ABOVE: Fairmont native, Kevin Edwards, with his latest children’s book, “Minni Whinny Ventures Out.”

FAIRMONT — Kevin Edwards is a man with deep roots in the Fairmont community, and he is using his background in psychology to make stories that will provide children with examples of life skills.

“My mom used to attend yard and garage sales, and she dealt with migraines so I always had to play quietly growing up,” Edwards said. “She brought home marbles one day and I created this game sort of similar to freeze tag where some marbles were the good guys and others had negative power, so when I wrote my first set of books, “Marble Wars,” they were more of the traditional hero story.”

“Marble Wars” was Edwards first trilogy of children’s books, but now he is aiming for different content with life lessons being a part of the story in his new release, “Minni Whinny Ventures Out”.

His new book “Minni Whinny Ventures Out,” delves into the concept of building character strengths from a young age.

Character strengths can be things such as honesty, loving to learn and other traits that people should aspire to have.

In the new book, the story is based around a universe where there is the normal large world but also a small world that avoids contact with the big human world.

Edwards’ first book series was based less on his psychology background, but the new tale incorporates some of those ideas.

“This one is about character strength. I work with people who deal with mental health issues and we come up with treatment plans to help them in their day-to-day lives,” Edwards said. “I went to a training session once and they talked about character strengths, like truthfulness, and my book will hopefully send the message to kids that it’s never too early to work on character strengths.”

The story deals with a mini horse named “Whinny” who belongs to a small universe that is always around our own. Winnie ends up in a predicament where a decision must be made, and it may ruffle some feathers. The book aims to show kids that sometimes rules must be broken in order to do the right thing or help others.

Edwards grew up in Fairmont as previously mentioned, graduating from Fairmont High School in 1978.

He went on to attend Minnesota State University in Mankato before going to the University of Kansas in Lawrence for a PhD in psychology.

He hopes to turn “Minni Whinny Ventures Out” into a series similar to what he did with his “Marble Wars” trilogy.

“It would be fun to do a series on Mini Whinny and expand to more character strengths,” Edwards said. “My first series was less psychology focused and more for fun, so I’d like to do more with this if I can.”

Edwards shared how he got into creating a book series.

“It’s fun, a lot of us feel a creative self in us, it’s been on my bucket list,” Edwards said. “I received a grant for a photography mentorship program, so all the photos in “Mini Winnie” are done by me, so there is a lot of creativity involved, even the dam here in Fairmont is in the book.”

He didn’t mince words about it being a collaborative effort. His skills take him so far, but there is always a support system in place.

“It takes more than me doing the book, sometimes it takes a lot of people getting involved to learn your creative path, it’s a cooperative adventure,” Edwards said.

Edwards’ book “Minni Whinny Ventures Out” is available on Amazon following a couple of corrections, and he gave a sneak peak of a future book project titled, “My First ABC Streetrod,” which will discuss his love for hotrod cars among other topics.