Bel Air woman authors children's book with character with Down syndrome

May 17—A Bel Air woman has written a children's book that features a main character with Down syndrome.

"Not Down, Up Mommy!" is the debut book by Antoinette Scaffidi, 62, who spent more than 30 years as a general manager and business owner in the insurance industry before she turned to writing. She said the idea for the book, which breathes life into a character named Michael, a child with Down syndrome, has been in her mind since her nephew, Michael, was born with Down syndrome in 1991.

"When Michael was born there weren't many characters with Down Syndrome in children's books," said Scaffidi. "I thought about it for many years and decided I wanted to make a difference."

The book explores what it means to be different when the character Michael demonstrates that he takes the game of "hide and seek" seriously and no one can find him.

"When my nephew was born, I looked for books for his older siblings to help them understand about their new baby brother, to no avail," said Scaffidi, who describes herself as a devoted aunt. "At that time, I thought it could be helpful to families with older siblings to introduce a character in a book with Down syndrome."

While this is the first book for Scaffidi, a longtime Bel Air resident, she has other books planned outside of the children's genre coming in July, including "Quincy's Love Lives Forever," "Everything I Love About My Wife," and "Everything I Love About My Husband," all published by Nexus Publishing.

"Not Down, Up Mommy!" will be available next week on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.