Music teacher releases children's book
By Kirsten Ballard
Published in News on March 11, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
LaVone Hicks reads to a small group at Steele Memorial Library in Mount Olive Monday during her book signing event. Hicks, a music teacher at Carver Elementary, has recently turned a real life story from when she was five years old into a children's book.
Big Dessa lumbered into the Steele Memorial Library on Monday afternoon. She leaned heavily on her cane.
She wore a long blue dress and her white hair was curled for the occasion.
She was there to read a very special story in the children's section.
LaVone Hicks is Goldsboro's newest author. The Carver Elementary music teacher wears her matronly Big Dessa get-up for her readings of her first children's book.
"The Thing That Lived Upstairs" is the chilling, true tale of a mysterious haunting in her childhood home. The book, written for children ages 5 through 12, follows the main character Vone through her nightly fears as she lies in bed listening to the "kathumps" coming from the empty room above her.
On the back of the paperback book is a photo of young Mrs. Hicks at age 5, when she lived in the "haunted house."
This is her second book. Her first, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire -- Life Lessons Learned," was a financial guide that she self-published in August.
"The Thing That Lived Upstairs" did not take her long to write. She estimates that the writing process took three weeks.
"The story was already there," she said.
It was a story that she has been telling to her students for years now.
Her students were the ones who recommended she write the book in the first place.
"I had never thought about (writing) it before," she said. She started telling it as a Halloween story, but the story has evolved into a platform to talk about fear and the power of speaking up.
"I felt better telling them a true story, instead of making something up," she said.
As part of her publicity circuit, she will be doing a reading at her church conference.
At the end of her readings, she likes to play the song "Brave" by Sara Bareilles.
She sells the books at her readings for $10 and signs them for the children.
During the readings, Mrs. Hicks pauses to ask questions and let the students react to the story. The audience yells "ewww" and giggle when the mysterious creature pees on Vone's bed.
"Even though they've heard it before," Mrs. Hicks laughed.
She did her first reading at the Goldsboro Public Library on Ash Street for the Dr. Seuss celebration. On Friday, she did three separate readings for the students of Carver Elementary. She says it will probably be her last book for a while, but that "The Thing That Lived Upstairs" will be a legacy for her students and her family.