Leslie Vaughn, Author
Leslie has her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her master’s from Stanford University. She and her husband of over 30 years live in Detroit, MI, and have 8 children, the first 7 of whom she taught to read. Their youngest, however, was not picking up enough to read independently. At the age of 8 he tested at kindergarten level. Leslie was crushed. Somehow, with the best of intentions, she had failed him.
That led Leslie to take a deep dive into something she’d never heard of before, the science of reading. Finally, hope! While becoming fully trained and tutoring her own son at home, she began volunteering at her son’s school and joined the battle for literacy. Her son soon made multiyear gains and became a proficient reader. Relief.
Talking and working with teachers, students, parents, and administrators, she noticed one particular weapon missing: culturally relevant material students wanted to read written at a level they actually could read and intellectually rigorous enough to be used by teachers whole class.
Bus Stop Books was born.
Erika Villarreal Bunce, Artist
Erika, the illustrator of Just the Beginning, is an artist whose career has taken different forms through her community-based work over the past 20 years. Erika has an MFA from Purdue University and has worked and exhibited as an artist as well as served in the arts education sector in Michigan and other states. She is honored to be part of this work
Lamarr Sanders, Artist
Lamarr is a husband and father of 4 who lives in Detroit, MI. He and his wife, Monique, run Our Hour, a business that offers mobile art parties and classes for children and adults. He is a graduate of the College for Creative Studies. Bus Stop Blues is his third illustrated book.