One of the greatest thrills for an author is getting to meet another author. You might think this is quite common. After all, the shelves of bookstores everywhere are just packed with the masterpieces of literary geniuses from throughout all time. Even so, for this author getting to meet a fellow writer has been exceptionally rare. Thus, you can understand my enthusiasm when I learned that in the classroom right next door to mine was a brand-new author who had published one of the most heartwarming children’s books I have ever read. Her name is Mrs. Tenika Bloomfield, and her beautiful book is entitled A Book for Mama.
Tenika and I have been friends and colleagues at Jupiter Christian School for about three years now. We’ve shared many teaching strategies and resources over the years – and quite a few hearty laughs now that I think of it. She is an amazing person and a truly gifted teacher who has been a wonderful blessing from the Lord to our school. When I first learned about her book, I knew I had to get the story behind the publication firsthand. Knowing her, it was bound to be epic. As soon as we had a chance to sit down together, I decided to start right from the beginning – the beginning of Tenika’s life that is.
As she put it, “I am from Saint Catherine, Jamaica. That is the countryside of the island, and I grew up here in Florida. I became a citizen at the age of 10 and grew up with my mom – single parent. My father has never been in this country. It just didn’t work out. I always knew that I was going to be a teacher. I was teaching my cousins when I was like five – just little things like how to read, how to write their names. [Teaching] is something that I always knew I was going to do. I also always loved singing and writing, so I knew that I would end up either in education or journalism or music. Education ended up being the way to go, and here I am! I’m at Jupiter Christian School. This is my 13th year teaching, and my third year at JCS.”
Looking back on these last three years, it is now hard to imagine how we got along without Mrs. Bloomfield at JCS. One of the privileges she has shared with me has been the opportunity to teach two of her three kids. It does not take much observing to see how deeply Tenika loves her children and what a devoted mother she is. She described her kids saying, “I have three – Jasmine, Josiah, and Joshua, and they’re very creative kids. They’re all unique. They have their own little styles. The boys are completely night and day. Joshua [the youngest] is a lover of books. He’s the cool kid. He is very sociable. He loves talking to people, but he secretly loves to read, and not a lot of people know that about him. He takes a book everywhere!”
She continued by describing her middle child, Josiah, saying, “Josiah loves sports! He loves basketball. That’s his passion. It’s his dream. He’s always wanted to play basketball since he was little. That’s how we got him to crawl and to walk. Basketball has always been his thing, and he’s hoping that he will have the opportunity to play ball for college.”
Tenika’s eldest child is one I have not had the privilege of teaching, but there was no hiding a mother’s pride as she described her daughter saying, “Jasmine loves music! She loves entertainment. She is a junior this year. She wants to pursue a degree in either psychology or physical therapy, but I think if she had the say, she would probably just be a YouTuber.” Then Tenika added with laugh, “But that’s not happening!”
As the lives of each of her children quickly demonstrate, there is no shortage of talent in Tenika’s household. However, it is still a bit of a shock for a teacher to learn that two of his students are going to be absent from school because they are performing in a TV commercial or music video – and yet I received such notices more than once during my tenure teaching Josiah and Joshua. As it turns out, Tenika’s family’s ties to the entertainment industry span generations. As she explained, “My Uncle Ian, who has passed away, was a Reggae musician. He was one of the original DJ’s that started the era of Dancehall music, which is pretty much what was being played in the clubs in Jamaica back in the day, and he was able to crossover with Dancehall here in the US. He left Jamaica and came to the US to pursue his dream of staying in the entertainment industry. Unfortunately, he was murdered. I also have other musicians in my family. I have another uncle. He also sings Reggae. I have a cousin in Canada – Mikey – and he sings Reggae as well. He’s also a DJ in Canada.”
Then the story came back around to her own kids again, and I couldn’t help but see the glow of a proud mother’s love as she expounded, “All three kids enjoy acting. Jasmine more so the modeling aspect, but they have all had opportunities to act in commercials and to serve as background extras in television shows and music videos. I always wanted to let the kids know that there’s no limit to what they can do. If they want to try something different, and I’m able to give them that opportunity, then that’s what I do.”
Now, just before we began digging into the book itself, there was one more thing I had to find out about Tenika’s family. I asked, “Can you tell me a little bit about what faith and your family’s relationship with Christ looks like in your home?” Tenika didn’t even hesitate as she recalled, “I grew up in the Church. My mom being a single parent, her faith really got her through a lot of the tough times in life. She did have us at a young age, and so she’s always tried to instill good values in us and to encourage our relationship with Christ. I grew up attending Sunday school, weekly Sunday services, and twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When I met my husband, we had had a similar upbringing, and we decided that we wanted our kids to have the same upbringing. We wanted them to know Christ from an early age. We understood that, yes, they had to make their own decisions ultimately to accept Christ into their life, but we wanted to make sure that they grew up with similar teachings, and that they knew that whatever comes before them in life they’re not alone. Even if they feel like they can’t talk about whatever those struggles are, they don’t have to carry those burdens by themselves.”
Like so many churches these days, COVID-19 closed the doors of Saint John Missionary Baptist Church in Boynton Beach, Florida where Tenika’s family attends, but that hasn’t stopped them from enjoying worship together. As she put it, “We’ve been watching services on Sunday in the family room. Every Sunday at 10:00 everyone is up, and they’re on the sofa. It’s kind of like we’re in service. We praise and worship in the living room. Our church has been in the community for I think 120 years. A lot of generations have gone through that church. I ended up going there because a friend of mine was a minister there several years ago, and he kept inviting me and one day I decided to go and check it out, and I realized that was the place for us.”
With this background of Tenika’s family and faith established, it was time to dig into the story behind A Book for Mama. Mrs. Bloomfield outlined the idea saying, “My husband would always tell me stories about his mom and all the things that he remembered her teaching him. They had the opportunity to spend some time together before his siblings came along – similar to my situation – and so one day I decided, ‘I am going to start jotting these things down because I think we can make a story out of it.’ When our kids were younger, we would always take them to Barnes & Noble’s every week. That was a weekly fieldtrip on Saturdays. We wanted to encourage a love of reading and foster that. While there, I started paying more attention to the books in the children’s section, and I didn’t see that many books at the time featuring minority characters on their covers. That was the first time I thought, ‘I think I want to start writing some children books.’ Just constantly listening to my husband talk about his mom – he loves his mom so much – and things they used to do, I decided one day I was going to write them down, and so I did. I told him, ‘Let’s make a story out of the things that you’ve learned from your mom that you still hold with you today.’ It’s a book for my mother-in-law, but we decided to dedicate the book to all moms because we really want all the moms out there to know that we see what they’re doing. We recognize the sacrifices that they make for their kids. Even in their darkest times, they still do whatever they can to take care of their kids.”
Such a beautiful story translated into a children’s book could only be properly told through truly beautiful illustrations – and for that A Book for Mama would need a truly talented artist. Tenika found that talent in Courtney Crider. Says Tenika, “I met Courtney online. I came across some of her work, and I saw a lot of potential. I reached out to her and discovered that she was a college student. She loves to draw. Her dream was to become an illustrator, but she had put that on the backburner to focus on school. I said to her, ‘Hey, I really like what I see here in your artwork. Is there a way that we can work together? I’ll share my vision with you and tell you exactly what I’m looking for and guide you through this process so that you can create just right characters because I can’t draw.’ Courtney thought it would be an amazing opportunity because she didn’t have a portfolio, and so we connected and had many discussions and zoom meetings and got the process going and typed out a contract, and this was what came out of it.”
Courtney’s artwork is stunning and a true credit to the story it helps to share. If you have ever met Tenika’s kids, one thing you notice as you read the book is some quite familiar faces. Says Tenika, “Even though the idea came from my husband and his mom, I thought it would be really neat to try to capture the boys – their image – in the book on different pages. The reason why we thought about that is because they resemble [their father] at different stages of his life. I’ve looked at some of his old photos, and I can see the resemblance of both boys. So we decided to come up with this character and just show an age progression on each page. So on some pages the little boy may look like Joshua with the different hairstyles and everything, and then on some he looks like Josiah. We definitely considered our sons when putting these illustrations together.”
As Tenika and I moved further into the book, I was drawn to the pictures of the boy and his mama in the library. Book titles both new and familiar are prevalent throughout the spread, so I asked, “How did you choose the titles that would appear on this spread?” Tenika pointed out a few, starting with the book, All About Gardening, saying,“My mother-in-law loves being in the garden, so anything that has to do with the garden that’s what she would read.” She then continued by describing another very special book on the spread, “If you look on the library spread there are some books to her right on the floor. There’s a blue one that says In My Circle. That’s actually a book that I’m working on, and I’ve been working on this book for five years. It’s not a children’s book. It’s a story about friendship, and it’s based off of some experiences that I’ve had with my group of friends. I have had the same girlfriends since middle school. I have been very blessed to have them in my life still, and so I started a story many years ago called In My Circle that has not been completed. It’s a novel, but it’s going to come out at some point.”
Then Tenika pointed me back to the right side of the spread saying, “The young boy…he’s doing research, so these are just some of the selections that he has. One says The Real McCoy. Elijah McCoy was someone that I learned about later in life that I had never read about ever in any of my books and in class. I ended up teaching middle school in Kissimmee – 8th grade – and in the English curriculum there was a text about The Real McCoy – Elijah McCoy. It was the first time I ever heard of this guy and his accomplishments as an engineer. I went home and I shared that story with my husband. He had never heard of him either, and so I decided to put that book there because sometimes we just don’t hear about certain people. We typically hear about the same people all the time, so I thought that would be pretty neat to put that there.”
Other titles that appear throughout A Book for Mama include, I Survived 2020, MLK Legacy, The Adventures of Afro Boy, and a particularly fun title called Vernon Spiffy Strikes Again. Says Tenika, “Joshua’s middle name is Vernon, and so there’s a book that says Vernon Spiffy Strikes Again. If Joshua was to write a book it would be something silly like that.” In reference to the title I Survived 2020, it was with a sigh of relief that Tenika explained, “COVID just shut down everything and changed our lives, and looking back on the year I’m just thankful we survived it.” This attitude of thankfulness is perhaps why, of all the books, the most prominent on the prayer spread is the Holy Bible.
Throughout A Book for Mama we see the young boy slowly grow into manhood. For us he goes from a young boy learning to ride a bike to a man on his wedding day in only a matter of pages, but truly this is the story of a lifetime – a life all the more blessed for having a faithful mother in it. When I asked Tenika what lessons she wanted her own kids to take away from this story she explained, “I just want them to know that regardless of what happens God will always be with them, and He will help them to get through it. And as long as I’m here and their dad is here, they can always come home. We will always help them in any way possible, and so I want them to know that they should never give up. That’s one of the things that I’ve learned from my mother – watching her and how she handled things as a single parent. She just kept pushing, so I want them to have that same mind set as well. I’m hopeful that as they continue to grow they always remember to help others, and that they always remember that life is not just about them. If they are in a position to give, they should give, and not expect anything in return and that God is going to bless them for their efforts…They’re going to find happiness, and so in this particular spread [the family spread near the end] he’s able to start his family. He finds love and I want that for my kids. I want them to have someone who’s going to love them and just always be good to them – unconditional love. I pray for that for them – that they have someone in their corner that appreciates them and values them.”
It was truly a thrill getting to learn all about A Book for Mama. It is a story a lifetime in the making and one that I pray will touch countless hearts. Moving forward, Tenika has another children’s book in the works and, of course, her novel. With Mother’s Day just around the corner I certainly can’t think of a better way to honor the mothers in our lives than by sharing A Book for Mama and the story behind it. As Tenika concluded, “I think all moms should know that they’re appreciated. They are valued, and I think this book does a good job of that…I think sometimes we just don’t hear that we’re appreciated, and so I think all moms should hear that.” In the end I had to ask just one more question – “What is the most important lesson you want your kids to take away from A Book for Mama?” Her answer was to the point and perfect – “Mama loves you!”
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Copyright © 2021 David Scott Fields II. All Rights Reserved.
