My Young Learners Spence Heritage Press

Mount Vernon, New York · Ages 4 to 12

Books that grow with your reader.

Nineteen titles from one author and one small press. A feelings book for a four-year-old who can't find the words. A coloring volume for a first grader learning who Katherine Johnson was. A chapter adventure for a fifth grader who wants a real story. Different ages, same shelf.

Find books by age For schools & centers
Cover of I Don't Know How to Say It Cover of The Dream Book: Granny Glo's Recipe Cover of The Shiba Force: The Stilling

How old is your reader?

Pick an age. The shelves below narrow to what fits.

The Feelings Shelf · New

The SEL Picture Book Collection

Ages 4–6 · Read-aloud picture books · $13.99 each · $59.99 for all five

Five stories about the hardest part of being small: having a feeling and not having the words for it. Each book takes one skill and gives it a story, and each one ends with a Note for Grown-Ups so you know what to say afterward. Together they cover all five CASEL competencies, which is why preschools buy the set rather than picking one.

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  • I Don't Know How to Say ItCover of I Don't Know How to Say It

    Self-Awareness

    I Don't Know How to Say It

    A story about feelings and finding the words

    $13.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • Something Is HereCover of Something Is Here

    Self-Management

    Something Is Here

    A story about big feelings in your body

    $13.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • I Thought About ItCover of I Thought About It

    Responsible Decision-Making

    I Thought About It

    A story about pausing, thinking, and choosing

    $13.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • I Only Saw One SideCover of I Only Saw One Side

    Social Awareness

    I Only Saw One Side

    A story about what else could be true

    $13.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • We Both Had a PlanCover of We Both Had a Plan

    Relationship Skills

    We Both Had a Plan

    A story about speaking, listening, and planning together

    $13.99

    Buy on Amazon
See the full collection Classroom pricing

The Mystery Shelf · Book Two out now

ChiChi Rose & Red Fox, Private Investigators

Ages 4–6 · Picture book mystery series

Every clue tells a story. Three dog detectives, ChiChi Rose, Red Fox, and Chance, take on the small mysteries of growing up: the friend who went quiet, the toy that moved, the kid who seems cranky for no reason. The cases always end the same way, with somebody being paid attention to.

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  • The Case of the Cranky KidsCover of The Case of the Cranky Kids

    Book One

    The Case of the Cranky Kids

    By Lamont and Tanya Spence

    $12.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • The Case of the Vanishing VoiceCover of The Case of the Vanishing Voice

    Book Two

    The Case of the Vanishing Voice

    By Lamont and Tanya Spence

    $13.99

    Buy on Amazon

The History Shelf · New price

The Young Learners Series

Ages 4–7 · Coloring and biography · $9.99 each

Twenty Black historical figures per volume, each with an original portrait to color and a biography short enough for a kindergartner and accurate enough for a teacher. A four-year-old can absolutely understand who Dr. King was, if somebody writes it for her. Five volumes, one a day for a month of Black History.

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  • Black History TrailblazersCover of Volume One: Black History Trailblazers

    Volume One

    Black History Trailblazers

    Portraits of Determination · Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    $9.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • Black Scientists & InventorsCover of Volume Two: Black Scientists and Inventors

    Volume Two

    Black Scientists & Inventors

    Portraits of Curiosity · Neil deGrasse Tyson

    $9.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • Black Leaders & ActivistsCover of Volume Three: Black Leaders and Activists

    Volume Three

    Black Leaders & Activists

    Portraits of Courage · Hamer, Rustin, Baker

    $9.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • Black Artists & MusiciansCover of Volume Four: Black Artists and Musicians

    Volume Four

    Black Artists & Musicians

    Portraits of Creativity · Armstrong, Fitzgerald

    $9.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • Black Women HeroinesCover of Volume Five: Black Women Heroines

    Volume Five

    Black Women Heroines

    Portraits of Excellence · Johnson, Jemison

    $9.99

    Buy on Amazon

The Family Story Shelf

Juneteenth & Family Stories

Ages 4–7 · Illustrated storybooks

Two read-alouds about how a family passes something down. One tells a grandchild what Juneteenth is. The other is about the day a boy understood who he was, and why he would remember it.

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  • Grandma Tells the Story of JuneteenthCover of Grandma Tells the Story of Juneteenth

    Storybook

    Grandma Tells the Story of Juneteenth

    $10.99

    Buy on Amazon
  • The Day I RememberCover of The Day I Remember

    Picture book

    The Day I Remember

    Illustrated by NanaBanana Pro

    $16.99

    Buy on Amazon

The Chapter Shelf · Book Four out now

The Shiba Force

Ages 8–10 · Illustrated fable series · $9.99 each

Memory, belonging, and the long way home. Three Shiba Inu, ChiChi, Chance, and Redd, cross mountain country trying to find their way back to the ones they love. The books are quieter than most adventure series and hit harder for it. Four volumes, meant to be read in order.

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The Chapter Shelf · New series

The Amazing Adventures of Bentley Rogers McGee

Ages 9–11 · Time-travel adventure series · $9.99

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Cover of The Amazing Adventures of Bentley Rogers McGee, Book One: The Last Lash and the First Freedom Buy on Amazon

Book One of five · Available now

The Last Lash & the First Freedom

The history books told him what happened. The watch showed him the truth.

On the morning of his thirteenth birthday, Grandma Loretta puts an old brass pocket watch in Bentley's hands, and everything he thought he knew becomes something he can feel. He arrives in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 and stands beside a man named Samuel as the words are finally read aloud. He witnesses the joy. He witnesses the fear underneath it. And he witnesses the enormous question the proclamation never answered: now what?

Bentley is a Witness. He cannot change what happened, but he carries what he sees back into the present. For readers of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Parker Inheritance, and the I Survived books.

The five-book journey

  • One. The Last Lash & the First Freedom Juneteenth, 1865
  • Two. When Thunder Walks Like a Man Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn 1947
  • Three. Boys Who Would Move Mountains Civil Rights, Alabama 1960s
  • Four. The Weight of the Pen March on Washington, 1963
  • Five. Something in the Water Harlem Renaissance, 1920s

New series

The Dream Book

Ages 9–12 · Chapter book series · $9.99

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Cover of The Dream Book: Granny Glo's Recipe, a Journee Maxwell story Buy on Amazon

Book One of five · A Journee Maxwell Story

Granny Glo's Recipe

Some dreams get handed to you. This one, she has to finish.

Journee Maxwell has started eleven businesses and finished exactly none of them. So when she finds her late grandmother's Dream Book, a worn notebook full of the dreams Granny Glo never got to, everyone figures she'll quit this one too. But dream number one is circled twice: sell Miss Glo's famous hot-honey cornbread, for real. The secret that made it hers was never written down.

Book one of a heartfelt, funny series about a girl finishing her grandmother's dreams, one at a time. For readers who like a heroine with a big mouth, a bigger heart, and a neighborhood that feels like home.

$9.99

Why families keep coming back

Three things that make these different.

Mirrors and windows

When a child sees Katherine Johnson on the cover of her own coloring book, she learns two things at once: who Katherine Johnson was, and that books like this include her. Black children need the mirror. Every other child needs the window.

Written down to the age, not dumbed down

A four-year-old can handle a real feeling and a real historical fact. What she can't handle is adult sentence length. We translate rather than water down, which is why these hold up when a teacher reads them out loud to a room.

One author, one shelf

These are not licensed properties assembled by a committee. They are written and published by one person in Mount Vernon, which is why the four-year-old's feelings book and the fifth grader's adventure sound like they came from the same house.

The publisher

Written and published in Mount Vernon, New York.

Lamont Spence started Spence Heritage Press because his own children kept bringing home books that did not have them in it. Every title on this page was written by him and published by a small independent press three blocks from where he lives. If you order locally, there is a real chance he drops it off himself.

The ChiChi Rose & Red Fox mysteries are co-written with Tanya Spence, who spent more than twenty years in a classroom and knows exactly how long you have before a group of five-year-olds stops listening.

Read the full story

Schools, Pre-K programs & centers

Bring the whole shelf into the classroom.

Direct pricing for districts, charter schools, Pre-K programs and childcare centers, with free local delivery in Westchester. The SEL collection maps to all five CASEL competencies, so a program can adopt the entire social-emotional block at once instead of stitching together five unrelated titles.

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