distinct personalities as I was also developing Raymond’s.

I developed the storylines of Raymond’s parents as well; Pops became an engineer who had just been hired by a company in New York City, hence the move. Muma began speaking of finding opportunities to work in New York so they could become a two-income household and advance economically.

Uncle Phil was a character I truly enjoyed developing; in his scene, he joyfully recounts to Raymond and Raymond’s cousin, Patsy, (Percy in the book) his summer staying with family in New York in the 1980’s and how much he loved everything about America in that time period, even to this day. Of course, he’d still own a working VCR!

I also created Raymond’s teacher, Ms. Ferarro,. at his new school in Queens, as well as his new classmates. I strove to retain the “comedy of errors” that proceeds in this part of the book and elaborate on it with dialogue and action.

When it came to writing the twelve songs that now accompany the libretto, the experience was truly blissful. Though I’d never written a musical, I’d seen my fair share of productions. In fact, two song ideas were directly inspired by two songs from the musical, Annie, which was the very first large-scale production I’d ever seen growing up in New York. I listened to
those two songs over and over before trying to capture their spirit in my own songs. Thus, the Annie song “N.Y.C.” inspired Raymond’s song “Goodbye Jamaica, Hello Jamaica Queens,” while “I Think I’m Going to Like it Here” inspired Muma’s song “I Think We’re Going to Be Just Fine.”

I look forward to having a workshop production of the musical in the near future, with the idea of larger production as well as licensing a version of the play to made available to children’s theater companies. I also look forward to sharing the picture book that started it all with more students and donating more copies of my book to school libraries. Fingers
crossed for more school visits where I can share my “Just be You” program inspired by the themes of my book, to more students.

Lastly, I look forward to my continuing relationship as a part of the Cardinal Rule Press family. Having the experience of working with other publishers, I can honestly say the way CRP treats its authors is amazingly special, as they’re invited to take part in the company’s M.O. of being of service to the community in the classroom and beyond. They really let you know how much you are respected and valued. That alone is priceless.

When I think of how much there is to look forward to, all I can say is… irie!