Ashley (Garrett) Edwards was greatly impacted by the teachers she had throughout her childhood. She can remember the names of all of them. As a preacher’s kid, Edwards remembers moving around …
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Ashley (Garrett) Edwards was greatly impacted by the teachers she had throughout her childhood. She can remember the names of all of them. As a preacher’s kid, Edwards remembers moving around often and being in a lot of different schools.
“Every place I moved, I remember the teachers,” she said. “I loved my childhood and I got a positive outlook from my parents.”
Today she sits at the teacher’s desk at Wright City West Elementary, impressing nine and 10-year-olds, hoping to have a similar impact. Although Edwards spends a lot of time teaching reading, writing and history in her full-time job, she has also found the time to publish a Christmas children’s book using a childhood memory and targeting the very age group she teaches.
On October 22, her first published children’s book, “A White Elephant for Christmas,” was released by Dorrance Publishing. For the book’s theme she chose a memory of Christmas with her family regarding their annual white elephant gift-giving.
“I didn’t understand the concept,” she said. “The book is about a boy named Dego and his dog who is trying to find the white elephant.”
Dego, a nickname of her own father, is excited for Christmas, but is on a quest to find the white elephant, not knowing a white elephant gift can be a non-wanted or impractical gift that becomes a joke at gift-giving time. In the book, Dego searches at the zoo and the toy store and finally consults Santa on his quest.
Edwards said she struggled to find her niche as a child. There were a lot of things she was good at — music, theater and writing.
“Writing was not the top of the list,” she said. “I was inspired to write by a teacher in high school and found out I was good at it. In college, I learned to give up certain parameters which I found out were ridiculous, then I opened up and my writing flourished.”
As a teaching tool, Edwards will sometimes make up stories on the fly while explaining a concept to her students. She subscribes to social-emotional learning. Although she has definite consequences to bad behavior, she always strives to “get to the root of the problem” with her students.
Edwards said the publishing process was a challenge, but the hard work paid off. Now “A White Elephant for Christmas” is found on bookshelves and in the hands of children. Her book is available at Barnes & Noble and a variety of booksellers.
