Welcome to the bookcase.

I'm your host, Shawna Richards, a sometime writer and a longtime reader.

I invite you to join me as we explore the bookcase and celebrate Virgin Islands authors and talent.

Each week on the bookcase, we'll introduce you to a local author and learn more about them and their work.

A storyteller lives in each of us, and I am so excited to give our homegrown storytellers and a chance to tell their story.

Tonight's selection from the bookcase is a Frank Conversation with Today's Youth, and I am honored to welcome its author, Pearline James.

Pearline, Welcome to the bookcase.

Thank you so much for joining us this evening.

Why don't we start with you telling our audience a little bit about yourself.

Thank you so much.

I'm happy to.

Very happy to be here.

My name is Pearline James.

I'm from the island nation of Saint Vincent, the Grenadines.

I spent a couple of years as a child in Aruba, grew up with my aunt, who became my adopted mother after the passing of my mother.

I did schooling in Saint Vincent and also teachers college.

I became a teacher, but I always had a lifelong dream of becoming a nurse.

I migrated to the Virgin Islands in 1987 and I had my opportunity and became a Licensed Practical Nurse.

So here I am.

But I always had a love for writing and reading.

So your your book, a Frank Conversation with Today's Youth.

Is it more informed by your experience as a teacher, that of a nurse?

Where did you draw from to put this book together?

Mainly it was well, generally, I was dealing with children as a teacher and as a nurse because I worked at the Youth Rehabilitation Center, where you had children who got in problems with the law.

So working with those children you see certain things that these children need help, maybe if only someone had paid a little bit more attention.

I'm not blaming anybody because we do have it hard sometimes, if only that they might not have been where they are.

So it inspired me to be that go between.

Maybe I might be able to help one person.

So that's was my inspiration for writing the book.

So when you wrote this book and I see a lot of the teacher Pearline in it, at the end of every chapter, you have a question about reflection.

Why was it important to put that question about reflection?

You ask the reader to reflect on gun violence.

You ask them to reflect on a number of different things that you cover in today's conversation.

Why was that important to you?

It was very important because it's one thing to read about something or say something, but then when you are asked the question, you have to think about it and you tend to you know, put yourself into it.

So I think it was very important you know, to think about the question in depth and make a sensible answer So you wrote A Frank Conversation About Today's Youth.

Is that a book for teenagers?

Is it for parents?

Who is the audience for this book?

My target audience is young teens, teens and young adults.

I specifically it is written specifically very simple for the ordinary mother who just you know, 12th grade can read.

You know, I specifically wrote it so that anybody could understand.

Very simple.

So also a mother could read and take something away from it.

from the Book.

What are some of the topics that you cover?

I know you covered self esteem.

And I thought it was very important how you phrase that for young women.

to have self esteem and to believe in themselves.

why was it important for you to include that specific language for young women?

As a woman myself, I started as a child.

Of course, all of us.

So I went to, you know, that kind of thing.

Also, even bullying and some of the some of the things that are written in the book, I didn't I didn't put a name a lot of it had to do with me, you know, individually.

So it was a lot of my early experiences in the book.

And as I noticed nowadays, there's a lot of bullying going on with social media and all of that stuff.

So I think it's right there for now also.

Is this the book that you wish you'd had as a young person or that you wish that your children had had?

I would say that I wish I had as a young person.

But what I'm trying to do now put my grandchildren in there so they have copies of them written by me for them to look back on.

You know.

And I am hoping that it does help.

You know, and that's so special.

How many how many young children can say, my grandma wrote this for me?

So when you sat down to write A Frank Conversation With Today's Youth, why did you think you needed to write this book?

I this is my personal belief.

I think most people in the Christian world believe that we are all here for something for a reason.

And it was always my belief, even from a child, that I am here to help people in some way to make things better for people whether it is physically better or, you know, mentally in some way.

And I think the book because of my love of reading, I would think, well, maybe you'll find a child that would love to read also.

And, you know, so I feel that that was my thought.

So you love to read.

What do you love to read?

What type of books do you love to read?

All kinds of books, really.

You and I are going to be good friends, I growing up, I loved the romance books.

But as you get older, I am very political, so I. I love reading about different stories, you know, about issues that occur, current affairs, stuff like that.

So I love it all.

Do you think writing A Frank Conversation With Today's Youth, do you think you would have been able to write that if you hadn't worked at YRC and have that experience?

Probably not.

To be honest with you, because in my teaching experience, I have worked mostly in private schools.

So you get so far if you want to say the best of the crop, if you know what I'm saying.

You get children who don't get in problems too much.

That kind of stuff.

So I don't know if I would have been able to.

To be honest, it was an inspiration working there.

So when you worked with those children, when you work with those teenagers, were there specific things that you said that when you were writing that their or situation or their circumstance you wanted to address?

Yes, there's a chapter, I think it’s chapter two where I had I had some scenarios that I made up different stuff that can happen to children.

And it was a lot of their stories in disguise.

Yes.

So it was directly with their stories and how they could possibly deal with which touched you the most.

And you've talked about bullying You talk about self-esteem.

But in working with those students and with writing this book, what touched you the most when you thought about how, how your writing could help that child there was so many young men that came to YRC And I look back and I said I mentioned in there it sounds bad.

But I did say it's almost an endangered species.

I'm sure many would agree with that statement.

So that is what touched me most of all, you know, is if we could do something, something for some of these young men, you know, whenever we see one, have a little potential not just in nurses, but the offices that I work with we would encourage them, really encourage them.

So that's my main, main influence.

You know, there are problems with a lot of young ladies, Yes.

But I am scared that we are going to lose a generation or more of young men in the Caribbean.

What?

In A Frank Conversation With Today's Youth, speaks to wanting to save that generation.

So what a young man picking up this book or even a young woman.

See themselves in that book?

I feel they could I mean, look at it.

Let's go back to.

No, not as far as slavery.

Let's say Martin Luther King and those civil rights movement and that era.

Let's look back to that era.

We seem to have come so far from there.

And then recently I asked myself we seem to step backwards.

You know, so we need young, strong men and strong in their beliefs in themselves that they can do it.

We need that kind of people in our society.

If our society is to make it, then you know, in the world today.

So in your book, in A Frank Conversation With Today's Youth, you talk about you talk about these the reader believing in themselves and the encouragement and the self esteem.

Do you think that some of the issues that we're seeing with our young men and young women comes from just not having that belief in themselves and that self esteem?

Definitely.

Definitely.

I think self-esteem have a lot to do with it.

And it has to do with values.

People see themselves as they see the people on TikTok, you know, and they figure, that's that's it, or I am great if I can, you know, do those things.

But there's more to life than, you know, than being on TikTok.

And it would be so good if as young mothers nowadays could take a page from the your mother My mother, your grandmother, you know, that there’s so much more to life than looking good.

Being good being in the latest in the latest clothes, the latest shoes, the latest hairstyle, you know, stuff like that.

so when I read your book, A Frank Conversation For Today's Youth, I thought it was it's for youth.

But I also thought that as a parent, I saw valuable things in there for me as well.

My son is way past his teenage years.

But I also saw some really important things that when I was a younger parent I wish I'd had that information.

Well, I am happy to hear that.

I don't know if I really thought about that.

I did think that a young mother, don’t have to be very educated for it to help them.

But I'm really happy to hear you say that because, you know, if you're if you if you see your child reading a book.

Yes.

You would want to know and I think there's some curiosity about what are you reading over there?

Why is he or she so interested in reading?

But I thought it was important that you spoke about mental health.

Yes.

That's a big thing, now.

Yep.

Why was it important for you to cover that?

Because as a nurse, I see us.

We know people.

All of us know people who are diabetic, who probably are hypertension, stuff like that.

And nobody looked down on them.

You know, you're a diabetic, but nobody like, look, down.

But we we do look down on people with mental health issues, not realizing a lot of us have little, you know, little mental health issues.

And until we can look at it as just another disease.

Right.

To remove that stigma and remove the stigma, it's going to be a problem, you know.

So how do you how do you address it in your in your book?

Okay.

Well, I. I don't remember exactly.

I know I mentioned it, but the exact words at this point, I think it was having someone to talk to.

Okay.

Yes, having someone to talk to.

And I think I also did have a number that people could call a suicide number.

Yes.

Stuff like that.

People should keep those things at hand.

You know, like we as nurses any nurse would tell you.

We keep the poison control number.

We learned it or keep it with us As young people.

you know, that's not something they could keep.

I was speaking to somebody other day and I was telling them I am thinking, I've heard of so much suicides within the last couple of months, generally and locally I was telling them maybe it's time the people in the schools that are counselors we call them?

Maybe it's time they have a particular session where you probably take and you talk to all the children not just those who you think might need.

If you understand where I’m coming from.

So the person, the young person reading this book, they may not say, I'm bullied, I need to read or I have self esteem issues, I need to read this book.

But they might see or I am concerned about gun violence.

I need to read this book.

What helped you hone in on the issues that you wanted to cover?

Because there's a lot of things out there that affect our young people.

Yes.

So how did you narrow it down to those things that were most important?

And how long did that take?

Awhile, you know.

Yeah, well, it I think if you if you have you look at the point of view, if you have self esteem, it's like you have certain keys and then you build on it.

If you have a good self esteem, that's number one.

In really making it in the world because, oh you feel you could that's good that's good.

You're going to fall at times.

You might, you know, but at least you know, I can get up and I can make it.

So I talk about that.

I also, as I my belief, I believe a faith and a belief in God is very important.

Everybody might not reach there to say lived the exact life you want to be but strive towards it and leave your mind open.

And sometime something would possibly get through.

So when you had the idea for this book and started writing it, do you have a trusted circle of people that you would say, Read this, Tell me if I'm on the right track?

What was your process of getting the book from your head, to the page, to publish?

What was that process like for you?

Definitely a lot of people as family members and learning from family situations also plus the children.

There was definitely a circle of people that I did, and people were very kind.

There was a teacher and in the nursing Miss Van Wingadam she helped a lot.

There were friends of mine's, close friends of mine.

Even my son helped because he’s good with computers and yeah, so there were lots of people that I really did reach out to help in getting through the process.

So how did you find your publisher and how was that process for you?

Okay, research.

I did a lot of research and at the time, the first time I printed this is the second printing.

Okay.

Yeah, the first time I chose Exlibris at the time when I looked you know, you could Google everything these days and I was impressed with them and that's was how I chose them.

So the process, well, to be honest with you, I heard about the Virgin Islands Council for the Arts and one day, myself and another friend said, let us try and see if we could get a grant to, you know.

Yeah.

At the time she wasn't thinking about writing a book.

She was thinking about making a different book.

but eventually she did writing also.

So we went to them and they sponsored us.

Yeah.

So that first copy was done by the Virgin Islands Council for the Arts.

I'm very grateful to them.

Is this your first book that you've written?

Yes.

Yes.

A Frank Conversation With Today's Youth.

Do you plan on writing more?

I do have I do have the conversation continues, which is already out.

This one more for adults.

But as I say, as I say in the book, if you have if you are a youth and you have problems, many times you’re going to adults with the same problems, plus problems of being an adult.

That comes with it.

So this is like part one and the conversation continues, is part 2.

It's already out there.

Well, I would love for you to read a favorite passage from a frank conversation and share with our audience.

Okay.

Two quick, quick passages.

Okay.

In the preface, there was this part coming to the end of it, I said, If any part of this book makes you think deeper about a particular topic a seed has been planted.

If any topic generates a discussion in any forum.

germination has begun.

If a discussion on any topic leads to some positive action, growth has begun.

I would have achieved at least the first part of my objective for writing this book.

Thoughts can be formulated.

Discussions done, ideas developed before any action can be taken with the hope of producing a positive change.

And this part.

This part to the end here.

This is the end of the second to last chapter, it says.

If you are a teenager on the verge of adulthood, this should be one of the best times in your life.

It should be an exciting time to be alive.

Your life is before you like an empty canvas.

You are the artist who will turn that canvas into a picture.

Give it a lot of thought.

Plan carefully.

Choose your colors wisely.

The picture you are creating will be your future.

Create a masterpiece.

I love that.

So for the person who reads this And while you say that this book is for teenagers, I think this book is really for teenagers and adults of any age because, as you said, the seed is planted and then it germinates.

But as people were always growing.

Growing.

Right.

True.

Very true.

Very true.

And they may be something that, you someone who is past their teenage years picks up and can still find words, words, encouragement, you know.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

So you started writing.

When did you start writing as a young person?

Can you say that you went into you went into teaching.

So was was writing something that you did as a young girl?

Was it something that you would just write?

Well, I go back to my teachers.

I’ve always been very encouraged by my teachers in my writing.

When I did, I remember one teacher saying to me, You don't do math very well, but boy, you can write an essay.

And that stayed with me.

Yeah, I always like writing So writing.

I knew.

I knew that I would write a book one day.

I always knew I would write a book.

Do you see yourself venturing into, now with two books under your belt.

Do you see yourself venturing into other genres?

Yes As a matter of fact, I have some I have two more manuscripts that just need to be.

Yeah.

One is for like children books.

Real children book, you know.

And the other one is like a book As a teacher, you find a child who is very intelligent, finished the work, finished everything, and then they study and cause problems with the other children.

They are bored.

So I am thinking.

Well, I have started a book for such children.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah, that's my.

For the person who is looking at the bookcase tonight, and they see your trajectory from teacher to nurse to writer, what would be.

And they think that they may have a story in them to tell.

What is your tip for those aspiring writers out there You have the idea, Work on it Believe in yourself.

You can do it.

You can be hard work, be prepared.

Well, nowadays it's not like I wrote a lot and with a pen and tore it up.

Now you have, now.

You have tablets, iPads, computers, you know, So is that your writing process?

Are you the pen and.

Yes, I am.

So you're not the let me sit down and type it all out and that's not.

Not yet.

I'm not there.

But so it does take a long time to.

Cause you write this and then.

No, this should.

How long did it take you to write a frank conversation?

You say a while.

But was that a year?

Two years?

Two months?

Okay.

I had ideas.

To be honest with you, I had ideas years before.

And the whole journey maybe took about two years from start to finish From just having ideas to completing it.

What is the key message of a frank conversation?

What do you want to leave our audience with?

What's the key message of your book?

The key message in this book.

And the other book.

We all make mistakes and we will make mistakes as long as we are alive.

The important thing is how we react to it.

Do we make a mistake and say, I done.

I already did this, so I am not going to be I already went to jail.

So what?

You know, but it's always this isn't the end.

Yes, it isn't the end.

It is always, well How can I you know, even though I went to jail, Let me think about somebody who I know how they came out.

Yeah.

Thank you so much, Pearline, for spending time with us.

It's been a pleasure.

To learn more about our local talent, Pearline James, for more information on a Frank Conversation with Today's Youth or any of the books featured on this program, visit our website at www.wtjx.org We appreciate your support of our local authors and we'll see you next week when we take another book from the bookcase.