Read my book Banana Espresso on all Amazon platforms and on Kindle!
Althea Sinclair has always been a star student and daughter – the overthinking, responsible, independent kind of daughter. Her plans are already made for when she finishes her final year of medical school at Westbrook University: continue living with her friends, specialize in obstetrics, stay in England near her parents. What she had not planned for was to meet a boy at the most unlikely of places: a blood drive.
Especially not one who has more to him than meets the eye.
Could their relationship be enough to uproot her whole life?
I wrote my debut novel, Banana Espresso, as my Grade 10 Personal Project. My learning goal was to learn about how post-traumatic stress disorder can affect one’s internal psychology and relationships with others, particularly in a romantic relationship. My product goal was to write a romance genre novel of 25-35,000 words based on scientific research.
I decided that writing a creative piece, such as a novel or a novella, would be the ideal product for my learning goal as it allows the readers to experience the mental disorder rather than just learn about it, which makes it easier to emphasize with victims. To sensitize an audience about PTSD, it is more efficient to make them feel it and read about it as if they are living it themselves rather than making a more facts-oriented documentary, website, or essay; therefore I decided to write a fiction novel. In addition, reading is my main and favourite hobby, so creative writing is something that I would enjoy practicing and learning about.
From October to December 2024, I developed my ideas, setting and characters, and wrote the first draft of my manuscript. In January and February 2025 I read through it and made edits until I was satisfied with the final draft. I went through the process to self-publish it on Amazon Direct Publish, and on March 26, 2025, the novel was officially published.
I also designed my own front, back and spine covers using Canva. All credits go to me. The covers also went through many re-editing phases, until eventually landing on the final version that can be seen on the paperback book today.
This was right in time for my school’s Personal Project exhibition, where I could present paperback copies of the novel. Since April 20, 2025, Banana Espresso is also available on Kindle, with an interactive Table of Contents and different font settings available.
Banana Espresso is now undergoing the process of a translation to French, courtesy of Eline Viora-Marquet. It is expected to be finished by the end of the year 2025.
Click here to read my Research Document, which contains all my primary and secondary research as well as the documentation of the planning and process.
Click here to read my final Personal Project Report which was submitted as part of my MYP curriculum, under the supervision of my English teacher Mrs Sew Hoy.
Castille VM. 