My Blue Butterfly / Mi Mariposa Azul

Happy Halloween Everyone! What an amazing place to be for Halloween, and I will be heading to celebrate with some of my dear friends who have, for the moment, settled in New Orleans. Tonight, the focus is not only on building a new community, but also on strengthening what has already been built. Well, that and not getting eaten by a werewolf.

I received an email today from Mercedes Rodman, an individual who is a great supporter of the Abreu Fellowship and the vision of El Sistema in the United States. She has written a book, which is not only lovely, but ingenious in concept. I truly love it, and cannot wait for it to be on shelves.

Hi Abreu Fellows near and far!!!

Hope everything is well!! My name is Mercedes Rodman and I'm a member of Abreu Fellows Friends Committee. We are so proud of what you're doing!!

I wanted to share with you that I have written a children's book, My Blue Butterfly/Mi Mariposa Azul, that deals with bullying and features El Sistema and the Abreu Fellows. Actually, the teacher in the English version of the book is an Abreu Fellow. I wanted to find a way to spread the word about the movement in both English and Spanish.The book will come out in the spring.

Below is the blog written by my editor. The cover you see in the blog is for the English version of the story (when you turn the book over and open it again, the story will be in Spanish and has its own cover). Hope we can do wonderful activities for the kids together!!

Thanks!! 

Mercedes

WHEN A BOOK BEGS TO BE PRINTED

Posted by Jan Pogue 

Work comes to me in many ways. I don’t really advertise what I do, so I have to rely on my books to be my ambassadors. And I need to evaluate each book to make sure I can do the story justice, as well as have the book further the Vineyard Stories’ brand.

So it’s always surprising when I find myself saying “yes” to a book I know isn’t really a Vineyard Stories’ book.

Such is the case for My Blue Butterfly, which will come out next spring. The author, Mercedes Alvarez Rodman, approached me last year about this book. It was, as every book is, a labor of love for her. It wraps up a lot of how she feels about life — about childhood bullies and girls who worry too much about how they look and her home country, Venezuela, and the music program El Sistema that was spawned there and has since moved to America.

Mercedes, who lives in Bourne, MA., had visions of what was both an intriguing and difficult book, really two stories in one. One story is in Spanish about a girl named Isabel who lives in Caracas. The other is told in English about a girl in Boston named Elizabeth. Both girls play cello and are involved in El Sistema, which uses music as a form of social work, offering free music lessons to children who could never afford them. Each story is completely self-contained within a single book; the English version is named My Blue Butterfly, and the companion story — which has its own cover on the flip side of the book, is Mi Mariposa Azul.

The girls get to know each other through email, and they meet in the center of the book, when both versions come together, as do the girls’ lives.

The girls have nothing to do with Martha’s Vineyard, and Martha’s Vineyard has a limited Spanish population — so the market for this book really isn’t here.

So why do it?

I’ve come to believe that small publishers have a certain obligation to seek out and publish worthwhile books that won’t get into print other ways. I believe this is one of those books. Just the very design of this book, with its upside-down dual format will teach me a lot; and I believe there’s a market out there for something like this. It’s just up to me to find it.

Besides, it’s just plain darn fun.

original source: http://bit.ly/qpuGsK

Questions of the day:
How is a young musician introduced to music?