Snuggle Wuggle Wee: A Story Behind The Story and The Launch This Weekend

I just want to share with you a lovely project that I worked on together with two other moms from the organization called LATCH (Lactation, Attachment, Training, Counseling, Help) which helps moms become breastfeeding peer counselors (to help other moms with their breastfeeding), only one among its many projects.

It all started when a book project was broached. Ever since I joined LATCH, that was one of the projects where I really wanted to contribute. When Jenny Ong, one of the co-founders of LATCH, told me that she already had an outline to work with, I was elated. Read Jenny's story here.

I had just come from the Little Lit Festival arranged by the National Book Development Board and I was itching to work on a children's book.

Below is my original picture of Clara, the protagonist.

This is my Pages (by Fifty Three) artwork of Clara. 

My inspiration for Clara is my spunky little daughter, Clea, who just turned three last October. Even though she's the youngest, she's obsessed with being an "ate." She likes taking the lead and she can command a roomful of cousins (both older and younger) to "please keep quiet!" I could just imagine what she would be like if she had been the eldest and I was just expecting my son.

The initial story was under five hundred words (something that I picked up from the Little Lit Festival) and it was pretty straightforward, using simple words that I knew my own kids could identify with. Based on Jenny's outline, the story follows Clara as she anticipates the arrival of her parents and her younger, newly born brother, Paolo, who are all coming from the hospital. It deals with what it's like for a little girl to become an older sibling and how she also explores her own birth story. The story focuses on the closeness of the family, with breastfeeding as one of the ways that a family bonds (yes, it takes the whole family, it's not just about mother and child). I showed it to both Jenny and Buding (Aquino-Dee), the President of LATCH for their thoughts. Buding challenged me to make it a fun book, full of silly rhymes and alliterations that would capture the imagination of children. That was how the title came about: Snuggle Wuggle Wee. It's a nonsense phrase that is meant to capture that joyful embrace in a family.

That was how our book collaboration became complete. Jenny was the voice of experience and advocacy, bringing to the project the urgency of choosing the right books that would help her eldest daughter become an "ate" in the context of a breastfeeding family. Buding was the mover-and-shaker, if I may say so! She's LATCH's cheerleader and she cheered me on to really refine the book. I was the word-crafter. :-)  Together, the story of Snuggle Wuggle Wee moved forward and tomorrow it will finally be available for sale!

Of course, it took more than just us co-authors to make Snuggle Wuggle Wee a reality. It took the entire LATCH organization. What a wonderful group and what a wonderful mix of personalities! Moms can make it happen. That's all I can say.

This shows the evolution of Clara. This is the book cover of Snuggle Wuggle Wee.

I really did take so much pleasure from composing the story, really listening not just to the narrative but to the musicality of the words. Bryan Delfin, the illustrator, is really fantastic! He's the fourth storyteller, actually. He took the manuscript and created magical, cinematic images that really stay with the reader. He took the similes from the book and created lovely illustrations that pop up from the page and take you away to a river ("I can see his lips move like a fish from the side") or make a color burst in your imagination ("red as a tomato" -- here, he cleverly leaves out the color red from the lovely tomato illustration so that you can see the color in your mind and associate it with baby Paolo's color). Snuggle Wuggle Wee celebrates family and I hope it helps families, especially those with young children or those expecting an addition in the family,  get even closer.

This is an open invitation for you to come over to the Global Pinoy Bazaar at the Rockwell Tent this weekend so you can get yourself (and your loved ones) a Snuggle Wuggle Wee book. It's a perfect Christmas gift too! It's only Php 250 and proceeds will help fund LATCH projects (including those that have to do with Typhoon Yolanda --- LATCH members are already helping by providing breastfeeding support to affected mothers as well as organizing efforts to get donated breast milk to affected babies).

Below is a trailer of the book:

And here are directions to LATCH's booth at the Global Pinoy Bazaar this November 24 to 25, 2013:

This is where you'll find the LATCH booth at Global Pinoy Bazaar. 

See you there!

Filipino Fridays #2 Favorite Books as a Kid: Wizards, Dragons, Legends, Groovy Pop

Q: What were your favorite books as a kid or while you were growing up? Do you still read children’s books? If you could give your younger self a book to read, what would it be?

Image from www.ladybirdflyawayhome.com.

A: My very first memories involved reading. I remember trying to read Cinderella. I remember that magic moment when "the" became not just a mix of letters but an actual word. I can't find the book cover anymore but I went on to other fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and The Beast. These were not the Disney variety but rather large hardbound books that I happened to receive on birthdays. When I was in Grade 1, I remember reading The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde and I remember crying my eyes out.  I have since been fascinated by fairy tales. I bought a large Hans Christian Andersen collection of stories when I was much older...just because it reminded me of the stories I used to read, growing up. I also very much enjoyed Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, a retelling of traditional fairy tales.

When I was in grade school, I got a book from my stepmom called Stories and Legends from Filipino Folklore by Maria Delia Coronel. Below is the exact book that I used to have.

Image of book cover from www.nancycudis.com.

I remember reading this book until it got dogeared. I was fascinated by it. It was another version of fairy tale, this time from all around the Philippines. I really liked this story about an engkanto or tree spirit who fell in love with a maiden and turned into a human for her. But because she insisted on meeting his family, he ended up slowly becoming a tree during their journey, leaving his human form and leaving their child fatherless. There were lots of Mariang Makiling stories there too.

Image from www.series-books.com.

I also remember having library card contests with my classmates about who could read the most books from the library. At that time, I borrowed almost all the Nancy Drew books in the library!

Image from Rappler.com.

I also really loved the series of children's books by Nick Joaquin: Pop Stories for Groovy Kids. I read all of them. My favorites were about the manananggal (Lilit Bulilit and the Babe-in-the-Womb) and his version of the Beauty and the Beast called Johnny Tinoso and the Proud Beauty. I wish my kids could read them too. Sadly, they're no longer available. I even signed a petition to have these books printed again but I don't know what became of that. 

Image from Goodreads.com. 

I also read Jane Yolen's Pit Dragons series: Dragon's Blood and Heart's Blood. But I was bitin! My grade school library didn't have the other books. It was only later as an adult that I found A Sending of Dragons and Dragon's Heart. I loved the idea of how the dragons communicated very differently from humans and it opened up my imagination. 

Image from seantcollins.com.

Lastly, I reserve a special place in my heart for Ursula Le Guin. I read her A Wizard of Earthsea series (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore...and later on Tehanu and The Other Wind, the latter two I bought as an adult) and I was forever in love with fantasy. They were in my grade school library and I love the librarian who put these books there. I even attempted to write my own fantasy story inspired by The War of the Roses, complete with maps and background stories about the warring factions from Aetamar and Gitel (my fictional medieval cities). Sadly, I've lost the manuscript...one of my greatest regrets. I continued to read Ursula Le Guin later on, as an adult, and she remains one of my favorite writers of all time. 

I still read children's books up to today because I have two young children. One of my favorite activities in the world is reading stories with them! I encourage them to read by taking them to secondhand bookstores and giving them the run of all the books they could possibly choose from. 

Image from Wikipedia.com. 

Hmmmm. If I could give my younger self a book...what would it be? I guess it would be Neil Gaiman's children's books...only because I'm sure I would have loved them even as a kid! Also, I would have appreciated a book about anger, death or loss because I lost my mom so early. I didn't really know about it (death) and the grieving process was a very long one for me. If I could go back in time and give myself a book, it would probably be a book about anger and loss like Where The Wild Things Are or about death like Gentle Willow or The Brightest Star. 

A Rip-Roaring Ride On a Hot-Air Balloon: A Book Review of "Fortunately, The Milk" by Neil Gaiman

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It took me and my son, Badger, three nights to finish this book but they were all fun-filled nights. I had to stretch it out a bit because I didn't expect the book to be that long. What amazed me about this book was: it contained everything that stirs up B's imagination: aliens, dinosaurs, pirates, vampires...well maybe not ponies (was that considered a spoiler? I'm not sure). I'm so glad we got this book and I'm sure this won't be the last time we'll read it together. It's a great rip-roaring ride and Gaiman's landscapes are stunning. It also has lovely read-aloud moments like the Transylvanian accent that I was forced to use (you'll get it when you read it). All in all, very silly and fun.


View all my reviews