David Asrkiy with his book.
A 14-year-old Pennbrook Middle School student is now a published author.
David Arskiy, who lives in North Wales, has just published
Long Travel, a children’s book about "a brave penguin finding his way home.”
The book, available on Amazon, is described as "a story about never giving up, even in challenging environments, and finding your own way.”
David wrote it from the heart, and from his own experiences. When he was 10, he and his family relocated from the U.S. to Switzerland for work, and he had to navigate a new world with a new language, new culture, and new relationships.
He wrote
Long Travel, at age 11, as a school assignment.
"It was a scary and unusual time for him,” said his mother, Anna Li. She and her husband are themselves immigrants to the U.S., having moved from Uzbekistan in 2005. "I see that David used his personal emotional struggles in navigating challenging times when he wrote this book.”
When she read his work, Anna said, "I was in tears, because the message touched me so much. Every mother is proud of her children, but this book was something special. I encouraged David to have the book published as I could see that he can impact many children with this positive message of never giving up.”
The Amazon reviews uniformly agree.
"This is such a beautiful story about a child's worst fear; not being able to find his way back home,” reads one review. "David Arskiy has a bright future as an author and story teller.” Says another: "What a wonderful book! Written in approachable language, a treat and a fresh perspective to share with your kids at bedtime.”
Not incidentally, the illustrator with whom David and Anna worked also has personal, painful experience with having her life uprooted. Natalia Duda is Ukrainian, and started work on the book just before the war with Russia began.
"She had to flee with her baby to a safe place while her husband stayed to fight for his country,” said Anna. "Natalia decided to continue working on the illustrations because it helped keep her mind off an otherwise horrible situation.”
David was so touched by the situation, Anna said, he decided to donate a portion of
Long Travel's proceeds to
the Children of Ukraine Foundation.
David, whose mom describes him as "very shy,” had no comments for this story. She says David is currently focused on his advanced math and geometry studies at Pennbrook, but is considering writing and publishing more in the future.
"David would never say that himself, but I think this is a hidden talent of his,” Anna said. "Just last year, we got a letter from his English teacher letting us know that his poem was nominated to be published in a book of poems. It was eventually published, so David became a published author before he published his own book.”
