Author of the Month: Reni Roxas (3 of 3)

We’ve reached the last installment of our special conversation with Reni Roxas, the award-winning author behind Pretty Peach! If you’ve been following our series, you’ve already gained insight into her inspirations, creative process, and the heartwarming journey of bringing Pretty Peach to life.

Now, in this final part, Ms. Roxas shares her top tips for aspiring writers, a sneak peek into her upcoming projects, and her personal reading habits—because even the best storytellers are lifelong readers. Whether you’re an aspiring author, a book lover, or simply curious about the mind behind Pretty Peach, this interview is packed with wisdom and inspiration.

Let’s dive in one last time with Reni Roxas as she talks about the power of storytelling, the books she cherishes, and what’s next on her literary horizon!

7.  Advice: What advice would you give aspiring authors who want to write meaningful children’s literature?

If there is a story you are burning to tell, COMMIT it to paper (or a keyboard). And practice, PRACTICE the art of telling a story. The best way to do this is to READ, read lots of children’s books. Immerse yourself in the genre that you wish to write—whether that is science fiction or graphic comics…

            …And EAVESDROP! Listen to how children talk to each other. How do they talk to grown-ups? This will help keep your dialogue sounding genuine.

            READ YOUR STORY OUT LOUD. Children’s books are meant to be heard as well as read. Your ear will pick up superfluous language or errant words that are best weeded out of the story.

            Understand that CONFLICT is at the heart of a good story. Even in children’s books. The main character must want something. Why can’t she have it? What is standing in her way? If she falls into a hole, how will she climb out of it?

            And here’s an insider tip from someone working in the business: Know that as the writer, you are engaged in a collaboration with the artist. If there’s something in the text that can easily be illustrated (i.e. he was wearing a green T-shirt), you don’t need to put that in the text. The illustrator will work it in.

8.  Future Projects: Are there any upcoming books or stories you’re working on? What can your readers look forward to?

I am a slow writer. I’ve been working a number of years on a collection of animal tales inspired by Zen-like fables. It wants so much to be a book someday.

            And there’s a children’s book I’m co-writing with a friend about a feisty young girl who goes out into the world to rescue her lolo from the forces of evil. It’s quintessentially the Hero’s Quest in a picture book.

            Abangan!

9.  Reading Habits: What books or authors have inspired your writing journey, particularly in children’s literature?           

When I was young my father gave me a copy of A.A. Milne’s When We Were Six, a collection of poems about Christopher Robin and his bear Winnie-the-Pooh. I adored that book. My mother also gifted me with a collection of Greek myths. I do not recall having many books in our house growing up, which is why these two books stand out in my memory. In my tweens and teens I inhaled Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie books and later on, after falling under the spell of the ground-breaking novel A Hundred Years of Solitude, I tried to read everything Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote.

            During the 1980s I worked for a number of children’s book publishing houses in New York City. At Dial Books for Young Readers, I loved the Frog & Toad series, and the work of Rosemary Wells, Mildred Taylor, Tony Ross, and James Marshall. I just loved John D. Fitzgerald’s The Great Brain series, something my son would later love and enjoy as well. I also edited a lot of nonfiction children’s books—books ranging from the animal kingdom to the American Civil War to teen suicide.

Reni with the Women Writing Team

            However, when my former husband and I started Tahanan Books, our focus naturally pivoted from Western to Asian lit. We set our sights on producing Filipiniana folk tales that Filipinos would be proud to call their own, as well as science books on Philippine flowers, fruits, trees, birds, butterflies, and fishes. We published biographies of Filipino heroes with our Great Lives series; and we reissued José Rizal’s The Monkey and the Turtle, which is actually a retelling of a Southeast Asian folk tale. Everything we did and still do at Tahanan is linked to Philippine culture. In that regard, Pretty Peach is a departure from the norm. It is the story of a butterfly of no particular ethnicity or gender, and yet whose desire to find true love is a universal quest.

Now go get your copy of Pretty Peach Today! 🍑✨

Retailing for only P295, Pretty Peach is available at Fully Booked and selected National Bookstore branches.

📍 Special Feature! This February, visit Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street and check out our dedicated Pretty Peach table—the perfect Valentine’s month treat! 💕

Prefer to shop online? Order now through Tahanan’s official website:
🔗 https://tahananbooks.ph/products/pretty-peach

Grab your copy and fall in love with Pretty Peach! 🍑💖 

#PrettyPeach #TahananBooks #ValentineReads

Author of the Month: Reni Roxas (1 of 3)

This Valentine's Day, the blog's Author of the Month is none other than Reni Roxas! Her new children's book, Pretty Peach and the Color-Matching Kaleidoscope, is a heartwarming love story for all ages to enjoy.

RENI ROXAS is a writer, editor, and the publisher of Tahanan Books. She is the author of MÉME: The Baby Book (2020) and co-author of First Around the Globe: The Story of Enrique (1997). Her picture book Ay Naku! won a 2012 National Children’s Book Award. The tale on which the book, Pretty Peach and the Color-Matching Kaleidoscope is based won the 2019 First Prize Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for a children’s story in English.

In this blog interview, Ms. Roxas generously shares her inspiration, insight and back stories-- which are all wonderful to read, in writing Pretty Peach: and the Color-Matching Kaleidoscope.

1.  Inspiration: What inspired you to write Pretty Peach and the Color-Matching Kaleidoscope? Was there a specific moment or idea that sparked the story?

I suppose you could say that the story of Pretty Peach was inspired by three unrelated events:

    A few years ago I attended a writing residency in Port Townsend in Washington state, where I listened to a storyteller perform a children’s story about a beautiful cockroach being counseled by her grandmother about how to find a good husband (what an unusual premise for a children’s story, no?...that’s the magic of children’s books for you!)

    Driving home in my car to the ferry that day, I passed by a residential street with rows of houses on either side of the road—all of them different, each home painted with a color uniquely different from the next. It was the way the sun cast its light on the facades of these houses—the play of light on color—that planted the story seed in my mind.

    Also, it so happened I was choosing a new color to paint my kitchen cabinets at the time; I’d been sorting through dozens and dozens of color swatches, mindful of the way colors behaved in natural sunlight and under fluorescent and incandescent light. This whole process of selection—choosing the right color, one that I wouldn’t get sawa of easily, and one that complemented the kitchen—fascinated me.

    And so these three random events—an inspiration, a drive down the road, and picking a color swatch—formed the triptych that served as the basis for what would become PRETTY PEACH and the Color-Matching Kaleidoscope.

    Sometimes you get the best ideas not sitting at a desk, but while your brain is in motion—such as when you’re driving through someplace new! 

 2.  Themes: The book explores themes of love and relationships. Why did you decide to frame these ideas within a children’s story about colors?

My book is about a butterfly who ventures out into the world to find the love of her life. Out of the millions and millions of butterflies out there, how will she know when she’s met her perfect match?

     Isn’t life all about choosing? Even children are taught to make choices while they are very young. Will you have the popcorn or the candy bar? Which blouse or T-shirt will you wear today? Should you go out to play even when it’s drizzling out? And kids hear their parents make lots of decisions based on a particular criteria. Mommy has decided not to go to the movies because Lola is sick and she opts to stay home. The family will have chicken for lunch because yesterday they had seafood. The decision-making process dawns on kids early in life, whether they are aware of it or not. As they grow older, the life choices they make will cast ever wider ripples and consequences.

     So I thought, why not write about something big, with high stakes for the main character, something impactful. Why not make the story about love and the whole bewildering, discombobulating process of finding a life mate?

    The illustrator and my collaborator for this book, Adrian Panadero, chose butterflies as his subject. It was a brilliant idea, because butterflies are so color-ful. And did you know that a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope? The kaleidoscope is a pivotal element in the story, so it was, in a word—serendipity.

    The only thing is that butterflies live very short lives. The average butterfly typically lives only 3 to 4 weeks. But even that helps to serve the story. Life is short, use the time to find love and romance quickly!

3. Message: What do you hope young readers (and perhaps their parents) will take away from the story?

Back to the topic of choices, I hope the book serves as a springboard for parents to have a conversation with their children about the pursuit of love—its challenges, its hazards, its rewards. Who you love, who you marry or co-habitate with, is a major decision that can deeply affect a human being’s happiness. Choose wisely!

     And there is also a feminist component in the story. Pretty Peach is a character who refuses to be subordinate or subservient to her partner. An aunt once advised me that you want to be with someone who will accept you for what you are and who will not try to change the essence of who you are; both of you can grow together side by side and still respect and honor each other’s differences. Marriage can homogenize a couple, but it is the couple’s differences—that give-and-take synergy—that can keep the spice in the relationship.

    So I love that Pretty Peach chooses not to accept the first proposal offered her. I love that she doesn’t “settle.” And I love that she had to go through a series of challenges before she reached the conclusion of her journey.

Part 2 of this interview will be posted next week. More interesting stories up ahead!

Go get your copy of Pretty Peach Today! 🍑✨

Retailing for only P295, Pretty Peach is available at Fully Booked and selected National Bookstore branches.

📍 Special Feature! This February, visit Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street and check out our dedicated Pretty Peach table—the perfect Valentine’s month treat! 💕

Prefer to shop online? Order now through Tahanan’s official website:
🔗 https://tahananbooks.ph/products/pretty-peach

Grab your copy and fall in love with Pretty Peach! 🍑💖 

#PrettyPeach #TahananBooks #ValentineReads

Book Review: Pretty Peach by Reni Roxas

Book Giving Day 2022

 

Tingnan ang post na ito sa Instagram

Isang post na ibinahagi ni Zarah Gagatiga (@zarah815)

Author Chat with ZarahG: Ms. Natasha Vizcarra on Science Writing and Book Recommendations

Author Chat with ZarahG: A Children's Book About COVID by Natasha Vizcarra

 

BA Library Online Author Visit: Writing About Science with Ms. Natasha Vizcarra

And it is done! Ms. Vizcarra's visit in the Academy was cool and fun!

Here is my short reflection and thank you message to our learning community, most especially to the teachers and the students who helped make the activity possible.

The Online Author Visit of Ms. Vizcarra was very informative. She covered important aspects of the writing and the research process. Sharing what she learned from real practice and building on skills overtime was precious. We learn by doing, indeed! We hope that her input and the sharing of her thinking process allowed us to reflect our own approach and style.

I am still munching on this line from her talk: My editor frequently challenged me. So I ask myself, how open am in accepting challenges from peers and readers of my work? As a Teacher Librarian in BA, I think about the research services we provide students if these are relevantly challenging to them. With just about the right amount of support. 

Feel free to reach out to us for responses, questions and insights on this activity. 

Do consider donating a copy of Spikeys, Prickles and Prongies to our partner public schools. 

You can also buy a personal copy for your child, pamangkin or inaanak. Once again, thank you! Your participation is also a great help for the local book industry.

View and read my previous posts about Ms. Vizcarra's Online Author Visit by following these links.

Online Author Visit Plan and Proposal 

Priming Activity: Getting to Know Ms. Natasha Vizcarra

How to plan an Author Visit? Here are tips in planning and hosting an Author Visit in the School Library.

Preparing for an Online Author Visit: Ms. Natasha Vizcarra

GET TO KNOW OUR GUEST AUTHOR, MS. NATASHA VIZCARRA!

We are excited to watch and listen to Ms. Natasha Vizcarra share her experiences as a Science writer and editor on Assembly this Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 2PM. She writes interesting topics on science that are grounded on sound research and integrated into different subjects and disciplines.

Here is a sample of Ms. Vizcarra's article on fermentation. The storytelling voice is strong but the history and cultural background of fermentation to Asian cuisine and its relevance to health, wellbeing and a nation's economy are given emphasis. How can non-fiction sound so, ah, literary?

"In early March, Filipino writer and plant-based cook Mabi David plunged her hand into a vat of a bright red purée, Chinese cabbage, julienned carrots and radishes, and chopped green onions. She was mixing a fresh batch of kimchi, a fermented side-dish from Korea. Sharp scents of ginger, garlic and hot pepper wafted in the air as a crowd of vegetable farmers watched and jotted down notes.

David was teaching the class in Bauko, in the Philippines’ Mountain Province, where the high altitude and low temperatures allow farmers to grow temperate weather crops – like cabbage, carrots and salad greens – in the country’s hot and humid climate.

Like other Asian cuisines, Philippine cuisine is rich with well-loved fermented foods, turning local fruits, vegetables and seafood into dishes and condiments such as pickled green papaya and permutations of fermented rice, fish and shrimp pastes. Many evolved decades before the age of refrigeration, subsequently passed on from generation to generation

But David is expanding traditional practices by borrowing from other Asian cuisines to take advantage of new market demands for fermented foods as well as reduce food waste; as the Korean migrant population in the Philippines has grown since the 1990s, so too has Filipinos’ taste for Korean food. “We wanted to introduce [different] fermentation techniques to help the farmers deal with surplus harvest,” says David.

Barely a week after the kimchi-making class, however, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreaks a pandemic on 11 March. A few days later, the Philippine government placed Manila under lockdown, keeping people home from shopping in stores to avoid infection. By late March, lower demand for their produce began forcing farmers to give away much of their harvests or dump them by roadsides.

Had David’s students explored kimchi-making as a side-business much earlier, tons of produce would not have gone to waste."

~ Excerpt from HOW FERMENTATION’S NEW HEYDAY IS BENEFITTING HUMAN AND PLANETARY HEALTH, April 29, 2020

You are highly encouraged to read the article on the topic. What piqued your interest? What did you observe on the handling of language and the rendition of facts to an intended audience? Imagine the amount and time of research the writer invested on a piece such as this. Visit Ms. Vizcarra's website for more interesting non-fiction.

See you all on Wednesday!

PS - Ms. Vizcarra has a new book, Spikeys, Prickles and Prongies: A Corona Virus Story published by Ilaw ng Tahanan. The publisher will sell copies!

Planning for an Online Author Visit

I am really excited planning this Author Visit of Ms. Natasha Vizcarra. I am sharing some parts of my plan and the poster which our Communications Associate made for this event. Here is the link to a blog post I wrote a few years back on how to plan and organize an Author Visit.

Author Visit: Writing About Science During COVID Times with Natasha Vizcarra

DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE:

This Author Visit is contextualized around research and its value to meaning making, to the responsible communication of facts and information and in the creation of knowledge for readers, young and old. Ms. Natasha Vizcarra, a seasoned writer and editor, has been researching and writing about Science even before the dawn of the COVID age. The kind of writing she does, apparently, takes on greater relevance when Ilaw ng Tahanan published her book, Spikeys, Prickles & Prongies: A Coronavirus Discovery Story (2021), a children’s book about the coronavirus.

 In this visit, we are curious to find out from Ms. Vizcara how a topic as lethal as the coronavirus can be written creatively for children. With the proliferation of fake news, misinformation and disinformation, we are eager to know how she  approaches the selection and curation of information, especially topics concerning Science when preparing for a writing task or project. As a learning community, we are interested to listen to her sharing of experiences as a Science writer in an age of unprecedented change.

TARGETED CORE VALUES:

Adaptation

●      By understanding the story of a science writer creating a book about the coronavirus, we are able to gain confidence in braving the pandemic as individuals and as a community.

Bayanihan

●       The Author Visit has a book donation drive for students of our partner public school in coordination with CAS Coor, BASC and UPServe (?) A minimum of 30 copies shall be bought for book donation to public school students.

●      The Author Visit is open to the BA Community and teachers from our partner public schools will be invited to attend.

Connection

●      Concepts about the creative process and skills on research shared by the guest speaker connect to tasks and projects in the subject areas.

●      This event may inspire more students to begin CAS projects related to the Sciences and consider pursuing a career integrating the humanities to the sciences.

New Book on the Block: Spikeys, Prickles and Prongies

 

When I learned that Ilaw ng Tahanan is launching a new children's book about COVID-19, I got excited. Spikeys, Prickles and Prongies: A Coronavirus Discovery Story is written by Natasha Vizcarra and illustrated by Jamie Bauza -- two women I admire for their body of work and the advocacies they pursue. I know Ms. Vizcarra from way back as editor of the Junior Inquirer while Ms. Bauza illustrated Masaya Ang Maging Ako (Lampara, 2020). 

The Junior Inquirer (JI) has ceased publication for a while now and it is only in the library of the Philippine Daily Inquirer where copies can be retrieved. At the time, around the early 2000s, the JI was a launch pad for aspiring writers, young and old. If you need to see a good model for campus journalism, turn to the JI. There were workshops and training sessions for students on all kinds of writing. It featured texts and materials for students to read which were all written with verve and a sense of wonder. It celebrated the joy and curiosities of children as well as the young at heart. 

At the time, I was working in Xavier School. My students would tell me stories of their trainings and meet ups with the JI staff. How they encouraged and mentored them to write, to speak and to find their voice. Our English teachers who mentored them alongside the JI staff were appreciative of this support from community resources. 

Ms. Vizcarra is now a science writer based in Denver Colorado. She writes about nature and people's interaction with the environment so engagingly well it branch out to real life events, making one think about the connections we have as precious links in the fragile chain of life. I had an interview with Ms. Vizcarra last week wherein I had a glimpse of the meticulous research and fact checking work she and Ilaw ng Tahanan put into the book project. I felt the sincere care and caution these wonder women put into making this book. At the front, back and center is the child reader who will meet the book. 

I was happy and honored to meet once again the editor in chief of the JI I know back in the day. And I think, this is one of the many reasons why we need journalists. They help us make sense of events, big and small, that shape their world in order to understand their role in reshaping and reforming it. 

I look forward to getting my copies of Spikeys, Prickles and Prongies: A Coronavirus Discovery Story!