I don’t think I’ve written about it here, but in 2017 I wrote a children’s book called “Where did all the Fireflies go?” which translated to Filipino is “Nasaan na ang mga alitaptap?” It was published by St. Matthew’s Publishing, under Kahel Press. My friend and artist, Irish Flores, illustrated the book and Mark Fortaleza translated it to Filipino. Smart Parenting recently listed their Top 20 Filipino Children’s Books of 2017 and the book I wrote was listed as one of them!
Smart Parenting says about the book: This is our favorite environmental storybook for 2017. Fireflies are harder to find these days because of pollution and climate change. It is a fact that we need to share with our children. They are never too young to learn about helping to care for the environment. With your guidance, they can already make a difference in their own little ways.
I’m happy because this is what the book was meant to do! I wanted children to learn to take care of our planet and know that they can do their share in their own little ways.
I’ve always dreamed of writing books, but I never thought I would be writing a children’s book. Being an avid fiction and novel reader, I always wanted to write chapter books and publish a good novel (maybe I can still do that!) but children’s books were beyond me. I always thought it was more difficult to write (it IS difficult!) because as a writer, the challenge is to explain concepts in a way that a child would understand. And especially because I know so much about the technicalities of climate change, I had to step outside it and see how I can make children care about their environment. That’s when I thought of having a story of friendship between Tonyo, a little boy, and Ningning, a firefly. I wanted to show that all creatures are our friends; that as humans we are not any more important than other creatures, and taking care of our environment means taking care of them.
Don’t forget to get your copies here! I hope to write more books soon! 😉
Renee Karunungan 