Dainty Nix was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the youngest of five children, and raised in Trench Town. This area is renowned to the world as the birthplace of reggae music. To the people who live there, however, it is a place very best remembered in terms of the deprivation that exists within. Her first memories were not, however, of music or things bright and beautiful, but rather of taunting and solitude.
“They called me Moony because I have this very wide and flat face,” she recalled. “At home, they call me blacky-bow because I am very dark.” At school, the kids skipped in circles round her chanting derision. At home, there was precious little love. “My mother never held me tight nor said she loved me. I grew up without love and affection.”
At 14, her mother went to the “big place”-America. Dainty was placed in a boarding home and saw life much the same. “They called me Trench Town Rat,” she said. Below all this, she had-within-her “sadness that never left.” She never smiled, lapsed into rarely laughed, and became painfully shy.
Yet through all that darkness, there was one ray of light: education. “The greatest dream of mine was to have an education,” she said. “By having an education, I would make change in society.”
At 17, she graduated high school in Jamaica and followed her mother to the United States. Her father, now back into her life after being gone because she was five, did not matter, for Dainty had her own course already planned. For a year, she worked and saved enough to pay for college, and now embarked on her dream.
She used to see herself as a doctor. “In my mind, that was the highest profession ever,” she said. But when she volunteered at a hospital, she soon discovered that it was not her calling. Her real path revealed itself in an unexpected way through her own children.
Finding Purpose through the Classroom
“When my son started school,” she said, “I wanted to learn more about the system. That’s when the change happened.” Teaching awakened something of which she had never known herself to be capable.
“My students brought out my personality. They saw in me what I didn’t see in myself.” In no time, her classroom became a second home, and the shy girl from Trench Town metamorphosed into “Mama Nix,” mother to countless children.
She brought into her teaching the scars of her own childhood. “I made the decision not to leave any child behind. I wanted to be the role model I never had.”
She would go on to teach at F. H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts and Performing Arts in New York City, quite the famous school, packed with generations of performers. Arriving bright and early before the first bell, she got down to work with students, often residing back in the Pocono Mountains, in order to be less travel-tied.
One day, a student ran breathlessly into her classroom. “I didn’t come to school all day today,” the girl confessed, “but I came in the last period just to see you.” For Nix, who taught math, a topic usually dreaded, it is a moment indelibly etched in memory.
Her efforts bore fruit. Her students were among the best scorers nationally on the Regents Exam. Before her kids who were daunted by the cafeteria, she opened her classroom door and had them share lunch with her. In all things, she sought to erase the solitude of her childhood.
“I want my students to lead the best lives they can possibly lead,” she said. “I know from my own childhood that what you go through as a child sticks with you for the rest of your life.”
Becoming a Writer from Teacher
Her retirement from New York after years therein was followed by her coming to Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania as an adjunct math professor. The ease of the pace gave her time to pursue another calling that went into children’s book writing.
The debut book, Rosa the Little Ant and the Great Big Elephant (Amazon link: http://a.co/d/3gwbyAS), was inspired by the civil rights icon named Rosa Parks. “That is why I named the little ant Rosa,” she explained. The tiny red ant whose home came crashing down because of elephants vows to guard her new village, and, through bravery and steadfastness, gives it all her best shot to face what might appear to be an unbeatable opponent.
The comparisons to Nix’s own tale are uncanny. Like Rosa, she knows what it feels like to be small, overlooked, and underestimated. And like Rosa, she refused to accept defeat.
“When I was a child, I was often picked on,” she said. “I believe words are wind. I ignored the teasing. But if you touch me, I will stand up and show the other side of me.”
She now teaches lessons on bravery, persistence, and self-worth through Rosa. “No matter how small you are, you can stand up for your rights,” she said. “When I write my children’s books, that has been my motive: to motivate and uplift young people.”
A Book that Carries a Bigger Message
Lines of review of Rosa the Little Ant and the Great Big Elephant rave about both its gift and its impact.
Readers’ Favorite had the book’s balance between fun and education and its use of onomatopoeia to catch children’s attention while offering a lesson about resilience. “This book is a fun read for your child but can lead to conversations that will protect them throughout their life,” reviewer Philip Van Heusen wrote.
Likewise, the US Review of Books praised its educational weight because it accurately imitates the real-life behavior of ants as lessons in consequence and bravery to little readers.
Beneath all the professional reviews, however, Nix values feedback from the heart. One student at Northampton Community College recently wrote to her:
“Thank you. Without your positivity and approach to teaching the subject, I wouldn’t be half as confident as I am right now in math, compared to how I have experienced this subject previously.”
That note, she says, is what keeps driving her forward.
Establishing a legacy
Nix now stays in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, with her husband, surrounded by the Poconos. She continues teaching math at Northampton Community College while working on new books. She has already written seven other picture books and a middle-grade novel, with Rosa the Little Red Ant and the Creatures of Nature planned as a sequel.
In addition, she is currently earning her Certificate in Children’s Book Writing from the University of California, San Diego Extension. “I got an A+ in all my courses, except for one in which I got an A,” she said with pride. Her final course, “Getting Published,” will be completed in 2026.
But at the end of all the awards, her mission is simple: to make a positive impact in the lives of young readers and students. “To be successful, you have to believe in it. Start picturing your success now. Replace your fears and hating feelings with love. Remember, love conquers all fears. Yes, you can!”
Why Her Story Matters
Nix, in many ways, walks the road that tells the tale of Rosa the ant. Both started from small beginnings, had their share of hindrances, and found strength in situations under which most would have surrendered.
From the lonely girl in Trench Town called “Moony” and “Trench Town Rat,” she became the beloved “Mama Nix” of LaGuardia High School. Her lifeline is evidence that a person can be truly resilient, have an education and be optimistic.
But her books are not just for fun for children: they are moral lessons in courage, empathy and hope. They even remind the smallest child that he or she might make a difference.
And this: “Through love, focus, and dedication, achieving your dreams will not be an impossible task. Believe, and you will achieve.”
Where to Find Her Work
- Rosa the Little Ant and the Great Big Elephant on Amazon: https://a.co/d/3gwbyAS
- Author website: https://www.daintynixbooks.com/
- US Review of Books Review: Link
- Pacific Book Review: Link
- Readers’ Favorite Review: Link
