LOWER KEYS — A Cudjoe Key resident learned her recently-released children’s book, “Rosie the Farm Truck,” was honored with the Mom’s Choice Gold Award. The Mom’s Choice Awards organization is based in the United States and evaluates products and services from 55 countries for children, families and educators.

Victoria Scudder, mother of a 13-year-old son Jack, has operated an e-commerce business for years. She navigated Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing software, which she called user-friendly and straightforward, to self-publish her book on Oct. 31, 2021. Because she had a specific vision for her book, autonomy was important to her. Through hard work, determination and risk-taking as well as research, she achieved her goals, she said. Scudder added she had no knowledge of marketing and the publishing world, but she was able to solve the puzzles to achieve success.