EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Eight elementary students and their teacher signed their first contract with an El Paso publishing company to release a book.
The contract signing day happened on Thursday, May 1, at Crystal Montessori school, located at 5446 N Mesa St.
The students, ages 5 to 9 years old, will release their book, titled “La Historia de la Selva Magica (The Story of the Magic Jungle)” with Peanut Publishing, an El Paso publishing company.
The book is about eight animals, each representing a child author, who go on a journey to learn how to be friends with a scary animal.
Here are the names of the authors who wrote the story and their respective animals:
- La Mariposa Mia, Olivia Vazquez, 5 years old
- El Tucán Tati, Emiliano Lozano, 8 years old
- El Guacamayo Coco, Joaquin Cedillo, 8 years old
- El Mono Henry, Mariana Cordero, 9 years old
- El Camaleón Hermoso, Antonio Saad, 7 years old
- La Serpiente Reyboo, Emilio Vazquez, 9 years old
- La Camaleona Nena, Catalina Cordero, 6 years old
- El Jaguar Mimi, Marcela Cordero, 9 years old
During the event, the founder of Peanut Publishing, Sahily Loya Cuellar, gave the students a small lesson on contracts: what they are, what they include and what the students are signing.
“You don’t want to sign something you don’t know or understand,” Loya Cuellar said in Spanish. “We’re going to go over your contracts so you know what you are signing.”
Each student came to the front of the classroom, signed and posed for the cameras with their contract and a $50 check for their hard work.
Mitzi Baidón, a teacher at Crystal Montessori, said her students were really hands-on throughout the process of creating the story, from planning to what they wanted to convey in the book.
“It was done with a lot of effort and passion, and it was a story that the kids were creating. They were giving ideas regarding details they wanted to speak about in their own stories. The kids created their own characters, and together we created a moral of the story so the kids could actively learn from it,” Baidón said in Spanish.
“They (students) came to me with their plans and ideas and then I helped them edit and clean it up to have the idea, such as the animal they were using as a character, and how we could develop it to create the story,” Baidón said.
“I was so surprised because they gave me the first draft and there’s a lot of corrections, but the storyline was so sweet. I just loved it. It has a little teaching lesson inside and I was so proud of them,” Loya Cuellar said.
Loya Cuellar said typically, it can take books a significant amount of time to write, edit, finalize and illustrate, but the kids finished their book in two months.
“It’s been an emotional journey because I always tell the kids and the partners that I don’t push kids that don’t want to write their book. This is not about the parent. If the kid is motivated and wants to write a book or illustrate a book, I want to help them with that,” Loya Cuellar said.
For Loya Cuellar and Peanut Publishing, this is the second book they will publish.
The first book Peanut Publishing released was “El Paso Placita: A Tour For A Little Señorita,” by El Paso author Deanna Salcido Gutierrez.
The book is about a girl who visits iconic landmarks in El Paso with her parents.
Loya Cuellar said Peanut Publishing was created to provide local authors and illustrators a publishing group closer to home, rather than going out of town or state to publish their work.
“La Historia de la Selva Magica” is scheduled to be ready for purchase in summer 2025.
If you want to buy a book, you can purchase one at Crystal Montessori, Duck Duck Goose Daycare Children’s Shoppe and on Peanut Publishing’s Instagram.
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