Author Contribution: Amy Costales

When I finally held my latest picture book in my hands, I flew back in time to the day that I first started thinking of writing. My daughter, who is now about to turn twenty-two, was a toddler in my lap, watching T.V. for the first time. There was a happy father on the screen pulling a toddler in a wagon. I was enjoying the scene, tapping my toe to the accompanying song of “Daddy’s Taking Me to The Zoo Today” with no deep thoughts. My daughter was the one doing the profound thinking. She tapped me on the knee, trying to comfort me, saying, “Don’t worry Mami, I have my Poppop”. Poppop was grandpa, and Papá was long gone, but my two-year-old was able to assess her family situation and realize there was plenty of love going around. Although my little hija had indeed managed to comfort me, I was from that day on aware of the way the image of family in the media never reflected mine or my friends’. Where were the young single moms? The dads working two jobs? The children sharing rooms? The families sharing houses? Where were the brown-skinned children?

I started writing, but it was many years later that I wrote about my daughter and my father, inspired by the lasting love between them. My father was treated for cancer, and although he survived the disease, the treatment almost killed him. One day, when he was still struggling to walk again, I walked by his room and saw my daughter lying in bed next to her Poppop, watching him nap. I started to cry, remembering when she was the one struggling to walk, holding his big hand and when he lay patiently by her bedside soothing her to sleep while I went to college at night. A story was born.

Abuelo vivía solo ~ Grandpa Used to Live Alone (Arte Público Press, 2010) was inspired by my father and daughter. When I hold it, I feel deeply satisfied by Esperanza Gama’s lovely illustrations of a young single mom, a little brown girl, and a dedicated Abuelo. I am inspired to keep on writing, slowly and patiently broadening the image of family. Recently, when I pick up a book, I read about the author first, looking for those who first sat at their computer screens or picked up a pen and became writers, not just out of a love of writing, but because they felt a need to see children they know in books.

I would like to remind Latino families to seek out books about Latino families in diverse settings. I would also like to remind them to expose their children to families that are different than theirs, teaching tolerance. May children open books and see their reflection, as well as a window into the world of different children, be they next door or miles away.

-Amy Costales

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Amy Costales is a passionate advocate of multicultural education and a bilingual children’s author. She learned her first words of Spanish on her grandfather’s lap. He was a teller of tall tales who created a fantasy world about Spain and Cuba. When her family moved to Spain when she was a child, Grandpa’s fantasy world became hers. As a teen she moved to Southern California along the Mexican border, which opened the door to another part of the Spanish-speaking world. Amy has taught Spanish, Social Studies, ESL, and bilingual primary school in the U.S. public school system and in international schools in India and Thailand. She currently teaches Spanish at the University of Oregon. She lives in Eugene with her children, husband and a myriad of pets. Amy firmly believes that all children should be able to open books and see the astonishing diversity of the world, as well as a life that looks like their own. This belief, above all other things, led her to writing for children.