Maya McFadden Photo
Chazareé and Darius Good.
When New Haven native Darius Good looks up at the stars, he sees his 1‑year-old daughter’s shining future.
Good’s daughter Riley is the main character of a new children’s book he has published, Adventures of RiRi: Stars Stars.
The book flows with a musical rhyme as the character Riley curiously wonders, “What happens to the stars during the day?”
Good graduated from Hillhouse High School and the University of New Haven with degrees in communications and music business. He began pursuing a music career after college in 2000 and ministry in 2002. He has been the senior pastor of his family’s church, the Bible Gospel Center in Hamden, since 2013.
Darius Good continues writing career.
He self-published his first book, Unlocking Godly Wisdom: Solomon’s 7 Pillars of Wisdom this past July. Adventures of RiRi: Stars Stars is his first children’s book.
Riley is Good’s youngest child of three. Good dedicated the book to his wife Chazareé, oldest daughter Symone, son Trevor, and Riley.
“Children’s books were back in my life again,” Good said of his inspiration for writing.
Good plans to publish a series of “Adventures of RiRi” children’s books. Each book will have a different theme based off of a series of ten short poems that Good wrote during the peak morning hours one day in March.
Riley Good.
This first book incorporates his love for astronomy and the curiosity of young children like his daughter. He also hopes when children read the book it will urge them to ask more questions.
Good used his music writing and production experience to write the children’s book with “as little words a possible while still telling a short and rhythmic story.”
Good has been a musician since he was 5 years old. He learned to play the piano, drums, and trumpet and performed with them throughout high school in his family’s church. He has produced music for artist like Whitney Houston, Genuine, and Trey Songs.
After writing the poems overnight, Good knew the next step to making the book was finding someone to make the artwork. The book is illustrated by Dennis Macharia of Drumstick Art Studio. Macharia is a Kenyan artist who used photos of Good’s daughter Riley to make an animated main character for the series.
The book was published this by his and his wife’s company, Just Riley LLC.
The Goods keep busy. Good also launched a pie-baking business before the pandemic with his cousin, called “Yogurt Pie King.” His wife has a hair-braiding business for kids. She has run a personal fitness business called Wright Fitness since 2013.
Good received his first shipment of the books this past Thursday. (Watch Riley’s reaction in the instagram video below.)
Other books in the series will have themes of music and real-life experiences Riley deals with, like having half siblings.
Their company also produces Chazareé‘s hair and skin care brand, Just Riley. Chazareé started the brand in November with natural-based products for men, women, and children. The idea came about to help tackle Riley’s hair loss as a newborn and sensitive, dry, and flaky skin. “She peeled from head to toe, and nothing was doing it to keep her moisturized,” Chazareé said.
Chazareé Good.
After researching ingredients, Chazareé (pictured above) got to hand-mixing recipes for oils and body butters to help her daughter.
“Everything I made was inspired by Riley’s needs,” she said. “I was spending so much money of other peoples brands so I decided to just take a chance on myself,”
“We want this to create generational wealth for her,” Chazareé said.
Good is currently working on getting the book in stores at Barnes and Noble and having it animated.
The book can be purchased on Amazon here and on the Barnes and Noble website here.
Congratulations on publishing this new children's book. I love the artwork on the cover. Hopefully local area bookstores will add it to their shelves.