Wanda Thomas

Wanda Thomas

African American Literature Book Club - The #1 Site for "Readers of Black Literature"

Home • Back • Author Home • Up • Next • Author Profiles • Book Profiles • Writer's Resources • Reviews • Events • About Us • Buy Any Book • Advertise

Wanda L. Thomas was born in New York City. Ms. Thomas holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Pre-Medical Studies from the prestigious City University of New York's Baruch College. Presently CEO of her own Medical Transcribing business, Ms. Thomas, who has always had a great love for children, founded JCW Enterprises, Inc., a children's book publishing company.

Recently, JCW Enterprises and Ms. Thomas published "Beautiful Me" and "Handsome Me". Both children's books are African-American driven and invoke positive affirmations of self-esteem for African-American children.

Colorfully illustrated by London-based artist John Higgins, these fun, easy to read companion books (one dedicated to African-American girls and the other dedicated to African-American boys), are sure to be a necessity for any children's library whether public or private. Ms. Thomas currently resides in Harlem, New York

Handsome Me
Click to order via Amazon

by Wanda Thomas, John Higgins (Illustrator)

ISBN: 0967308429
Format: Paperback, 32pp
Pub. Date: July 2002
Age Range: 8 to 12

Trevor, the young boy in Handsome Me, rises above a hurtful encounter with some of his friends and playmates. Rather than become a victim of his friends' insensitivity and accept and internalize their negative remarks about his physical appearance, he draws from his own inner strength and with a healthy and mature examination of himself reaffirms his strong positive self image with enough force to cancel out any negative or malicious words directed at him.

Beautiful Me
Click to order via Amazon

ISBN: 0967308437
Format: Paperback, 32pp
Pub. Date: June 2002
Publisher: JCW Enterprises
Edition Description: REV
Age Range: 8 to 12

Book Excerpt
It was a beautiful day. As soon as the bell rang, the shool doors opened and crowds of children came pouring out of the school building. Among those children were Shanikia and her freinds Rhonda, Cleo and Marina who delighted in feeling the sun on their faces and talked about what they would do when they got home.

"Hey, let's play jump rope!" said Rhonda.

"Yeah. Let's double dutch," Marina said.

"Okay," Shanika and Cleo agreed.

So, the four girls ran as fast as they could to Shanika's apartment building. She was the only one who had a rope long enough to play the game in which two ropes are twirled at the same time, but in opposite directions. In just a few minutes, Shanika had run inside, picked up her jump rope, and joined her friends out on the sidewalk.

"Okay, let's start," Shanika said, holding both ends of the rope in her hands. "I have to go back inside in an hour."

Marina picked up the loop of rope from the ground and together with Shanika they began twirling the rope. After a few twirls, Cleo jumped in and began her favorite double dutch chant.

Just before Shanika was about to take another turn jumping, she glanced at her watch. She had been having so much fun jumping and taking turns twirling the rope with her friends that she had lost track of time.

"Oh, no! I'm late," she said. " I have to go in."

Marina and Cleo stopped twirling. Shanika waited for them to give her the rope ...

Trevor
Contact Information

JCW Enterprises Inc.
P.O. Box 361
New York, NY 10035
Tel: 800-942-8623
Fax: 212-289-6490
Email: info@wandathomasbooks.com

Shanika

Related Links

Official Website
http://wandathomasbooks.com/