Stories That Inspire & Empower

👨‍👧 Behind the Book

Meet Thandi's Dad

Jaquan grew up in a military family, living all over the United States and the Caribbean before eventually settling in the Adirondacks — where the family still holds 80 acres of land today. That life of movement and the natural world left a deep mark. He met his wife Mikaela at Princeton University, and together they made a deliberate choice to put down roots in rural New Jersey — close enough to community, far enough to ride.

Today they're raising three daughters there. Thandi, the oldest, was Jaquan's first student in two of life's most important early lessons — reading and riding a bike. She learned to ride on a balance bike, skipping training wheels entirely, and was pedaling confidently just before her fifth birthday. Her two younger sisters eventually followed the same path. Now all three ride together on the Delaware-Raritan Canal Tow Path — the same open trails and big skies that fill the pages of this book.

The falls, the tears, the "I can't do it" moments, and the breakthrough that makes it all worth it — those are real. Every page of Pedal Pedal was shaped by the actual experience of running alongside a little bike, letting go, and watching a daughter discover what she was capable of.

Why this story, and why this girl?

It can be hard to find children's books that center young Black girls in a playful, whimsical, overcoming light — as the hero of their own outdoor adventure. Jaquan wanted his daughters to see themselves in the stories they read, the same way he saw himself running alongside them on that trail. Pedal Pedal is that book for them, and for every family where that kind of reflection is rare and precious.

The same spirit runs through everything in this family's world — the trails, the farm, the chicks they've raised from babies. And those 80 Adirondack acres? Still in the family, with an Airbnb coming soon.