A Bermudian author hopes to bridge the gap between literacy and sport with a children’s book about sticking to the wicket.

Karen Franks will sell 50 copies of Colourful Little Cricketers during the Bermuda Cricket Board’s community day on Thursday.

Ms Franks said the book came with music and could even build into a series.

She added: “I don’t even really know what to expect.

“It’s going to be a lot of books, but I’ve never launched at a cricket tournament before, so it’s going to be interesting for me and exciting.”

Colourful Little Cricketers follows four children from different parts of the world gaining life lessons through cricket with the help of a duck named Ducky.

Ms Franks explained that, in cricket, a duck refers to a batter getting dismissed for no score.

The writer added that she wanted to use Ducky to teach children how to bounce back from failure, the same way batters can come back from a duck in a cricket game.

Ms Franks said: “This duck symbolises encouragement and resilience, and it encourages a child to keep moving.

“As he says, sometimes things quack up, but we just pick ourselves back up and we keep trying.”

Ms Franks will appear at the BCB’s Cricket Community Day, which will take place just as the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup Americas Sub-Regional Qualifier reaches conclusion.

The matches have welcomed players from across the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

The activity book comes complete with a digital music album accessible by a QR code on the book to make the story more entertaining.

Ms Franks said she liked to approach her projects from a multimedia perspective to help children learn better.

She added that getting youngsters interested in sport and literacy was a critical way of teaching them different lessons.

Ms Franks explained that learning to stick with sport helped children overcome adversity and learn how to remain dedicated to something even when it becomes hard.

She added that reading was crucial to helping children learn through using their imagination and critical thinking skills.

Ms Franks said: “There’s so much illiteracy in the world and when you have illiteracy you end up having problems, you have crime issues and you have social issues.

“So it’s so important to inspire our kids when they’re young through literacy.”

She added: “If kids don’t love to read, how do we inspire them? We inspire them through other things in life, so cricket or sport is another way to inspire kids.”

Ms Franks said she had “great hopes” for Colourful Little Cricketers, which include translating the book into Spanish and Portuguese, and building a curriculum around the book.

She added that she hoped to write a sequel exploring the different ducks one could get in cricket and the lessons that could be learnt from them.

Colourful Little Cricketers will sell for $20 at the community event before being made available at LF Wade International Airport and Brown & Co at later dates.

The event will take place on the North Field at National Sports Centre from 11.30am on Thursday.