Mom-Daughter Authors Target Tough Talk Article

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Cindy J Cadet, One of Thousands of Relationship Coaches on Noomii.

A mom who started seeking to fill her daughter’s home library with more books featuring Black characters has begun publishing some of those books herself — with her daughter.

New Haven mother and children’s book author Cindy J. Cadet, 40 and daughter Abby Cadet, 11, are co-authors of a children’s book series called ​“Kid Talk.” The picture books, for kids ages 4 to 10 years old, focus on real-life family issues that can be hard to talk about with youth, like divorce and parents arguing.

The first book of the series, released in 2020, is titled Living in Two Homes is Tough. It tells the story of a young girl struggling to tell her parent how she feels after they get a divorce.

This past week, Brennan Rogers School resource center coordinator Lensley Gay brought the author duo to students in grades second through fourth for a virtual reading.

Cadet’s books are written from a child’s perspective to highlight the different feelings of a child. The duo hope for the books to be a conversation starter for parents and kids that relate.

During the Brennan Rogers read-aloud, Cadet said several kids said that they have divorced parents and related to the main character.

The mom and daughter duo publish their books through their own publishing company, Brave Kid Press.

The second and most recent release in the series, Josiah’s Dilemma, was published last year. The book tells a story about a young boy dealing with his emotions about his parents, who argue at home frequently.

The book series is Cadet’s second since starting her writing career in 2011. Her first three books formed ​“Brownie Kid Series.”

Cadet published her first book, The Brownie Girl Adventures, in 2011, for her daughter’s first birthday. ​“It was originally going to just be a keepsake, until I realized there aren’t many books about Black and brown kids just having fun,” she said.

While raising Abby, Cadet realized how difficult it was getting to fill their at-home library with books that had characters that looked like Abby.

She was looking to fill Abby’s home library with ​“fun authentic black books,” she said. It wasn’t easy.

For the Brownie Kid Series books Cadet focused the stories on children of color going on adventures, bonding with family, forming friendships.

When getting her first series illustrated, Cadet said, she had to ​“put up a fight to get authentic Black kids” drawn for her book characters.

Instead of realistic kids of color, illustrators were offered Cadet brown stick figures.

Cadet, who was raised in West Haven, moved to New Haven’s Quinnpiac Meadows neighborhood in 2002.

Growing up Cadet, who is Haitian American, used reading and writing as an escape when dealing with tensions at home with her strict mother. She never met her biological father.

“When I was growing up children were seen and not heard,” she recalled.

In addition to Cadet’s two series, she has released a collection of 20 children’s writing journals, coloring books, and workbooks to encourage youth to get in the habit of expressing their feeling, set smart goals, and read affirmations.

​“They’re to help brown kids get use to prioritizing self care and making mental health a priority,” she said.

Cadet also works as a co-parenting coach.

The workbooks and children’s journals aim to ​“minimize mental health issues within our community” she said.

“Everything I do is family centered,” she said.