A year ago, I received a request I couldn’t refuse…
When my grandma approached me about working on a book together, I was excited. And to be honest, frightened. My grandma is demanding. A perfectionist. She is a talented interior designer, and I’ve always admired her sense of taste. Growing up, I was in awe of her abilities and I wanted to have even just a fraction of her eye for design. So when she asked me if a book was a project I would be interested in, I hesitated before saying yes. I didn’t want to end up in a big fight with my grandma because we inevitably butted heads over some detail or another. We are both pretty stubborn. Not to mention, even though publishing is something that I’ve always dreamed of doing, it’s, well…daunting.
The following year, my grandma had to sell her house. We were all really sad. At that moment, I knew we had to begin this project. So I finally said yes. It’s my grandma, what am I going to say? I wanted to capture a little of what was the fairy dust of her magical house in Miami, where I spent so much time growing up and that was so special to everyone in my family. We would have to learn how to tackle this project.
Well, we are still learning. There is a learning curve, and it is steep. We’ve been working on this project day and night, and it’s been an adventure. There’s nothing like someone close to you to push you to learn something new. I’ve been a graphic designer since 2017. But illustrating a book is an entirely different thing for me. Publishing is a whole new world to us, and so when we decided to launch this business, it was daunting. But we had to continue. This is a project born of necessity for us as Cuban Americans and as a family, forged from love and imagination and a desire to give happy books to our children so they can remember our culture and the fun we have even through difficult times. We are so overjoyed that soon we will put this book into the world, imperfect as it may end up. After all, we’re all more than a little imperfect 😅
El Cafecito de mis Abuelitos, My Grandparents’ Coffee is a bilingual counting book about coffee and family, illustrated and written by S. Lazo Kibbe and published by Colorful Swans Press. Coming in September 2024!
We 💜🩵 you so much, thank you for joining along!
-Colorful Swans Press 🦢
Colorful Swans Press 