What started as a writing piece for a school project has made Ava Perlin, a rising senior at Garrison Forest School and a Krieger Schechter Day School alum, an author.

On June 1, she published a children’s storybook, “One in a Millieon,” about her younger sister with Down syndrome.

Perlin started working on an assignment for her 11th grade English class at Garrison Forest called the “passion project” in which students spend multiple months cultivating a topic unrelated to the curriculum into a presentable final product to share with the class.

“I met with [my English teacher] Mrs. Miller and I told her that I wanted to do a project about inclusion and kindness, about my sister Millie, who has Down syndrome, because that’s something that’s always been very important to me,” Perlin said.

After meeting with Miller and doing some workshopping, Perlin decided to write a children’s book aimed at the siblings of children with disabilities, including Down syndrome, to teach them about the experience and explore the emotions around it.

Perlin said that when she was little, people wouldn’t know how to interact with Millie and they had lots of questions about Down syndrome.

“For most people at my elementary school, they’d never interacted with someone who had Down syndrome. What I noticed was no bad intentions, people just didn’t know [much about Down syndrome], and people were curious,” she said.

Perlin based the story on life experiences from years of growing up alongside Millie to offer insights into the thoughts and emotions behind being a sibling of a person with Down syndrome. She wanted to stress the values of kindness and inclusion and the importance of advocating for them.

Perlin said she targeted her story to younger kids in the four- to 12-year-old age range, but she added that she has received positive feedback from people outside of that range as well.

“I really wanted to write something that would help siblings in that same position know that it’s OK to be upset sometimes when people say things and they don’t know what they’re talking about, or they don’t know who they’re talking to. At the end of the day, advocacy, inclusion and kindness are the three most important values, and we as siblings are often their best advocates.”

Lauren Perlin, Ava and Millie’s mother, said the project wasn’t initially intended to be published, but after an overwhelmingly positive response from the Garrison Forest community, including an invitation to present the book to the Lower School, the family realized the scope of people’s interest in the story.

After the presentation to the Lower School, Perlin reworked parts of the story based on some of the reactions from the audience and to clarify parts where people got a bit lost in the narrative.

“I put together a final draft that I was really proud of. And then I put it into Kindle Direct Publishing, which is Amazon’s self-publishing program, and I had to edit it there. That [version] had to be reviewed. I had to make some more edits once that came back. And then I eventually submitted it again and it got approved,” Perlin said.

After it went live on the Amazon website, the family heard from many people who had known Millie when she was younger.

One of them was a doctor from Massachusetts who had led a workshop geared toward siblings of kids with Down syndrome that Ava had attended.

Ava said that experience had been another motivating factor in her writing the book, and she sent the doctor a copy after it was published.

“He [the doctor] responded, and he told me that he loves it, and he said that he’s going to keep it in his office to show to families who are just getting their Down syndrome diagnoses of their infants. It was a very positive reaction, and I was so proud to hear that this is something that could really help people,” Perlin said.

Ryan Perlin, Ava and Millie’s dad, said that watching Ava work through the process of writing this book has made him and Lauren Perlin very proud.

Lauren Perlin added that the climate of our world currently is not one of kindness, so having more books like “One in a Millieon,” showing the next generations the value of inclusion and respect, is a positive influence.

As for Millie, Lauren Perlin said she doesn’t love being the center of attention, but she’s had some positive experiences after the book’s release, like signing some autographs on people’s book copies.

For Ava, she said it’s been rewarding to hear about the impact of the book and how it’s spread through the community and beyond. She added that she’s hoping to continue reaching the people who need to read it the most and to advocate for Millie.

“I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where I’m very secure in advocating for her, because I know her and I know myself, and I just really wanted to get that across in the end of the book,” Ava said.

bhamelin@midatlanticmedia.com