Tallahassee therapist, FAMU grad pens children's books that blend Black history, writing

Ebony Seay, a Florida A&M University graduate in occupational therapy, has self-published two 50-plus page paperback books designed to help parents teach young kids ABCs and cursive writing, while learning about Black history.

Her books are “The Black History ABCs: Handwriting 101” and “The HBCU ABCs: Cursive 101”. Both books were published in September and now are available on Amazon.

Seay, a board-certified occupational therapist, completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Florida A&M University, in 2008 and 2014, respectively. She works at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Tallahassee; Physical Therapy Now, and owns On the Move Therapy.

Seay does not have any children of her own. She said her decision to get into publishing children’s books was sparked by a call from a friend asking for help in finding handwriting paper for her daughter.

The mother wanted to help her daughter improve her writing skills.

But for Seay, it led to creating two easy to read books stressing writing, learning the alphabet, cursive writing – all with a backdrop of Black history lessons.

“As an occupational therapist who has worked in the school system and knows the components of handwriting and what’s necessary, I can just create my own,” Seay said of becoming an author. “Knowing that handwriting is not taught in the schools anymore, I came up with the idea and I ran with it, and that’s how we ended up with the first book in September that I published.”

She incorporated lessons taught by her parents, Johnny Seay, a retired pharmacist, and her mother, Sanya Seay, a retired government operations coordinator, for the state, about the importance of understanding Black history. Both parents are graduates of Florida A&M.

Both parents, Seay said, stressed “Black history was a big thing and making sure that I knew my history as a person.”

“So, I thought, what better way to combine the two components and make handwriting interesting,” she said.

For example, Althea Gibson, a graduate of FAMU and the first Black person to win a Grand Slam title in tennis, is featured under the “A” alphabet.

More: Here's how FAMU alumna Althea Gibson is being honored for her role in USTA history

“Hopefully, that will generate enough interest that you may want to look into that person, do more research about that person,” Seay said.

It was after completing this book that Seay realized she needed to address another issue: cursive writing.

“As I was completing that book, it hit me that cursive is also no longer taught in the school system, at least not the public-school system,” Seay said. “A lot of kids don’t know what cursive is, have never seen it, or don’t know how to write it. I figured a better way to get information out about HBCUs was to combine those two components. The older kids learn about HBCUs as well as cursive."

The book includes brief descriptions of the country’s historically black colleges and universities, including FAMU, Howard, Spelman and Morehouse. It includes brief descriptions on the year the school was founded, its colors, mascot, and location.

Tireshia Galloway, assistant principal at James A. Shanks Middle School, in Quincy, believes “The HBCU ABCs: Cursive 101” is the kind of material young children need to be reading.

“I think it is a fun and creative way to engage young children. In this generation we have to find ways to make learning fun,” said Galloway, who earned her bachelor’s degree from FAMU in 2014, and is now a doctoral student there in educational leadership.

Seay has sold 75 books so far. The self-published books are available on Amazon.com for $10 each.

Seay said she wants to make learning more enjoyable, thus choosing bright graphics and images to accompany her text.

“Children will see the representation of themselves and see people that look like them in learning, and maybe that will make it a little bit more interesting for them,” she said.

Contact Democrat writer Shakiria Hopkins at SMHopkins@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee therapist, FAMU grad, pens two children's books