 Today we celebrate the book birthday of The Three Little Guinea Pigs and the Andean Fox, by Ana Velez. We sat down with Ana to learn more about the inspiration behind this book Everyone’s heard of the three little pigs, but what about the three little guinea pigs? Way up in the Andes Mountains, Urku, Inti, and Nina have just finished building three new homes when a surprise visitor arrives. It’s Fox, the guinea pigs are quick to judge that he’s up to no good, even though he patiently calls, “Guinea pigs, guinea pigs, come with me. I have something for your family.” In most traditional stories, many a pig has been tricked, so it’s not surprising that the trio wishes to huddle inside. What the guinea pigs don’t see is how the animals are banding together to help them. In the end, it just might take the whole mountain of creatures to show them that things aren’t always as they seem and traditional fairy-tale foes could actually be friends. Set in Andean South America, this fresh, lighthearted twist on a classic tale invites readers to challenge assumptions, embrace community, and trust in teamwork.  What inspired you to become an author/illustrator? I grew up in Quito, Ecuador and there were a limited number of picture books available. I only discovered them when I became a preschool teacher. I fell in love with the stories and the art and the power they had to reach kids. When I started working with neuro-divergent children, my fine art background came in handy when making visuals to help those who had difficulty processing verbal language by itself. I would draw little characters and tell simple stories to teach a skill. My students inspired my desire to make picture books they would enjoy and that might teach something too.  What was your favorite part of the publication process with this story? The best part was collaborating with my editor Kayla Tostevin. I think myself as a artist first and a writer second, so support with the text was vital for me. The way Kayla molded the words and shaped the story elevated the manuscript to a new level. Maybe because of my background in graphic design, I was used to edits to my work. I was very open to her suggestions and trusted her professional experience. I think sometimes as creators, we get attached to our ideas and can have a hard time letting others give us input, but with the right team, projects just get better. My whole experience with the creative team at Page Street was very positive and I felt we were all flexible, reasonable and had fun in the process. This picture book includes words in Spanish and in Kichwa, tell us a little bit more about this and do you speak Kichwa? Kichwa is a Quechuan language spoken by indigenous people in Ecuador and other countries in South America. The language varies depending on the region and Spanish language influence. It is not a written language so there are as many spellings as there are dialects. Like in the story, we have Kichwa words woven into the Spanish we use in everyday life. For example we use “guagua” for child, “ñaño/a” for brother/sister, “mishu” for cat and so many more. In the book, I named my characters Inti (Sun), Urku (Mountain) and Nina (Fire). I do not speak Kichwa. My great grandmother spoke it fluently. My grandfather knows a few phrases and understands some as well. But my mothers’ and my generation no longer speak the language. Since writing this book, I have been trying to learn more about the Kichwa language and my indigenous ancestors. I had the chance to meet Don Baltazar Ushca, who is the last ice-merchant, but since he mainly speaks Kichwa, our conversation was short.  Can you share your path to publication for this book? I am definitely a case of preparation meets opportunity. I had been taking classes and workshops through SCBWI, Children's Book Academy, School of Visual Storytelling and others for several years honing my writing and illustration skills and learning about the industry. I had been sending The Three Little Guinea Pigs manuscript around with art samples and one agent replied that she liked the story but was not sold on the art. That day, I took a step back and scrapped my illustrations completely. I started over, recreating characters, setting and color palette. With a new style, I participated in a #PBPitch event on Twitter and that is how an editor from Page Street Kids found me. I represented myself and did not go through an agent. What was the process as the illustrator of your own manuscript? I met the design team only after the manuscript was 99% complete then hit the ground running. I worked every minute I could around my full time job. The changes they asked for were to support or clarify the story. They gave me free range around style, composition and color. When in doubt, I trusted their expertise. The day I turned everything in, I felt elated and relieved. For inspiration, I took a trip to Ecuador and painted the scenery and animals I saw there. I wanted my animal characters to be playful and expressive. The few humans depicted in the story look very similar to the people that inhabit the areas I visited. I fell in love with designing textiles and if you look closely, you will find native South American animals woven into the background art and framing on the cover. I paint digitally with Corel Painter. 
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