Las Musas Book Birthday - Cami Campos

Today we celebrate the series launch of Terry C. Jenning's CAMI CAMPOS. We sat down with Terry to learn more about this series.

Grumpy Cami Campos is always getting in a mess-mostly of her own making. How she gets herself out of these messes, real and imagined, is the source of hilarity--from dealing with a splinter in her butt and a baby brother’s blow out at the posaditas pageant; to saving snakes around St. Patrick’s Day; to finding the true history of America’s Thanksgiving.

With a diverse cast of characters, the six-book chapter book series follows Cami as she finds solutions and navigates American holidays within the backdrop of her Cuban and Latine customs, exploring the intersection of culture, family, and sense of self.

Read more after the link...

How would you describe your main character? Why did you create your character that way?

Cami is a grumpy kid with a big heart who, in each book, starts out to get her own way, comes to understand the error of her ways and in the end does a really good deed to atone for her messes.

Why did I create her? Confession time—Cami and I have a lot in common. I’d like to think that I don’t always start out to get my way, but I do often . . .well, pretty often. . . well . . . I think I have a great idea that needs to be universally implemented for the benefit of humanity . . . or I rush to
conclusions. I’d also like to think that, like Cami, I can see the error of my ways and always try to do something spectacularly good to make up for my slippery beginning. But aren’t we all like that . . . at some time? That’s why I created Cami the way she is. We mostly have good intentions that often go awry. How we solve our messes is what makes us grow into who we are—my hope is that we all end up as Cami does at the end of the arc of the series.

Where did you get the idea to write this particular series?

This series began with my wanting to write a story that juxtaposed American and Cuban Christmas traditions. In particular, I wanted to highlight the idea that Santi Clos wasn’t a huge deal in Cuba and then when I came to the United States, having to wait for Los Reyes just
wouldn’t do. Actually, I was already 12 when I came to the United States and I remember only getting a tube of lipstick for Christmas. And Santi Clos brought it because I had a four-year-old brother and my parents wanted him to be like all the other kids. But what if they hadn’t?

I could see a kid who wanted and needed a new bike having to wait until January 6 th to get that bike. School had already started, for heavens sakes. In real life, in Cuba, gosh, this is really true confessions, I must have had a tantrum once because I remember my mother calling los Reyes and putting all my presents on the porch. Cami incites a rebellion. Why shouldn’t she get her presents when the American kids do? Inciting a rebellion sparks a phone call to Los Reyes. In the end Cami finds someone in need and preforms a spectacular act of kindness.

Can you share your path to publication for this book?

My agent, Natalie Lakosil, liked the Posaditas Story, but she said it would not sell as a stand-alone story—it was too short and for a very young audience. If this had been my first series, I would have written book two, and then given Natalie several ideas. But since I’d proven to
her and myself that I could write a series already, I just came up with other ideas centered around holidays. ABDO Publishers bought it, I believe it was in March of 2024. I got a contract in May and I was supposed to pump out a book a month for the next six months. And I did!

There were some bumps along the way. The Easter story is about bunnies. Bunnies poop a lot. Apparently I got a little too deep into the subject but we solved the problem by using Caca instead! And then…I went off on a tangent about saving snakes during St. Patrick’s day, and
I was grateful that my editor at ABDO, Bridget O’Brien, went along with it, we changed the title rather than change the book. The Halloween book is centered on Grant Wood’s American Gothic. Did we even have the right to mention the book? We did. Megan Dillon, our illustrator,
did an amazing job for that book. The book centered on Thanksgiving was somewhat of a challenge. Cami makes the comment that the Spaniards mostly killed the Ciboneyes and Tainos so there was no Cuban Thanksgiving, but then the kids delve into the facts of the
American Thanksgiving story, and we had to be very careful. In discussing how history is written by the victors and in the case of the American Thanksgiving, the history has not been portrayed accurately, it was difficult to do that, and still be funny.

Megan has a background in Anthropology in addition to being a super illustrator and she made
suggestions. I talked to the descendants of the native Wampnoags and to many more anthropologists. There’s a current of feminism in the story that serves as comic relief, and in the end, the diverse cast of characters comes to really understand each other and celebrate that
we’re all human and we love to share our customs and our traditional foods. Yum.

What was the most difficult scene to write in this series?
 
The most difficult scene to write was the scene in the Thanksgiving book in which the kids wanted to put on a Thanksgiving Pageant. The kids all want to dress like the native Wampanoag. But we had to portray that traditional clothing is not a costume, it is part of who we are as a people. Wearing someone else’s traditional clothing when we are not of that tradition can be seen as disrespectful. It was a very tricky part to write. Had lots of help with that. We ended up having each kid talk about the part of the Thanksgiving history that interested them and give the true facts. No one dressed up. No one pretended. Just the facts.

What message are you hoping readers will take away from these stories?

These books are sold pretty exclusively to the school and library market and as such I hope many young readers will get to read them. Holidays are events that set us apart as a culture while at the same time, they bring us together as we celebrate. Holidays remind us of our roots, and are occasions for families to get together, but regardless of what we celebrate, regardless of our nationality or ethnicity, each of us clings to our customs and, I argue, this is what makes us all human. We all have a need to celebrate our creation, to celebrate love, to give thanks. We actually, are very much the same.

buy cami campos!

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Terry Catasús Jennings is a Cuban-American author who loves to write about funny and engaging Cuban-American children who live in communities that embrace and celebrate diversity.

Her goal in life is to lead us to mutual understanding, as well as sing the
praises of Cuban food.

SOCIAL HANDLES
www.terrycjennings.com
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Insta @Terry.C.Jennings

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