Keith White Jr. is an American author of children’s books, radio personality, screen writer, film director, occasional actor and writer/contributor to various websites. He is most well-known as the author and illustrator of the Color-With-Me Adventure series of children’s books. The first of which, Andrew and the Pirates, was released on April 13, 2013.
Keith wrote his first book Andrew and the Pirates as a way to help both his son’s confidence and his schoolwork. After the success of Andrew and the Pirates Keith began work on his second book Big Top Andrew. As of 11 February 2016, there are 31 books in the Color-With-Me series. Each book features 10 chapters. The chapters are followed by a picture to color based on what was just read. The Color-With-Me books have been the focus of articles in several newspapers and magazines, and White has been a special guest at various events around the New York area.
We had an opportunity to chat with Keith about his latest projects.
You’re the author and illustrator of 38 children’s books aimed at helping kids with ADHD and other learning disabilities. Tell us what inspired you to write the books.
The inspiration for my books were my sons Andrew and Collin. A few years ago, Andrew was having some trouble in school. He was constantly rolling his eyes and wasn’t able to concentrate on his schoolwork or his lessons. He would just stare out the window and “get lost” in his own head and start talking to the kids around him and disrupt the class. At first, we thought it might be a behavioral problem, but Andrew insisted that it wasn’t, and that he just couldn’t pay attention like the other kids did. Once he started rubbing his fingers together to the point where they blistered, we knew it wasn’t just a behavioral issue.
After taking him to a few different doctors, it was determined that Andrew suffers from some neurological problems, including motor and tic disorder, hyperactivity, and ADHD.
ADHD is Attention Deficit Hypertension Disorder. Tell us how you created your books to help kids with this and other learning disabilities.
My wife and I started researching different ways, to help Andrew concentrate on information presented to him, and how to actually retain the information once he had it. After some trial and error, we discovered that Andrew responded well to colors and images, which gave us an idea.
At Andrews school, the kids were tasked with reading two books a month and then doing book reports on them. Unfortunately, it was hard enough getting Andrew to read one book in a school year and have him actually retain the information he read. I asked Andrew’s teacher if I could write a book for him to do a report on. Surprisingly, she agreed, and I immediately got to work on writing and illustrating Andrew and the Pirates.
As I was working on the books illustrations, my wife said “Andrew responds really well to colors. You are already drawing pictures to help him remember what he read, why don’t you leave the pictures black-and-white so that he can color them in?”
And she was absolutely right, because, the results were immediate! Andrew and the Pirates was the both the first book Andrew ever read in one sitting, and the book report he did on it was the first ‘A’ he had gotten on a school project! I will never forget the day he got off the bus holding the book report in his hands. You could just see how proud he was. That look of pride on his face was the only motivation I needed to keep writing.
Tell us about your latest Color-With-Me Adventures book.
Andrew and the Pirates and the rest of the Color-With-Me Adventure books are stories presented in 10 chapters. Each chapter is followed by a black-and-white illustration for the child to color, and, the illustration is always based on something that was just read in the chapter. The coloring allows both to help with information retention and it gives the reader a quick break to, as Andrew says, “calm down and center himself” before continuing on with the story.
I have even had a few parents reach out and tell me that the break between chapters has not only helped their kids continue reading but it makes them feel almost like a part of the story and they want to see how it ends.
The themes of the books themselves are based on whatever my kids ask me to write about. There’s pirates, cowboys, the circus, pro wrestling, video games, sports, dinosaurs, mysteries, wizards, fairies, trains, magic, superheros, and even holiday adventures! Hopefully, there is a little of something for every kid out there that wants to read and color along with Andrew and Collin.
On your website, you offer free coloring sheets. That is awesome. Tell us what else children and parents could find on your site.
keithwhitejr.com is still a work in progress, but there are event pictures, information about the book series, a contact form so people can reach out and of course, the free coloring sheets.
And, if there are pictures from one of my books that isn’t on my website yet, please contact me and I will email them to you! Print them out and enjoy the Color-With-Me Adventures again, and again!
Thank you for sharing news about this wonderful book. Tell everyone how they can reach out to you.
Connect with Keith:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/KeefWhiteJr
Web: http://www.keithwhitejr.com
Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/keithwhitejr
Editor’s Note: If your child was diagnosed with ADHD, check out Kevin’s site and reach out. 🙂
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