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| Coco LaSwish |
Today is the birthday of my
very first children’s book: Coco LaSwish-A Fish from a Different Rainbow. The official launch will be next month
on Sunday, August 18 from noon – 1PM at the Amor Spiritual
Center 2528 Beacon Ave S
Seattle , WA 98144
Rewind to a little over 10 years ago when I was an English
teacher living Japan .
One of my hobbies was visiting the English language bookstore. I could stay
there all day just basking in the books. Because of the limited selection I
read all sorts of things I might normally have missed, including a children’s
book called the Rainbow Fish. I was drawn to the colors and the title, but what
I read depressed me.
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| fish |
It was a book about a fish who was different, a beautiful
fish with rainbow scales who didn’t fit in with the other fish. SPOILER ALERT.
It ends with the fish giving away all but one of her rainbow scales to the
other fish so that they could each have one. She gave up her uniqueness to be
accepted.
Though I loved a lot about living in Japan , at times
I felt very isolated. There was this strange contradiction of being expected to
be foreign, but also to adapt to Japanese culture. As the only black person to
live in my town, I got a lot of stares. In fact, the first time I arrived to
work, my students literally screamed at the sight of me. It was awkward. People
followed me around in grocery stores to see what I was buying. I felt like I
was an alien from outerspace.
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| first drafts |
Sometimes my differences were celebrated. Lots of people
invited me over for dinner or out for drinks. I rarely had to pay to get into a
club. I was popular, but it was also very superficial. Not everyone wanted to
spend time with me to get to know me, but rather because having a Black
American friend was trendy, a sort of status symbol. I felt like a wind up doll…take
me out and listen to me sing karaoke in English. Moreover as I began to learn how to teach and
had suggestions about ways to improve the curriculum, I met with this very
polite wall of NO. It seemed as though I was only okay when I stayed in the
appropriate boxes. I could be a teacher, but only a certain kind of teacher,
with certain kinds of input. I could be a foreigner, but it was expected that I
conform to a Japanese lifestyle. Though my program was supposed to be an
exchange of culture, often I felt like I was expected to exchange my identity
for Japanese and only be foreign in the classroom.
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| early fish ideas |
Maybe if I had read that book during another time in my life
it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. But everything happens for a reason and
years later when I was asked to write a poem for a school talent show (when I
was teaching in Seattle ),
I decided to write the story I would have wanted to read.
Coco LaSwish is truly a fish from a different rainbow. It’s
a short book, but a great reminder for all ages to be proud of who you are…to
celebrate the beautiful uniqueness that is you. Hope you love it.
I wrote the first draft back in 2008, but with the support
and encouragement of my friends I came back to it last year and began the
illustration process. For such a short book, it took a really long time, but it
was worth it. For those of you out there who have a story to tell (and that is
most everyone), I hope you will tell it, no matter how long it takes for you to
get it right.
