San Rafael teenager's book aims to help shy kids flourish
Leyla Winton credits her firstgrade teacher at Glenwood Elementary School in San Rafael with supporting her writing early on.
“She encouraged me to write stories, and then she read them to the class,” Winton said of Kirsty Rogers, who has since moved to Virginia.
Last week, more than a decade later, Winton returned to Glenwood's first-grade class. Now 17 and a senior at San Rafael High School, Winton read students her new children's book, “Underwater Drama Class.”
“I would like to be as inspiring
to you as Miss Rogers was to me,” Winton told more than a dozen children who sat transfixed by the words and drawings in the book, which Winton wrote and illustrated.
The heroine of the book, which is set in the bottom of the ocean, is a hermit crab named Heidi. Heidi is afraid to come out of her shell and speak before the other sea creatures in her drama class. She worries she will never be able complete her assignment to recite her lines from the play “Remora and Jewelfish.”
As Heidi huddles alone with anxiety during a break from class, a starfish named Bubble befriends her. Bubble gives Heidi support
and encouragement to stand before class and say her lines perfectly.
“How many of you have ever felt outside of the group?” teacher Ramina Winton, the author's mother, asked during the reading. At least a dozen hands went up.
Ramina Winton said Bubble is what is called “an upstander.” An upstander is someone who intervenes to stand up to bullies to protect shy or anxious friends. An upstander also gives support and encouragement.
With Bubble's help, Heidi wins praise from the teacher, an octopus named Ms. Seaweed, and from the other students who had laughed at