We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Louis Roberts, M.Ed. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Louis , thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I am the owner of Lou’s BluBooks. It is my self-publishing company for my books. The mission statement for my company is “Creating a Culture of Literacy.” This statement has deep personal meaning to me. I am a special educator in a local high school and I teach reading. My student population that I serve is 95% black and brown children. With each new group of students that I have had the privilege of serving, I have seen a pandemic of extremely low reading levels coupled with very little interest in reading. This was one of the biggest motivations for me to create books that my students can see themselves reflected in. It is my hope that they will see themselves and that an interest would be sparked in them. My students are always amazed when they learn that their teacher not only authors books, but owns a business. Several students will look on the internet and find my books and website and it plants the seed for them to dream bigger for themselves. It always plucks my heartstrings when a see a child pick up one of my books and see a character depicted in the illustrations that looks like them and become excited to read the story.

Louis , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have an amazing friend, Dr. Gloria Ann Kitchen, who owns a business called Children’s Island. She creates programming for children. Each February for Black History Month, she features different children’s book authors who have authored stories for black and brown children. During the pandemic, I supported her platform and became inspired to attempt writing my own children’s book. With her guidance, I was able to successfully author my first book, and it found international success. I received pictures of children in England, Japan, and South Korea reading my book and it was amazing.

With all I learned, I decided to write another book called “Brown Boy You Can Do Anything.” This book took my childhood as an inspiration. I was encouraged by my mother in my youth, to never fear the greatness that lies within. She taught me to follow my own passions and interests and see where they would take me in life. I wrote my book to motivate other black and brown boys who may not have encouragement at home, to follow their passions to success. They needed to know that everyone may not be a star athlete or musician, but whatever their talents may be will make a way for them in life. This book has made a way for me to do several speaking, vending, and signing events across the country. It also was chosen as a winner of the 2023 Self Ink It award. This award honors the work of self-published BIPOC authors from across the country. I am incredibly proud and honored to have received this incredible recognition.

I was also approached to become a part of an Amazon best-selling anthology. I was asked to represent my alma mater, Bethune-Cookman University, in the book “ The HBCU Experience: The HBCU Band Alumni 2nd Edition.” This book examines the experiences of successful HBCU graduates who participated in their university’s band program. We each contributed a chapter about how those experiences have influenced our lives. I was very excited to participate in this project.

It is my hope that I will be able to continue on this trajectory and continue to reach into the community and inspire people to be proud of who they are and their journey. I want to see black and brown youth improve their reading skill set and learn to love reading. I want to introduce as many children as possible to my characters and stories. I want them to see me as someone who is just like them and that through education and hard work, they can improve their station in life and achieve whatever their mind can imagine.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I am someone who has faced some major health battles in the last few years that my business has come into existence. During this period of time, I was a full-time grad student and I learned that I had a serious case of congestive heart failure. I was hospitalized for months in the height of the COVID pandemic and was given a 48-hour expectancy of survival. I was able to fight through that situation and lose over 200 lbs. in the process. From spending extended time in the hospital bed, I lost my ability to walk and had to fight my way back from that situation.

After that situation, I ended having a rare inflammation reaction to my COVID vacation and lost the ability to walk for a second time. The fight back from that was intense but I was able to do so and successfully complete my master’s degree. I was able to walk the stage with the help of a cane and walker.

I am still facing heath challenges, but through all of this adversity, I was resilient. I was still able to complete my education and become an award-winning, best-selling author and business owner.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

When I wrote “Brown Boy You Can Do Anything,” I placed ads on popular social media platforms to market and to take pre-orders. When my ads came across the pages of several bigoted people, my ads were attacked. I was accused of being a racial supremacist as well as teaching division to children. My inbox was flooded with hateful messages and I became very discouraged about whether or not I should release the book.

I was encouraged by my family and friends to remain committed to my book and its message. This is the same book that ended up winning a national literary competition and award. Had I given in to the hatred that was spewed in my direction by bigoted individuals who didn’t know me or my work, I would have been robbed of the many opportunities that this book has provided me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lousblubooks.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/lou_sblubooks?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LousBluBooks?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-d-roberts-m-ed-95107a120