No Dad for Kylie

About the Book

As the day approaches for Kylie’s dad to return home from Iraq, the whole family is set and ready for his safe arrival—from decorations, games, popcorn, movies, and even pillows for the family pillow fight. The family has hurriedly gotten the place ready for Dad’s return. But as time winds down, and it gets late, there seems to be no sign of Dad. A young Kylie begins to ask questions. As Kylie begins driving her mom crazy with so many questions, the family gets a peculiar knock at the front door. But will it be Dad? While being a fun read for the younger children, this story relates to some of the hardships that so many of our single family and military families experience today.

About the Author

Latitia Steward is a mother and a Columbus State University graduate with a degree in management information systems. My passion for writing children’s books came from being the babysitter for family and friends. The children I took care of also had another factor in common with me: we all came from, or was raised in, single-parent homes. And sometimes, when being raised in single-parent homes, some kids would show the effect that it had on them while other children would keep it discrete. For the ones that didn’t show or talk about it, I would sort of get them comfortable with talking to me and listen to them as they would explain in a childlike manner the situations and issues they go through. And as I begin to hear the stories that the children told me, one particular story stood out and gave me my inspiration for my first book, No Dad for Kylie. When writing this book, it made me think that we, as parents, sometimes look over the issues that our children go through; or we just ignore them altogether because we don’t know how to handle them in a way for the child to understand, or more importantly, we think that, being children, they don’t have issues. So I wanted to create and write children’s books based on actual issues that children go through. Latitia currently resides with her daughter and family in Buena Vista, Georgia.