Claudia Marcelino’s son Alex had a dream about dinosaurs one night.
Now, after working to improve her writing skills at Saskatoon’s Global Gathering Place, the Saskatoon woman who immigrated to Canada with her family from the Dominican Republic has brought it to life in a self-published book titled Little Bronto Can’t Dig.
It is the story of a dinosaur who struggles to succeed with his toys and has to try other strategies, such as staying calm and reaching out to his friends.
“I had wanted to write a book for a long time, but I didn’t feel safe or informed,” Marcelino said.
Marcelino and his circle of angelestives (siblings Alex and Amanda and her husband, Homer de los Angeles Cruz) arrived in Canada in June.
Marcelino and his daughter, Amanda, say they came up with the idea of producing a picture book after De Los Angeles Cruz self-published a book on calisthenics.
“Mom and me were going to write a book about emotions, kind of like graphic novels,” Amanda told Saskatoon Morning’s Charles Hamilton. “When Alex had the dream, we got him to do the book too and then the three of us wrote a book.”
From there, other people at Gathering Place and an instructor they knew helped them prepare the eBook for self-publishing.
Marcelino says his children started drawing the illustrations, but it took too much time. Instead, he used a computer program to do this work.
Now that it’s published, Marcelino hopes to see it at the Saskatoon Public Library soon.
Featuring Saskatoon Morning and Charles Hamilton
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