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Kiddie Academy of Gaithersburg will host Hero Play Day on Saturday, July 11 at 10 a.m. for infants to 12-year-olds. Families are invited to attend this free community event designed to help children recognize and celebrate their personal heroes.

The new hands-on event will be an opportunity for children to dress up as their favorite superhero and participate in “training” stations set up around the Academy, including obstacle courses, strength tests and kindness missions.
Refreshments will be provided. To register, visit <a href="https://kiddieacademy.com/academies/event/hero-play-day/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://kiddieacademy.com/academies/event/hero-play-day/</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp; WHAT: Kiddie Academy Hero Play Day WHEN: Saturday, July 11 from 10 a.m. - noon. WHERE: 15895 Gaither Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Local Event: Hero Play Day at Kiddie Academy of Gaithersburg

Hero Play Day at Kiddie Academy of Gaithersburg

Kiddie Academy of Gaithersburg will host Hero Play Day on Saturday, July 11 at 10 a.m. for infants to 12-year-olds. Families...

World Of Beer

Celebrate Mattie’s 36th birthday with a vibrant afternoon of food, fun, and fellowship in the street outside of World of Beer (E. Montgomery Ave Rockville). Event features music by Ocho De Bastos, cornhole tournament, free crafts and activities for all ages, and a 'Community Clink' toast to connect with purpose. A portion of restaurant sales support the Mattie Stepanek Peace Foundation.

Local Event: Toast2Peace On Peace Day

Toast2Peace On Peace Day

Celebrate Mattie’s 36th birthday with a vibrant afternoon of food, fun, and fellowship in the street outside of World of Beer...

The Name That Echoes: A Novel of Becoming&nbsp;by Kenneth Chivir Shenge Now Available on Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble
ROCKVILLE, MD&nbsp;&mdash; Kenneth Chivir Shenge, a Nigerian-born author of Tiv heritage, announced the release of his debut novel,&nbsp;The Name That Echoes: A Novel of Becoming, now available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle editions on Amazon and in eBook format on Barnes &amp; Noble. The audiobook edition is forthcoming.
The novel follows Alexander Terver Zever, a boy who is seven years old when the world he was born into vanishes. Raised in Comfortville, a community engineered for order, comfort, and quiet sufficiency, Alexander grows up within carefully maintained boundaries and unquestioned rules. Something in him resists. A name he cannot place. Fragments of memory that do not belong. A persistent sense that the life assigned to him is smaller than the one he was meant to live. What follows is not a story of sudden rebellion or dramatic escape. It is something slower and more costly: the gradual recovery of a self that was displaced before it was fully formed.
At the moral center of the novel stands a Tiv proverb: a person can be led so gradually away from his own path that, in time, he begins to call the wilderness home.
"I am Tiv, from Benue State, Nigeria," said Shenge. "That heritage is the foundation on which this story stands. But I wrote this book for anyone who has ever been led, gradually and almost imperceptibly, away from who they are, and who has had to find their way back. That journey belongs to no single person or people."
The Name That Echoes&nbsp;is literary fiction with a dystopian backbone, written with philosophical depth and emotional restraint. It draws on the oral traditions, moral frameworks, and cultural memory of the Tiv people of central Nigeria, while speaking to universal questions of identity, belonging, memory, and the slow cost of becoming.
The novel is published through Spines and is available through major online retailers. It carries BISAC classifications in Literary Fiction, African American and Black Fiction, and Coming of Age Fiction.
About the Author
Kenneth Chivir Shenge is a Nigerian-born author of Tiv heritage, writing from Rockville, Maryland. He holds a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and a Master of Public Health, as well as a postgraduate diploma in Theology, and has served in Christian ministry for more than three decades. His scholarly discipline and his pastoral vocation share a common conviction: that how we understand ourselves determines how we live.&nbsp;The Name That Echoes&nbsp;is his debut novel. He is at work on his second. He is married to Mercy, and they have four children.
Book Details
Title:The Name That Echoes: A Novel of Becoming
Author:&nbsp;Kenneth Chivir Shenge&nbsp;
Publisher:&nbsp;Spines&nbsp;
Publication Date:&nbsp;June 24, 2026&nbsp;
Format:&nbsp;Hardcover ($23.99) | Paperback ($15.99) | Kindle ($7.99) | eBook ($7.99) | Audiobook (forthcoming)&nbsp;
ISBN/ASIN:&nbsp;B0H6H532GL&nbsp;
Available:&nbsp;Amazon | Barnes &amp; Noble | Major online booksellers
Amazon:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H6H532GL" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H6H532GL</a>
Barnes &amp; Noble:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-name-that-echoes-kenneth-chivir-shenge/1150469319" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-name-that-echoes-kenneth-chivir-shenge/1150469319</a>
Media Contact:
Kenneth Chivir Shenge
Email:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:ken@kennethshenge.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ken@kennethshenge.com</a>
<a href="https://www.kennethshenge.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.kennethshenge.com</a>
Review copies available upon request.

Debut Novel from Nigerian-Born Author Explores...

The Name That Echoes: A Novel of Becoming by Kenneth Chivir Shenge Now Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble...

Debut Novel from Nigerian-Born Author Explores Identity, Heritage, and the Cost of Becoming

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Hero Play Day at Kiddie Academy of Gaithersburg

Toast2Peace On Peace Day

Debut Novel from Nigerian-Born Author Explores Identity, Heritage, and the Cost of Becoming