Meet Nicole Weaver - children's author

I began writing around seven years ago. I joined my church’s writing group. I started writing poems about my experiences. Many of my poems were published in my church’s bi-monthly publication. I later entered a poem competition sponsored by my local library district. I won 1st place, that really inspired me to continue writing.

Yes! my family supported me in a huge way. I have written a story about my son. I will at some point get that story published.

I fell in love with children’s Picture book when I came to the United States. I was ten years old at the time. In about six months, I learned how to read in English. After reading so many volumes of children’s Picture books, I knew one day I would write one myself.

I wrote the book in English/French/Spanish because I am fluent in all three languages. I have been teaching French/Spanish for twenty four years now. I think it is imperative that we expose young children to other cultures and languages at an early age. The World is becoming more and more competitive, in order to stay abreast educationally, culturally we must provide our children with much more rigor. In Europe it is not unusual for students to study two to three foreign languages.

I lived near the beach in Haiti when I was a little girl. Sea turtles came to shore a lot. One day as I was strolling on the beach along came this huge sea turtle….. Sorry you have to buy and read my book to find out what happened next.

I think writing is hard in general.

I published with Outskirts Press because I wanted to have complete rights to my book. I am very much dedicated to writing books that feature children of color. As a child I always wondered why the characters in the books I read were always a different color than me. Publishing with Outskirtspress afforded me the flexibility to decide on the illustrations and many important issues regarding my book.

I would love to see many more children books that features people of color. I spend a lot of time in the children section at my local library reading, much to my dismay very few books are about people of color. I want to make a huge dent in that trend.

I am currently working on two more books. Both will be tri-lingual. In fact, all of my future books will be in English/French/Spanish. I am totally dedicated to promoting foreign language literacy and World cultures.

Parents/ teachers : The best way to use my book is to first read it in English to your child/ student, later have he/she tell you the translation for specific words. You might want to discuss prior to reading the book what a cognate is in English. There are many cognates in French/Spanish that are similar to English. I am working on a study guide that I will make available later . One last tip: See if your child/student can sound out the French/Spanish words after reading the English version. This activity can be a very good exercise in phonetics.

Title: Marie and Her Friend the Sea Turtle

Written by: Nicole Weaver

Illustrated by: Ruben Chavez

Ages: 6-9

Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-4327-2377-4

Published: March 2009

Softcover: 36 pages

Price: $14.95

The wonder and beauty of the ocean draws Marie to the beach each day in the hunt for the perfect seashell. Her adventures bring her to the best location on the island. Delighted to catch a glimmer in the distance, Marie rushes to retrieve what she believes will be the most beautiful seashell ever. To her surprise she finds a stranded sea turtle, who oddly enough communicates his frustration of being stuck on the beach. With love and determination Marie seeks a way to release the sea turtle back to his home in the ocean.

Written in English, French, and Spanish children’s author, Nicole Weaver reaches many cultures and pulls at children’s hearts in their love and wonderment of the world around them. Illustrator, Ruben Chavez further brings the story alive with his colorful illustrations which certainly will make the reader yearn for their own beach adventures.

Nicole Weaver is a children’s author and veteran teacher of French and Spanish at the middle school and high school levels. Visit Nicole at: http://www.authorsden.com/nicoleweaver

Ruben Chavez is an illustrator and fine artist. He enjoys rendering people in various mediums, with the intent of capturing their spirit and soul. Visit Ruben at: http://rubenchavez.com/index.html

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Reviewed by Donna M. McDine for the National Writing for Children Center. Donna’s publishing credits include over 25 print and ezine publications and is the Marketing Manager at Stories for Children Magazine. She placed 12^th in the 77^th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the category Children’s/Young Adult Fiction and recently signed her first book contract with Guardian Angel Publishing. She is also a member of the SCBWI and Musing Our Children. To learn more about Donna’s writing career visit her at http://www.donnamcdine.com. Sign her guestbook and receive her FREE e-Book ~ “Write What Inspires You! Author Interviews”