The 36th MIBF Moments and Highlights

Photo with Luis Gatmaitan MD has become an MIBF tradition.

We came. We bought books. We had fun!

That is what book fairs are all about. There were good discounts on books in the Anvil and National Bookstore booths. For my library purchases, I had 20% off from Adarna House and Anvil Publishing. Even my books at the Lampara House booth were at a discounted price. Apart from this, the MIBF was a time to touch base with friends in the industry.

Augie Rivera's Alamat ng Ampalaya turns 20 this year and its bitter taste is as strong as ever. He also has a Martial Law story book, Isang Harding Papel, sold during the fair. Your library must definitely acquire it! Mailin Paterno and Ompong Remigio are both back from a long hiatus. Paterno's Mang Andoy's Signs is creating quite a stir from writer friends, earning good reviews from peers and friends in Philippine Children's Literature. Remigio's Bruhaha-Bruhihi is still a best seller after all these years. Meeting her in person was for me, a moment indeed! She was bold and large! As bold and as large as the stories she has written. I have told Bruhaha-Bruhihi many times in read aloud sessions and storytelling time and once, I put up a shadow puppet play of the book to preschoolers. Her stories are a lot of fun!

Bagay na bagay itong planner na ito sa akin!

I also managed to snag Tahanan's Chorva Planner. Rhandee Garlitos' finger prints are all over! These are perfect Christmas give-aways to friends and colleagues at work. How could you go wrong with your plans for the week with the opening Araw-arawin ang Ariba!? And you end your week with this: Rarampa na lola moh! Gay lingo may be an invention to hide meaning at the same time, assert gay pride, but its witty and humorous play on language makes it accessible to everyone.

My books, excluding the 12 stories in the STARS Kinder package

My comic book and graphic novel purchases included Russel Molina's and Ian Sta. Maria's Sixty Six and Piko, an anthology by enthusiastic and prolific comic book creators in the country today headed by Manix Abrera. Sixty Six is amazing! When is part two coming out?! Speaking of sequels, I am excited to read the next adventures of Momoy Lulumboy and Janus Silang. Soon. Very soon!

Lastly, I had my moment as an author in the MIBF when two of our books, My Daddy! My One and Only (Jomike Tejido, illustrator) and Dear Nanay (Liza Flores, illustrator) were sold out! The sales team of Lampara had to collect copies from nearby branches of Precious Pages Bookstore outside SMX to replenish. On Saturday, I was signing for Tale of Two Dreams (Bernadette Solina Wolf, illustrator) and Big Sister, our new book with Ruben "Totet" De Jesus as illustrator. It was a great experience collaborating with these talented artists of Ang INK!

This inspires me to write! More!

Book Launching at the 2014 MIBF

Visit the Lampara Books booth on September 20 and 21, 2014. My books will be launched at the 2014 MIBF.

Start Right Reading Series Kindergarten Level: 12 picture books for the Kindergarten reader.
Illustrated by Bernadette Solina Wolf

Only ten books in the photo but, trust me, there are twelve books in the series!

Dear Nanay
Liza Flores' cut outs and paper sculpture art are awesome!

Book Preview: Book 5 of the Start Right Reading Series (STARS)

This is Magic Words, book 5 of the Start Right Reading Series (Lampara Books), by me and
illustrator Bernadette Solina-Wolf. There are twelve books in the series
and we are hoping that these will all be launched in the MIBF this September.

Special thanks to Carlos Manalansan for sending the photo.

Update on a New Book Project: Start Right Reading Series

It is a series for early readers under
Lampara Books' line Easy to Learn Books.
Illustrations are done by Bernadette Solina-Wolf.
Coming soon! We're looking at a September 2014 release.

2013 Author Visits

In 2013, two of my illustrated storybooks were published by Lampara Books. I had the rare honor to work with two brilliant illustrators in the country today, Bernadette Solina Wolf and Jomike Tejido. To Jun Matias and his staff at Lampara, and to Bernie and Jomike, I thank you for this learning experience. 

My gratitude also goes to friends and school librarians who've invited me to tell stories and to talk about my books and my creative process to children and young adults. I value your support and patronage. You all inspire me to continue writing stories that matter.

Happy New Year!

Reader Feedback on My Daddy! My One and Only!

When I was in Bali last week for the IASL Conference, I got this feedback from a parent who has copies of my books, A Tale of Two Dreams and My Daddy! My One and Only! 

The Daddy one especially really moved my daughter and me. It supports what values I am trying to raise my daughter with, and for her-wow she was able to make real connections and see value in her daddy that she hadn't seen before!

And then the senti factor got me :-) It is beautiful. Thanks!

 I will be at the Manila International Book Fair on September 14, 2013 to sign copies of my books. I suppose the illustrators will be present too! The book signing will start at 1PM in the Lampara - Precious Pages booth. At 3PM, I move to the conference room at SMX to join Eugene Evasco and Heidi Eusebio Abad,two wonderful writers of children's stories, in a panel on writing stories for children.

I hope to see you there!

Book Launch: A Tale of Two Dreams & My Daddy! My One and Only!

On August 15, I will be at the De La Salle Taft University Library to speak on children's literature and book publishing. The activity is in line with their book fair, The Green Spine, and their book drive project, Turn 1 into a Million. 

My two new books, My Daddy! My One and Only, illustrated by Jomike Tejido and A Tale of Two Dreams, illustrated by Bernadette Solina-Wolf will be launched. Lampara Books will sell copies. I hope to see you there!

IL Lesson Plans by MUNPARLAS Participants (1 of 4)

I gave a "homework" to participants of the seminar-workshop on Information Literacy (IL) sponsored and hosted by MUNPARLAS last July 19, 2013. I asked them to submit an IL lesson plan that has the following contents: objectives, learning experience, evaluation and feedback. Three librarians rose up to the challenge. They are Rosalinda Timbol, Marifi Navarro and Regine Abool.

Ms. Timbol and Ms. Navarro are school librarians from Elizabeth Seton School. Ms. Abool is a library assistant in the school library of the Divine Light Academy, Las Pinas.

My first illustrated story book. Illustrator is Bernadette Solina-Wolf who is based in Puerto Galera, Mindoro.

Congratulations to all three! Their lesson plans will be posted in the blog this month. I will also send them an autographed copy of my new illustrated story book, A Tale of Two Dreams (Lampara House, 2013).

Upcoming Book: My Daddy, My One and Only!

After wrapping up A Tale of Two Dreams with Bernadette Solina Wolf and sending the revised book dummy back to the press, Jomike Tejido posted a spread of our book project, My Daddy, My One and Only! When Jomike sent the studies a few months back, I was whisked back to my childhood. His rendition reminded me of two childhood favorites: Babar and Richard Scarry!

And now, he sent me this sample of the finished illustration of one of the book's spreads with colors. Can you guess what animal character Jomike used for the main characters of the story?

Visit Jomike Tejido's blog to see more of his wonderful illustrations.

Book Project Update: A Tale of Two Dreams

I posted a preview of Bernadette Wolf's ink studies and water color of the book we expect to see published this year, 2013, by Lampara Books Philippines. Latest update is that the teacher's guide I worked on last December 2012 is set as appendix to the book.

Taleof2 dreams teachersguide from Zarah Gagatiga

If all goes well with the publication time line, the illustrated story book shall be born before July! Hopefully, in time for National Children's Book Day.

Preview of a New Book Project

Ink studies by Bernadette Solina Wolf

The same illustration in water color

An Early Christmas Gift to Self

Monkey and Turtle by Bernadette Solina Wolf

And, for an early celebration of the 30th National Children's Book Day (July 2013).

Book Promo: Tales from the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories

Tales flyer from Zarah Gagatiga

Tales From the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories

This greeted me in my FB account this morning. Apparently, author copies were sent to Dianne de Las Casas, my co-author in New Orleans, Louisiana. I await to get mine anytime soon.

Cover design by Bernadette Wolf. Photography by Yumi Pitargue. Published by Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-CLIO.

The photo is courtesy of Dianne de Las Casas, storyteller diva and fantabulous writer!

Tales From the 7,000 Isles Book Cover

Cover art by Bernadette Wolf

Love a Library: A Public Library Grows in Oriental Mindoro

To start this week's Love a Library blog feature, Bernadette Wolf shares the story of the public library in Mindoro that she set up with the big help of Michael Wolf, her husband.Michael is a telecom engineer and Bernadette is an artists and illustrator for children's books.

a. What inspired you to set up a library in Mindoro? .

Mahabang kuwento iyan, Zarah, with us. In a way, we got involved first with the illegal logging issues here and then for so many months and years, my husband and I were discussing why the folks here are just plain ignorant about the consequences of their actions. We found out by observation and talking with the locals that ignorance, poverty and corruption (in all aspect of the word..not just political) were the main factors. And so, we went for the schools and education facilities here and thus we found out that there was just no library (for adults) to speak of in Puerto Galera.


When I was single, whenever i would go to the different provinces, there would be two things i would check out: the public market and the public library...or even the local komiks stand! Call it an idiosyncracy but that's how I learn about the place and that's also how I know that public libraries in the Philippines are usually considered at the bottom priority of the LGUs.



Going back to Puerto Galera, on my first year of living together with my husband, I just had finished an environmental children's book for Palawan and I wanted to present it to the mayor as my token of environmental awareness to the community. We had made a call of course and then I could see that the mayor did not know what to do with it. You see, illegal logging was rampant in our area since we live near the rainforest. And that was our (my husband and mine) way of saying we're environmentalists too. But the mayor then was not biting and had other "priorities." Only when there was a change of administration (last 2006) did we try to check out the aura of the next mayor. And since he was "new' to the position, we found him more open to the idea of setting up a public library. To make it more cohesive and cost-efficient with his government platform, he also established the TESDA here and so with this, the public library can be its educational arm.

b. How did you go about setting this up? Who helped you make it a reality?

Another long story but an interesting one. I was then very active with a blog named "Wish You were here" by a guy who called himself Senor Enrique (Eric Isaac) and he would post about his researches about Manila (of which he is active in its preservation) and one such post was about a library near the UST (of which I forgot the name). Eric was actually getting his "loyal" commenters to donate books for it. I really do not recall how I got into the picture myself also but then I got some pledges from other commenters that they would send books to Puerto Galera too! Hahaha! I told myself, "Hey! this is the Internet so I'll see how serious or real they are!"


And the first HEAVY balikbayan box did come---from a Pinoy in Australia ( Mario Baylon)! He gave two sets of encyclopedia (Britannica!), medical books, childrens' craft books etc. It weighed a TON! But, that pushed us to say "naku, this is for real!" But, we still had to wait for the room for another year so the books had to be stored in the municipal office first. Ironically, the people who really initially helped set up the library were friends (both personally mine from Manila and cyber-ly known.) Other worthwhile people to mention was Ms. Minotte Cuenca of California (also via cyberspace---Candlelight Books) and Robert Alejandro of Manila who just posted via facebook!

But without the present mayor Hubert Dolor's support, it wouldn't also have had become a reality, of course. Other book and knowledge-loving people here eventually threw in their support---a Danish Foundation hereabouts gave support with the computers and Internet to go hand in hand with the book inventory. But the legwork was done by my husband, Michael actually. Without him managing the details like solicitations, library set-up (electrical, painting, structural, etc.) I really do not know how it could have been managed since everyone did not really want to "dirty" their fingers so to speak. Yet, you can see that it really is an effort of many people together.

c. How is it being maintained? Is sustainability part of your project? Or does it end with provision of library materials and turn-over?

It was when we finished with the setting up of the place (computers, books, cabinets, a door :-D as well as others) then we informally gave the keys to the mayor. And that was that. Good-bye. Hope they value it. We (my husband and I) just wanted to get the ball rolling.


As of now, I know that there is an educational officer (also in charage of the TESDA) manning the library. He had made it his office as well since there is no budget for a full-time librarian. And because of the (5) computers with Internet/Wi-Fi capabilities, it has become a hub for also the municipal departments' information. I also found out late last year, that the library will be given a bigger room this year...and with this more bookshelves and computers yata.

d. What are your future plans for the library and the community it serves?

As I have earlier answered, our setting up the public library was culled out of a personal intiative. Maybe we were to "pushy" and too "professional" being "outsiders" and not of the laid-back and come-what-may attitude of the people here, so we had our share of negative comments and innuendos of hidden agendas. We have been cajoled into forming an NGO but that is not our "cup of tea" so to speak even as we (especially my husband) still stay "unofficial" guardian of the nearby rainforest. So, we could only wish that the Purto Galera Public Library florish and that a continual flow of support and usage go with it!


As of present too, I was told that the teachers taking their masterals are borrowing the books that we had placed there---and boy! I would sure want them for my own collection! But that the teachers and some students are starting to pay a yearly fee of P20 (includes a library ID card) is a very encouraging sign!


e. Any partners and donors you would like to thank?



Our partner in the public library initiative is a Danish Foundation named DanPhil School Aid with Mr. Willy Stellander as representative in Puerto Galera and perhaps the whole of Oriental Mindoro.  they had provided the 5 computers as well as sponsored a year-long Internet service for the room.  That is as far as I know.  Their website is : http://danphil-schoolaid.org/DPSA-EN/DPSA-EN/Welcome.html


I have really to thank the generosity and kind hearts of the people (who i had mentioned earlier). Their selflessness is my personal validation of what purity of intent is! I know that all they ask is that the books be used and spread around. No credits nor plaques were asked at all..and that made me think, why should I grumble when instead of a grand parade of appreciation, all my husband and I could count on was treat ourselves to pizza and the left-over sandwiches we gave out when we gave the keys to the mayor and his staff. I am not just thankful but also in awe at what had happened in setting up this library, and that means God wanted it to happen actually.


Thanks, Zarah! More power to librarians and book-lovers wherever you all are!!!