Far Rock Grandma Pens a Children’s Book Series to Support Bigger Dreams
By Katie McFadden
“Grandma Has a Mouse in Her House” and Far Rockaway resident Sharmeika Davis-Boyd has a lesson for kids of all ages to treat everyone how you would like to be treated. Since publishing her first children’s book in 2022, Davis-Boyd has been on a mission to get the word out there, doing readings near and far and most recently, pitching her work to be a part of the collection at the brand-new Far Rockaway Library, but it’s all part of a bigger goal to bring something even bigger than “a mouse” to the peninsula.
As a grandparent to nine children, not being able to see her grandkids hit Davis-Boyd hard during the Covid pandemic. “I was so depressed that I couldn’t see them and that sat on my mind. I suffer from anxiety and when the pandemic hit, it hit the ceiling and I said, ‘Sharmeika, you have to figure out a way to turn your energy into something’ and something in my spirit told me to write children’s books. With my grandkids stuck on my mind, the writing just flowed out of me,” Davis-Boyd said, adding that she had never written a book before. Her husband, Laron Boyd, even helped with some characters. “My husband had drawn a character when he was younger and when I was writing, he brought this little boy character to me, and I said we’ll fix him up a bit and put him in the books. That character became Mr. Knozi, a play on nosey, who represents kids’ natural curiosity and encourages them to ask questions and be nosey in a positive way. Mr. Knozi became a central character in her books, and Davis-Boyd wrote each story with the goal of teaching some important life lesson by the end of them.
Before she knew it, she had 13 children’s books. “It took my mind out of this world and off of not being able to see my grandchildren, and I knew when I could see them, I would be reading them all of these stories,” she said. And she did just that. “When everything opened up and my grandchildren came, I started reading the stories to everyone who wanted to listen,” she said.
And then the feedback started to come in. These books were good. And the idea struck that other families could benefit from having an outlet where kids could connect on a deeper level with their grandparents and refocus their energies into something positive. Davis-Boyd formed the brand Qikykidz—Quality in Keeping Your Kids in Da Zone. “We grew up being in the zone of being a kid, having fun and not rushing to grow up, but today kids are trying to be adults too soon and they always have their faces in their phones, and we want to change that narrative. My goal as a grandma is to grow this community facility where grandchildren and grandparents can get together and interact and play games with them, read with them, learn with them and have fun, so our ultimate goal is to create a brick-and-mortar space for that,” Davis-Boyd said. “I feel that grandparents are not getting the respect and acknowledgement they deserve, and I think we could all benefit from being around our grandkids and sharing our wisdom with them and we need a place for that.”
So Davis-Boyd is hoping sales of her books will help achieve that dream of creating such a facility for Qikykidz. In 2022, she researched ways to start self-publishing, she found an illustrator to bring her stories to life, and Palmetto Publishing took interest in helping get her books out there. In April 2022, Davis-Boyd published her first book in the series, “Grandma Has a Mouse in Her House.”
“When that book was finished and I read it to everybody, that message of treating everyone how you want to be treated, really resonated with people and I felt, OK, this is the one that’s going to make a difference, so we’re going to put this out there,” Davis-Boyd said. As Davis-Boyd has made whirlwind efforts to promote her work around the peninsula, she’s gained some fans. “It’s been amazing because still to this day, every time someone tells me their kids are reading it over and over, it hits me like the first time I heard that and that feeling never goes away. It’s a proud moment every time,” Davis-Boyd said.
But perhaps her biggest fan is the one she dedicated the book to—her mother, Anna Louise Davis. “I dedicated the book to my mom because she was really sick when I wrote the book and I was going to surprise her with it, but she was very ill, and in the hospital, and she told me and my sister that she didn’t want to live with this pain. We left thinking she was going to leave this world. But I told her I wrote this book and I wanted to dedicate it to her and use the money from it to help her for the rest of her life, and the next day, I came into the hospital, and she was sitting up in her bed saying, ‘Sharmeika, read the book to me again.’ I truly believe this brought her back to life, knowing she is in this book and the world is going to see her name on the first page,” Davis-Boyd said. “That’s a testimony to me that I was meant to write these books. It brought my mother back to life and now she comes out with me to book signings, and she autographs that first page with her name.”
Davis-Boyd recently attended the opening ceremony for the new Far Rockaway Library and is going through the process to officially get in on the shelves. Meanwhile, many others have been taking notice, like Assemblyman Khaleel Anderson, Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers and The BRIDGE Family Enrichment Center, who have all invited her to events to help promote her work.
“Grandma Has a Mouse in Her House” is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and most online bookstores. She’s working on getting two other books in the series published but lacks the funds to fully move the process forward. After celebrating her 50th birthday last week, she immediately gave some of her birthday money to her publisher as she inches closer to full publication. For updates on those future books and book reading events, make sure to follow qikykidz on Instagram or check out her website at: www.qikykidz.com
In the meantime, Davis-Boyd is open to anyone offering help with the publication process, building her website, getting her book into libraries and any other advice. She can be reached by email at info@qikykidz.com or qikykidz@gmail.com
