About

My grandmother taught me to read before I was three by writing the names of plants and flowers on the earth with a stick.  Reading and nature became very intertwined for me.  The joy of reading a book was enhanced if I could read it outdoors, especially high up in the branches of a large tree.  From that favorite hideaway I could also observe the river down below and the world of small animals living in and around the river.

My grandmother and one of my uncles were great storytellers.  And every night, at bedtime, my father told me stories he invented to explain to me all that he knew about the history of the world.  With all of these storytellers around me, it is not a surprise that I like to tell stories.  And it was a great joy when one of the bedtime stories that I made up for some of my favorite nieces became a beautiful book, The Unicorn of the West !

In Serafina's Birthday,  I celebrate what a gift a story can be.  Sebastian is very sad because he does not have a gift to bring to his friend's birthday party,  and then discovers when he tells his story that he has brought the best gift of all.  It is my way of honoring and thanking the storytellers who have delighted me throughout my life.  In that book,  as in  Dear Peter Rabbit,  some of the characters are rabbits.  I once had the opportunity to save almost 50 young bunnies when a river flooded.  I raised them myself and I love them very   And now they keep popping up in my books!

My growing-up years were a fun and exciting time.  I have compiled some of the stories of my childhood in Cuba, as well as stories that I heard from my family when I was a child, in the book  Where the Flame Trees Bloom,  Allá donde florecen los framboyanes and in Under the Royal Palms,  Bajo las palmas reales.

Besides writing children's book,  I am a professor at the University of San Francisco and I work in schools with teachers, children and parents.  The feelings that children experience when teachers do not acknowledge their real name led me to write My Name is Maria Isabel.  All my life I have had a difficult time getting people to acknowledge that my first name is Alma Flor, so I know personally how this feels, and I have also heard many people express similar feelings.  My respect for the farm workers with whom I have worked through the years nurtured  The Gold Coin.  I am delighted that so many people have chosen to read that book, because I wrote it as a tribute to those who grow the food that keeps us alive as Gathering the Sun.

I enjoy writing many different kinds of books.  I Love Saturdays . . . Y Domingos! portrays a young girl who has two very different sets of grandparents, like my own grandchildren  do.  I also enjoy retelling the old tales that I loved so much as a child; that is why I wrote The Three Golden Oranges, so that children in the United States can get to know one of the most beautiful, traditional Spanish stories.

Knowing two languages has made the world richer for me.  I believe that all children should be given the opportunity of learning two or more languages when they are young and can do so easily.  For that reason I am delighted that most of my books are published both in English and in Spanish.  And it makes me even happier that my own daughter, Rosalma Zubizarreta, has done many of the translation of my books.

My grandmother's ability to make history alive in her tales, planted in me the belief that children can listen to very important topics if they are presented as a good story. Many of my books touch on issues like identity, My Name is Maria Isabel,  Me llamo María Isabel, deciding by oneself what is right,  The Malachite Palace,  or finding ways to improve the world around us, Jordi's Star.

I have also retold the folktales she told me like The Rooster Who Went to His Uncle's Wedding,   El gallo que fue a la boda de su tío, and Half-chicken / Mediopollito.  Now so many years after her death they became new gifts from her. They also prepared me to recognize good traditional stories and to enjoy retelling them as  I have done with The Lizard and the Sun / La lagartija y el sol or with The Three Golden Oranges.  But my grandmother was not the only storyteller in my childhood. Everyone in my family loved a story well told.

My uncle Tony told family stories very vividly, making himself a part of the action... even if the story had happened before he entered the family by marrying my Aunt Lolita, or even before he was born. No one could ever set the record straight. His telling was so convincing that he actually got to believe that he'd been there each time! My books Where the Flame Trees Bloom,  Allá donde florecen los framboyanes and Under the Royal Palms,  Bajo las palmas reales are collections of real life stories of my childhood and my relatives, part of this legacy of family storytelling.

My father, instead, created each night a new chapter of an unending story of human beings in this planet.  He was not concerned with the history of kings or well-known figures, but rather on how the common people, a step at a time, had developed civilizations.  This combination of reality and fantasy delighted me.  The fact that he created these stories just for me formed a most powerful bond between us.  It also gave me the gift of fantasy to invent my own worlds like in The Unicorn of the West,  El unicornio del oeste, and the desire to sing the praise of those who make life everyday, like in Gathering the Sun, my homage to the farm workers.

I was a rather quiet and observant child.  I was lucky to be allowed long hours in nature by myself.  A bird, a flower or a leaf could fascinate me.  I lived next to a river, a source of constant wonders: leaping frogs, funny tadpoles, skittish turtles that would disappear in the water at the slightest noise, dragonflies, egrets, cranes... they have all found a way into my writing like in Friend Frog, because they are all so alive in my memory.

Books were wonderful companions and their characters totally real to me.  This is why I have enjoyed so much playing at writing letters between storybook characters in my picture books Dear Peter Rabbit, Yours truly, Goldilocks, and the third in the series, about to come.

When we moved to town I discovered a world full of people.  Every human feeling and thought seemed to exist around me, if I just listened and reflected enough.  Little by little many of these people have also found their way into my books. Sometimes as real life characters in my book of memories Under the Royal Palms,  Bajo las palmas reales sometimes as a character in a story like Doña Josefa in The Gold Coin,  La moneda de oro.

I never believed I would be a writer -although as a teenager I thought I would be a journalist-and became a teacher instead.  But my love for words, for books and creativity made it inevitable that I would become an author.  The rewards of authoring books have been many:  It has been the means to rescue many of the experiences of my life, and share them with others.  It has given me the opportunity to work collaboratively with my daughter and co-author, Rosalma Zubizarreta, who has translated many of my publications, with my son Alfonso Zubizarreta and his wife, Denia Zamperlini, who distribute my books through Del Sol Books, with my nephew, Ray Vance, creator of this website, with extraordinary illustrators, and above all, writing has allowed me to get to know many children and teachers throughout the world, perhaps even you.  What a joy it is!

- Alma Flor Ada

More really good information about Alma Flor Ada at : http://learner.org/channel/workshops/tml/workshop7/authors.html