welcome to between the covers summer series where we Spotlight South Florida authors I'm Anne bocock see to sing joins me with a beautiful children's book the title birds of a feather story about being different and looking different and finding your own strength in the things that make us different thank you for being here welcome thanks and thanks for having me here let's talk about the book let's talk about the peacocks with their vibrant blues and greens and then you have Mo yes who is the main character and mo is different so tell me about the the characters in the book and what makes it relatable for children so MO is uh MO is definitely goes on a journey of self-discovery he goes on a journey of self-acceptance and you know his friends are all along his friends encourage him and I think characters that who portray real emotions like you know sadness or fear or you know joy and excitement I think children relate to those kind of characters and more did go through all the fears and you know he was different and he felt like he didn't belong characters that are in everyday situations like making a friend or you know moving to a new place or I'd say you know sibling rivalry all those things are the experiences that children can relate to and when they when they see the characters go through those kind of emotions I think they allow children to feel um I'd say seen valued and heard I think characters that allow children to see themselves within the pages of the book I think those characters are the most relatable characters and I think that that's exactly it when kids can see themselves in the pages of the book Yeah by any chance was there a personal story somewhere of not fitting in that that you said I want to write this particular book yes absolutely so when I was raising my children one of the things that I discovered early on was that um you know there were hardly any bugs that my children could relate to or could see themselves in the stories you know there was a distinct lack of representation in children's literature when they were growing up so that kind of stayed with me and then when my daughter was in elementary school like she was unfortunate she was the only child of color so she did a struggle through her elementary schools and I kind of saw firsthand what challenges she had to face so when I decided to write about peacocks her experience kind of became the the driving force behind crafting the story and it was definitely inspired from what she went through that's beautiful it's am I correct that the peacock is is the national symbol of it is it is yes it is the national bird of India and I grew up watching peacock so I had this wonderful childhood memories of watching peacocks you know and they were just all around me you know I remember like feeding them and you know like you know getting tickled by them and everything so they definitely were a big part of my childhood memory so I definitely wanted to write a story about peacocks I love that that you grew up around peacocks when you were growing up what was the what were the kind of books that you gravitated to back in India I I when I was a kid I used to read a lot of mythological Tales of like you know from the epics ramayan and Mahabharata and you know they were um they were stories of like you know demons and kings and queens and um I also read a lot of folk tales and fables they were mostly Moral Stories of animals and birds um and they were all like more like Illustrated stories they were they're a cross between like picture books and graphic novels so that's what I read as a child but more than that I think I grew up listening to a lot of stories um I remember like my parents and my grandparents like I think they were like fabulous storytellers you know so I remember listening to stories more than I remember reading stories I remember my dad telling us stories like with hand movements and sound effects and I think visual storytelling is so kind of powerful and it kind of stayed with me so like I think though is the storytellers in my family and my children like they were My Greatest Inspiration uh you know in crafting my stories today what is the best writing advice that you received read read read read as many books as you can and I'd say be open to revisions what is your favorite place to read my backyard I have a big lake in the backyard so when the weather is good South Florida weather is not always good but yeah I'd say that's my favorite spot to read but no peacocks no peacocks unfortunately something that you learned about yourself when you finish this book that perhaps you didn't know before you started writing yeah I didn't know I had so much patience and persistence and determination because it took seven years for this story this particular story to get published so I never knew I had I had that in me you know if we could take a peek at your bookshelf in your home what would it say about you definitely a lot of diverse characters definitely characters who have gone through a journey of self-discovery picture books that are heartwarming stories about family and traditions you know citizing is the author of the children's book birds of a feather it is a beautiful story with beautiful illustrations and a beautiful message thank you so much thank you so much for having me and thanks a lot I'm Anne bocock please join me on the next between the covers [Music]