Cowen Smith is just an average boy - he has a messy room, isn't a great student, and loves his dog. But Cowen is about to discover that he is anything but average. Cowen will be called upon to meet individuals he couldn't have imagined, participate in combat for which he feels ill-prepared, and save a world he didn't know existed.
That's how PublishAmerica describes, Sarmandi, a children's book by Dr. Jeri Hanel Watts, assistant professor of human development and learning at Lynchburg College.
"My inspiration came from a writing assignment I did with my fifth-graders in Lexington," Dr. Watts said. "I always do the assignment I give."
What Dr. Watts wrote became the first chapter of a book that was written year after year with different fifth-grade classes. After she read the first few chapters to one class, a student approached her afterward and told her she had to finish the book.
Sarmandi, it turns out, is the word for a person who has a special connection with animals in the world Cowen suddenly finds himself in. He is the Sarmandi they've been waiting for, and his skill is communicating with dogs and horses.
A native of Lynchburg, Dr. Watts returned three years ago to teach at LC after working as a reading specialist and writing teacher in Lexington, Va. for 27 years. She previously published Keepers, her first children's book, as well as Writing Teachers Become Writers, in which she encourages teachers who write to do the assignments they give their students.
"The time and effort to connect my own writing with my teaching to undergraduates and graduates is a gift that LC provides and encourages."
Dr. Watts is working on her next book, a short novel for students aged 8 to 12, about growing up during integration. Books for that age group, who want something between a picture book and a longer novel, are "a hot item in children's literature right now," she said.
A graduate of The College of William and Mary, Dr. Watts earned her Ed.D. at the University of Virginia. She and her husband Chuck have two grown daughters who often read her stories and give helpful advice. Mary Carson is a 2007 LC graduate who now teaches first grade, while Chandler is a senior international relations major at LC.
PublishAmerica is a traditional publishing company whose primary goal is to encourage and promote the works of new, previously undiscovered writers. Like more mainstream publishers, PublishAmerica pays its authors advances and royalties, makes its books available in both the United States and Europe through all bookstores, and never charges any fees for its services.