Teacher expands her resume to include author

For FLES teacher Jasminne Paulino, she has always considered herself a writer. She said as a child she often spent time organizing her thoughts on paper and writing out questions to ask.

“Writing,” she said, “is a space that allowed me to be me.”

All of that time spent with pen to paper has now been formalized in her debut novel, The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez.

Ms. Paulino explained that as a child who wrote and grew up to be an educator and a parent, that all helped her develop her story. 

“Seeing how in my world as an educator there are kids who get lost in the midst of everything,” she said. “Fast forward, I had a child who was in a self-contained classroom. I always said he was a ‘gray area kid.’”

“The young me, the educator and parent me, I had to sit with all of that. I had those voices all along.”

Her book tells the story of Alex, a seventh grader who was put in a self-contained classroom, who loves NASA and anything space related and yearns to be accepted for who he is from both his teachers and schoolmates and for everyone to know that he is capable of much more than the labels put on him.

The teacher said that as a child who loved to read (The Babysitters Club, Goosebumps and Nancy Drew series being among her favorites) there were very few characters in books who represented someone like herself, a Latino girl. She wanted to incorporate a sense of her personal heritage into her own story, to that end readers get to meet Alex Ramirez, a young boy of Latino descent like herself. To further reflect his heritage and culture in the story, Ms. Paulino incorporated some Spanish too.

“I think it’s important to know, especially for readers who have lived in this world of two languages and cultures,” she said. “I loved being in a space of teachers, children, languages and culture.”

“In a way, writing this was a nod to me as a child,” she continued.

In addition, the book focuses on a neuro-divergent character, something also rarely seen in books. Ms. Paulino, who describes herself as neurodivergent, has an understanding of how one copes and how the adults around them behave. Fortunately for Alex, in her story, his parents are aware their son needs support and are an advocate for him and help ensure he is seen.

Ms. Paulino took advantage of her early morning bouts of creativity and found time in the early hours during the pandemic to sit and write. 

“That safe space of the morning helped me discipline myself as a writer,” she said.

While the story is fiction, Ms. Paulino said that there are things she took from her own life and experience that incorporated into the story. 

“The character, Alex, his world became my real world,” she said.

The novel was a years-long process. Ms. Paulino said for so long it had been a manuscript printed on paper, that by the time she got to pick up the real hard copy it took her some time to realize that was indeed HER book.

Since the book has come out, Ms. Paulino has shared it with her students. The response has been a series of questions, such as is she famous now. 

“They were excited to see my full name on the cover and a photo of me on the back,” Ms. Paulino said with a laugh.

As to whether or not she’s ready to surrender her early morning time to another book, Ms. Paulino admitted it could happen.

“I love the sister character,” she said. “Being in that special needs sibling role. I see myself down the road giving her her own story.”

The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez is available at local book retailers and on Amazon.