Author and speaker
Meet Kerry Phillips.
Kerry is the storyteller behind Captain Smiley. He grew up in Beulah, Alabama, in a large family, and community is still at the heart of the stories he writes.
How Captain Smiley began
Kerry remembers beginning a story while deployed to Kuwait with the Army in 2003. He imagined characters talking to each other, and shared what he wrote with fellow soldiers. Ideas still find their way onto loose sheets of paper and napkins.
He began developing Captain Smiley in 2020. His years in military service and in law enforcement shape how he thinks about listening and communicating.
He chose a graphic novel so the pictures could help tell the story. A child can read a face, a gesture or the space between two characters, and share what they notice, while the grown-ups listen.
Captain Smiley is fictional. Some of his specialties, like Army veteran, police officer and lover of the community, borrow from Kerry’s own life.
Kerry with young readers
Kerry has spoken at elementary schools, preschools, bookshops and career days in Alabama, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Stay in the Story
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