BY ASHA MAHADEVAN
Roslyn C. Thorpe, the Cambria Heights-based author of “RayRay’s Amazing Dream” (2012), is ready with her second book, called “Danny the New Kid in School.” As the title reveals, it tells the story of Danny as he faces setbacks and stares from other students in fifth grade. He then befriends Timmy and, together, they overcome the challenges of school.
Thorpe, 65, said she drew inspiration for the book from what she has seen around her. In her 34-year teaching career, she has often noticed new children in school being bullied by other children. She hopes this book will help such children adjust to their new schools.
Thorpe was born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and after teaching there for five years, she moved to the U.S. in 1987. She enrolled as an undergraduate in The College of New Rochelle. While she was studying there, one of her professors told her that she would make a great writer.
“All these years I didn’t do anything about it,” she said. “Now that I am going to retire, I want to do something using my mental faculties, like writing. It is time-consuming, but it is something I love to do.”
She loves reading books that have a message and are a little suspenseful, she said, and that is why “Danny” has both those elements. It talks about the problems children new to a school face and ends with a hint about how Danny and Timmy’s story is not going to end with this book.
“I am going to write a series of books about Danny — how he goes to junior high, then high school and college,” said Thorpe.
While “RayRay” is a fully illustrated children’s book, “Danny” has only one illustration per chapter. It took Thorpe just an hour and a half to write “RayRay’s Amazing Dream” and “a couple of weeks,” she said, to complete “Danny.” However, that doesn’t mean that we’ll be reading about Danny’s next adventure any time soon.
Now that “Danny” is out, Thorpe is moving on to a new set of characters for her next book. “I have an idea for a spooky story,” she said, “but this one will take more time and more concentration. It is about an invisible stalker and will be for young adults.”
She also plans to write Christian books for readers in their late 20s and early 30s sometime in the future.
If Thorpe is sure of one thing, it’s that: “I’ll never stop writing.”
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