“I was working in the financial services industry,” Basdeo explained, “and I decided I wasn’t available enough to my children.” She started looking for alternative income sources that would enable her to stay home. “Children need molding,” she said. “I started thinking outside the box, looking for a way to be at home while still contributing financially.”

Basdeo started an event-decorating business, providing the setting for a range of functions and parties. “Besides being a lot of work, the margins weren’t that great,” she said. “The economy is tight, and people often didn’t want to pay.”

Her eureka moment came when her then 5-year-old son came home excited about a school experiment. “The first book was a recreation of something that happened in real life,” she said. “He’d done the apple experiment,” in which he placed an apple in a bowl of water. It floated. Then he explained why.

Basdeo realized that other children might be both entertained and educated by the episode, so she decided to write her first book, “K.C. & Kayla’s Science Corner: The Apple Experiment.” Using fictionalized versions of her own children, Kayla, age 8, and K.C., who turned 6 last week, Basdeo wrote a 22-page book. “It was fun,” she said, “and I thought it could reach other children and inspire them. So I thought, why not write a science series?”

She wrote a second book exploring the nature of matter, followed by a third book on the life cycle of apples. She is at work on a fourth book and expects it to be published at year’s end. She is planning two more after that. All focus on STEM learning — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Carl Deris, a young colleague at the bank where she was working, illustrationed the first book. “I saw him doodling one day,” Basdeo said, “and I asked him if he’d ever done any professional work.” Although he had been trained as a graphic artist, he had little professional experience. “When I had the idea for the first book, he was the first person I thought of,” she said. Romualdo Mera Jr. illustrated her second and third stories.

The books are published by MindStir Media and retail for $14.99 each. Each takes about six weeks to write and another 90 days to produce and publish, according to Basdeo. The books have the same three characters: Kayla, K.C. and Mom. The storylines are simple and easy to follow, as are the relationships in the stories. Each book ends with a meal.

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