A Woodbury mother is determined to make a difference. She wants to inspire the future generation, and she is doing just that with her latest book, Someday My Love.
Niki Bhatia, who is a teacher at Levittown’s Northside Elementary School, is an AIS/RTI interventionist, working with kids who have difficulty in math and reading. Over the years, through her own experiences as a mother and educator, she knows exactly what a book should provide.
“Parents will read a book and they won’t know how to progress with it,” Bhatia said. “I would love for parents to make an experience out of it. It doesn’t have to be anything on paper in pen. But it can expand reading a little more to discuss things in the book. It was necessary for me to put that in there.”
Someday My Love spurred into Bhatia’s head while walking around with her son, Sid, who was 3 and a half years old at the time. The book jumps into the future, enabling parents and kids to realize the importance of living in the moment.
The children’s book details the life a father and his child, Pappa Panda and Pepper, who spend a day in the city. While walking around, Pepper realizes something special about the adults around the two and begins to think about his career possibilities. But Pappa just wants to enjoy the precious moment with his child.
“He was watching people mow the lawn and said, ‘I want to be a lawnmower guy,’” Bhatia, a mother of two, said. “I was like oh sure, go right ahead. But the idea developed from there. I wrote a poem called Someday and that talks about how someday, you’ll be this or that. I turned that poem into a story.”
Bhatia believes this book is different than others.
“I wanted the father to be the main part of the story,” she said. “The whole point of the book is for children to read it with their fathers, understand that your parents love you so much and they just want to hold onto you.”
Her first book, Pink is Just a Color and So is Blue, is about gender stereotypes, a trend she feels needs to be discussed. In the future, she hopes to publish more children’s books. She already has ideas cooking for some of them.
“It’s hard to come up with something that’s gender neutral so it has a wider audience,” she said. “I have a lot of writing that I’ve done that I hope to get published soon.”
Bhatia’s books are available on Amazon and at www.niketabhatia.blogspot.com.
