Annette Phillip is sitting down, putting pen to paper and deciding that the children of her region deserve stories that belong to them. For Phillip, that decision did not happen all at once. It happened in a writing class, over a fable about a bunny, and a moment of recognition that changed everything.
- Something clicked, she recalls. I loved it so much that I began to see it as a children’s book.
- A Writer Who Grew Into Her Purpose
- [Additional Read: From Trinidad to Harlem: A Caribbean Writer’s Journey Back to Storytelling]
- Bringing Books Back Home
- More Than a Storybook
- I want children to walk away knowing that their feelings are valid, that they are not alone, and that they have the ability to make positive choices even in difficult situations, she says.
- There are many talented writers in the Caribbean, she says, but without the right support and distribution, their work does not always reach the children who need it.
- The Business of Being an Author
- Being an independent author means you are both the creative and the business, she says plainly. It’s not always easy, but it gives you control over your vision.
- A Voice Across Genres
- The Legacy She Is Building
- If my work inspires even one child or reader to feel seen, to read more, or to believe in their own story, then I feel I’ve done what I was meant to do.
Something clicked, she recalls. I loved it so much that I began to see it as a children’s book.
That fable became “Sammy’s Curious Adventure,”the first in her now-complete six-book “Sammy the Bunny“ series. Published in December 2019, it marked the beginning of a journey that has taken Phillip from the classrooms of New York City to schools and libraries across St. Kitts and beyond. But the story of how she got here is as layered and intentional as the books she writes.
Photo courtesy of illustrator Eric Hutchison
A Writer Who Grew Into Her Purpose
Phillip’s love for writing started young. She spent years accumulating a stack of poems before she felt ready to share her work with the world. In 2017, she enrolled in writing classes, not because she doubted herself, but because she wanted to go deeper into the craft. That decision paid off in ways she never expected.
When her instructor encouraged her to develop the bunny fable into a full children’s story, Phillip reached out to a friend who worked in illustration and graphic design. That collaboration gave Sammy a face, a world and eventually, a series of life lessons that Caribbean children are still responding to today.
Photo courtesy of illustrator Eric Hutchison
The character of Sammy was inspired by a child Phillip once babysat in New York. She chose a bunny deliberately. “As a professional nanny, I read stories about animals to the children, and they seemed to love bunnies, cats, and dogs,” she explains. The name Sammy felt right too, warm and familiar, the kind of name a child would trust.
[Additional Read: From Trinidad to Harlem: A Caribbean Writer’s Journey Back to Storytelling]
Bringing Books Back Home
After years of building her publishing foundation in the United States, Phillip recently returned to the Caribbean, specifically to St. Kitts. She arrived not as a newcomer to the industry, but as someone who had already figured out the logistics of self-publishing and was ready to apply them in a new context.
She orders author copies through Amazon, mails them to her U.S. box, and distributes them to schools and libraries during scheduled visits. She reached out to the Ministry of Education and the local library and found open doors. In July 2025, she was included in a summer program, and the chief education officer circulated her letter to public schools. She now visits classrooms, reads the Sammy series aloud, and donates books where she can.
“It has been an amazing experience,” she says, and the simplicity of that statement carries real weight. The most complicated part, she admits, is the waiting. Some responses take time. So she follows up, stays patient, and keeps showing up.
Photo courtesy of Annette Phillip
More Than a Storybook
What makes the Sammy series so resonant is not just the illustrations or the accessible language. It is the fact that Phillip made a deliberate choice to center real childhood experiences: curiosity, bullying, sharing, friendship, and emotional growth. These are not abstract lessons. They are the things children are already living through, and Sammy gives them a language for it.
I want children to walk away knowing that their feelings are valid, that they are not alone, and that they have the ability to make positive choices even in difficult situations, she says.
She is also direct about the larger gap her work is trying to fill. Caribbean children deserve to see their lives reflected in the books they read and that still does not happen enough. She calls for more structured systems connecting local authors to educational institutions, more investment in distribution, and more support for the writers already doing this work without much infrastructure behind them.
There are many talented writers in the Caribbean, she says, but without the right support and distribution, their work does not always reach the children who need it.
The Business of Being an Author
Phillip does not shy away from talking about the business side of being an independent author. She manages her own Amazon account, creates her own content and reels, runs her own website, and handles outreach to schools and institutions herself. She has had to learn marketing, distribution, and community building alongside the craft of writing.
Being an independent author means you are both the creative and the business, she says plainly. It’s not always easy, but it gives you control over your vision.
That sense of ownership extends beyond logistics. She sees herself as building a small literary brand, and she thinks more Caribbean creatives need to shift into that same mindset. Valuing your work means learning how to manage it.
For Caribbean women stepping into self-publishing without a roadmap, she offers one clear piece of advice: do not wait for perfection. “Growth comes through doing,” she says. “Your story matters, and you don’t need permission to share it.”
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A Voice Across Genres
The Sammy series is only one dimension of Phillip’s creative output. She is also the author of “Nola’s Metamorphosis,” a novel that explores Caribbean identity, resilience, and personal transformation, and “Her Words Unleashed,” a poetry collection rooted in vulnerability and emotional truth.
Moving between children’s literature, fiction and poetry requires her to adjust her entire approach. With Sammy, she focuses on clarity and simplicity. With Nola, she goes deeper into complex emotional territory. With her poetry, she gives herself permission to be raw.
But her Caribbean identity, she says, never leaves. It simply expresses itself differently depending on the form. “Being Caribbean is not something I switch on and off depending on the genre. It is the foundation of my voice.”
Photo courtesy of illustrator Eric Hutchison
The Legacy She Is Building
When asked what she hopes people will say when they look back on her body of work, Phillip’s answer is both humble and ambitious. She wants people to say she created stories that mattered, stories that were honest and reflective of real life, especially for children and readers who do not always see themselves represented.
If my work inspires even one child or reader to feel seen, to read more, or to believe in their own story, then I feel I’ve done what I was meant to do.
That is the legacy Annette Phillip is actively building, one school visit, one donated book, and one carefully written sentence at a time.
