Key West creator uses children’s book to teach One Human Family
Chad Remmert’s new children’s book turns Key West’s One Human Family motto into a lesson for children, tied to the city’s May 6 JT Day honoring JT Thompson.
A new children’s book from Key West creator Chad Remmert is trying to do something the city has long struggled to do well: explain One Human Family to children in plain language that fits daily life.
Remmert, who works with his father, Kelly, at 3D Mini Me on Duval Street, is known for making realistic 3D-printed sculptures of people. He also writes children’s books, and his latest project is aimed at passing along the city’s idea of unity, inclusion and shared belonging to a younger generation.
The timing of the book is not accidental. Remmert said it was inspired by the city commission’s decision to name May 6 as JT Day in honor of community activist JT Thompson, who created the One Human Family campaign. That decision gave the book a civic anchor, linking a family project on Duval Street to a message Key West has treated as part of its identity.
In Key West, where tourism, migration and a deep local history constantly overlap, the slogan has never been just decorative. It has been used to describe a way of living together in a small city that depends on difference without letting it turn into division. Remmert’s book takes that civic philosophy and translates it into a child-friendly format, with the goal of helping young readers understand why the message still matters.
The project also shows how local art and public values often blend in the Keys. A shop built around technology-driven portrait work has become the place where the same creative energy is being used to explain a social idea to children. That makes the book more than a local novelty. It is a practical attempt to shape how Key West’s children inherit the city’s culture, its public spaces and the language adults use to describe belonging.
For Key West, the question behind the book is the same one raised by JT Day: whether One Human Family remains a living civic principle or only a slogan. Remmert’s answer is to teach it early, through a story children can carry long after they leave the page.
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