Ernestine A. Combs

Ernestine A. Combs is a Professional School Counselor, doctoral student, storyteller, and lifelong advocate for children and educational equity. She has spent over many years working with children in Title I schools in Portsmouth, Virginia, where she witnesses every day the power of representation and the urgency of literacy.

Inspired by her own childhood growing up in public housing — where books were her escape — and her daily work with students who cannot find themselves in the pages of the books they are given, Ernestine created The Magnus Series. Magnus is a confident, curious, imaginative little Black girl navigating third grade, family roots, big feelings, and the question of where she comes from.

The Magnus Series was created to give every child — especially Black and Brown girls — a hero who looks like them, thinks like them, and feels like them.

Ernestine is the founder of Combs Publishing House and the creator of the See Yourself, Read Yourself literacy campaign, which works to get diverse books into the hands of children in Title I schools across Virginia and beyond.

She is a doctoral student at Regent University and a Professional School Counselor at Simonsdale Elementary School in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Growing Roots. Finding Wings.