Daniels pens children's book to teach positivity: 'There's always a silver lining'

Maria Daniels

In her new children’s book, “Good Dreams, Good Things,” South Side resident Maria Daniels writes about a boy named Colvin who is scared of the dark.

”He's scared of the dark because he thinks the monsters come out in the dark, so he doesn't want to go to sleep,” Daniels told The Suburban Marquee. “His mother persuaded him to go to sleep and she tells him if he thinks of good things, the monsters will go away.”

The books takes the reader through Colvin’s sleep and potential issues that could have bad results.

“One of the things is that he and a friend are playing ball in the rain, but they continue to play ball because they find out that it's fun to play ball in the rain," Daniels said. "They slide in the mud and jump in the water and things of that nature.” 

But then potential trouble arrives.

“The ball goes over into the neighbor's yard," Daniels said. "But when they go over to the neighbor's yard to retrieve the ball, they find a doll that had been misplaced or lost, and that Colvin's sister had been looking for. So those are some good results that have come out of what potentially could have been a bad day.”

It’s all about perspective, Daniels said.

“There's always a silver lining somewhere,” she said. “You know, don't get bummed out if it doesn't go the way that you thought it should go, because there's always going to be something positive that comes out of it.”

If the plot sounds like it came from the mind of a teacher, it did. Daniels is a teacher, having taught in the Chicago Public Schools.

“I'm certified in Kindergarten through 12, but the bulk of my career was teaching Kindergarten,” she said. “And this is where I've had these conversations with the little babies about being scared of the dark and things of that nature.”

Both of Daniels' parents were also educators, and she said she was one of those kids who always kept a diary.

“And I think I'm creative by nature,” she said. “I'm a Gemini. So that's that part of that brain that likes to create.”

Now that she has published a book, Daniels wants to help other writers publish as well. She also has other books mind.

“I have a novel in my computer that I kind of started some years ago,” she said. “I kind of dip into it and add to it."

Learn more about Daniels at http://twentyrosespublishing.weebly.com.