  Today we celebrate the book birthday of I Am La Chiva!: The Colorful Bus of The Andes. We sat down with Musa Karol Hernandez to learn about the inspiration behind this book. Tell us a little bit about the book: I Am La Chiva!: The Colorful Bus of The Andes, takes readers through a day in the life of a hardy and colorful chiva bus in the rugged Andes Mountains of Colombia. This picture book is about community, teamwork, and love for one's land and people, is told in Spanglish verse from the point of view of the chiva bus. The stunning illustrations by Lorena Alvarez Gomez will delight readers with rich details and colors. A glossary of the Spanish words used in the story is included in the back matter. A Spanish version of the book will be released on August 27, 2024! I can't take my eyes off those gorgeous covers! Let's learn more... What 3 words would you use to describe your book? 1. Heritage 2. Community 3. Pride Are you agented? If so, can you share how you got one? I am represented by Jennifer Mattson at Andrea Brown. She was my dream agent! I used a laser focused approach when pitching to agents, despite hearing stories of people sending tens of pitches at a time. Using QueryTracker, I researched and compiled a list of 12 agents who had represented, or were looking for books like I Am La Chiva! I was advised against sending pitches in December, but I played the odds, figuring agent inboxes were not flooded. Well, some rejections came back quickly, and by early January, I was having conversations with Jennifer about my manuscript. What was your favorite part of the publication process? The day the first sketches came in from our illustrator, Lorena Alvarez Gomez, I experienced a joy that must be unique to the moment a manuscript takes flesh. Seeing the evolution of her art and sharing it with my kids was incredible. Conceptually, I knew that transforming copy into illustrations would be a magic process, but actually experiencing it is a whole different ball game. What is the most important lesson you have learned as a writer until now? Be firm but flexible. I have learned that while it's important to be focused on my vision for my story, I need to be humble and flexible to accept guidance, input, and ideas from others vested in my success. Even though writing can happen in isolation, publishing is a team sport, and we need to adjust our approach along the journey. Can you share if you used any mentor texts for your story? If so, how did you use them? Author Kim Moran offered great advice on a Facebook group. She recommended that people looking to write in verse should transcribe some of their favorite picture books by hand as an exercise to consciously identify what we loved about these books. I applied this idea to Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Roald Dahl, and many picture books from my Imagination Library collection. It was great to see that each author has their own sound, and they all seem to have fun with their text. I also studied books like Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter, I Want to Ride the Tap Tap by Danielle Joseph, Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, and of course, The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle; although all these books have cultural and transportation elements, their approach is vastly different which reinforced my confidence in my book's potential to find its space in the universe of published books.  Author bio:
Karol is an award-winning marketing leader, a backyard astronomer, and an amateur photographer. She was born in Colombia and immigrated to South Florida with her family in 1998. She is passionate about her Colombian heritage and embraces the cultural mosaic of her life in the United States. Social media and website:Website: https://karolita.com/ Twitter: https://x.com/karolitadotcom Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karolitadotcom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarolitaDotCom/ Comments are closed.
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