Introducing Children's Author Robbin Miller
Robbin's Biography:
Robbin Miller is a licensed mental health counselor and an Adjunct Faculty Instructor. She has written four picture books: Playgroup Time for young babies and toddlers; Three Best Friends for children ages 6-9 years old; Breaking Barriers: A Girl's Dream to Play Little League with Boys for children ages 8-11 years old, and she co-wrote The Stray with her son, EJ who was only 9 years old in 2019. Robbin also likes gardening and spending time with her family and therapy dog, Woody.
Maria: 1. Welcome, Robbin! Thank you for joining us today! Why did you decide to write Children's Books?
Robbin: I wanted to make a difference and empower children to achieve their dreams when they face obstacles and barriers in their community and from other children. Children need to learn to be resilient and able to get up again when they fall down. We can teach our kids that learning to rise again from failure or from an obstacle can be our greatest life lessons throughout the life span.
Maria: How wonderful that you are teaching this lesson at such a young age. If not giving up is learned at an early age, then children are more likely to grow up and become successful adults.
Maria: 2. What kind of picture books have you written so far? Can you summarize what the main themes are and messages you hope to communicate to readers?
Robbin: Playgroup Time: Promoting inclusion and diversity at an early age. Going to a structured early intervention playgroup is a wonderful opportunity for babies to make new friends with and without disabilities.
Read-along for Playgroup Time on YouTube: Here
Buy Playgroup Time on Amazon: Here
Three Best Friends: The conflict between peer pressure and fitting in when your community playground excludes you from participating, because you have a mobility impairment.
Buy Three Best Friends on Amazon: Here
Breaking Barriers: A Girls' Dream to Play Baseball with Boys: Overcoming obstacles with grit and determination against societal expectations on what girls are not allowed to do, because they would be looked as being a "tomboy." This is memoir of playing little league after it became legal in 1974.
Buy Breaking Barriers on Amazon: Here
The Stray: Making a difference by rescuing abandoned dogs who can lose hope living in an shelter.
Maria: The videos are extraordinary! What fun! Thank you for sharing them.
Maria: 3. What feedback have you received from readers?
Robbin: Playgroup Time: Readers liked babies learning to share and to make new friends while having fun.
Three Best Friends: Readers felt the message of inclusion and not excluding children with disabilities from inaccessible playground to be thought provoking and advocating for change.
The Stray: Readers felt that it was a lovely story for dog lovers as they felt engaged throughout the book.
Breaking Barriers: Readers felt that my memoir was inspiring, empowering, and full of courage and grit against the odds for girls and boys to learn from.
Maria: Your books look amazing and your reviews are excellent! Let's hope this blog post helps get the word out about your books, so more children will benefit from them.
Maria: 4. Do you have any new releases coming out?
Robbin: Yes, The Runaway in going live December 2020. The theme is not giving up hope that your dog will be never found. Working with other people to find your dog is very supportive and comforting that they care about your dog. Also, it is quite common that dogs run away from their new owners after being adopted due to feeling lost and confused of where they are.
Maria: I never knew that about newly adopted dogs. Here's to giving hope to dog owners who lost their fury friends.
Maria: 5. How can readers connect with you?
Robbin: Email: miller_robbin@yahoo.com
Maria: Robbin, thank you for joining us and for your contributions to the little ones. I wish you all the best!
Lori, I agree with you. These are all books that can help children of various ages in different ways.
This is an awesome idea for the little ones! Great job spreading awareness!