Best Selling Caribbean Children's Book author to visit Barbados for re-opening of National Library.


Will talk to the public and present three copies of his book to the National Library, including a Special Edition courtesy of the First Lady of the US Virgin Islands.

January 29th. St John, Antigua- New York resident, Caribbean author Mario Picayo presented his children's book A Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover What Happened to the Z)during a brief visit to the island today. The author spoke to students at Island Academy, and at Potters Primary School. He also presented signed copies of A Caribbean Journey to Ms. Dorothea Nelson, Chief Librarian at the Antigua Public Library, and to Ms. of the Ministry of Education. Several copies of A Caribbean Journey have been purchased by the Library and will be available to all patrons. Mr. Picayo made a quick stop at Best of Books, the only bookstore in Antigua where A Caribbean Journey can be purchased. 

One of the two copies presented to the library is a Special Edition made exclusively for the United States Virgin Islands. The copy arrives courtesy of the First Lady of the US Virgin Islands, Cecile de Jongh, as a gift to the children of Antigua.  Mrs. De Jongh is a well-known literacy advocate. Another copy will be presented to Barbados National Library tomorrow.

On to Barbados. On Friday at 10 AM as part of the events celebrating the re-opening of Barbados National Library, Mario will present three signed copies of the popular book to the library, including the Special Virgin Islands Edition. As in Antigua, several copies of A Caribbean Journey have been purchased by the Library and will be available to all patrons at its many branches.

A Caribbean Journey from A to Y has been a commercial and critical success.  Dominican writer Silvio Torres-Saillant (An intellectual history of the Caribbean) wrote, "The images and the words combine to disrupt many of the visual and discursive stereotypes that often recur in representations of the Caribbean. I can think of no better book for children to begin the lifelong adventure of knowing the Caribbean”.  Glen "Kwabena" Davis, Director of the US Virgin IslandsEducation Department's Culture Division, said "Mario Picayo's A Caribbean Journey from A to Y is a book sure to motivate kids to read it over and over. The illustrations and the artistic appeal of the book make it really stand out among other children's books."          

Published at the end of 2007, The 64 page, hardcover, fully illustrated book has gather steam with each passing month, selling over 10,000 copies in December 2008 and becoming an Americas Award Commended Title.

The back cover describes it as a "fun and educational journey through the Caribbean Islands, one letter at a time! From Aruba to Trinidad and from avocado to yam, the reader learns the names of many of the islands, plus fascinating facts about them.  A Caribbean astronaut? From which island? An island with over 300 rivers? Seals in our tropical waters?  And wait until you see what happened to the Z".

Mr. Picayo is making his visit to Antigua and Barbados onboard the Norwegian Gem as part of a multi-island presentation tour.  "He wants to introduce the book personally, to each Caribbean island where it is sold, or will be sold", according to McKinley Matteson, Assistant Manager at Campanita Books, publisher of A Caribbean Journey. On Wednesday the author stopped at his old home, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands to pick the signed copies from the First Lady herself. 

If you want to meet the author, and take a first look at the Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover What Happened to the Z)  visit Barbados National Library Service's new Independence Square Headquarters tomorrow, Friday, at 12:30 PM. Mr. Picayo will read from the book and talk to the audience.

For further information please call the National Library Services at 246-435-3371 or visit www.Editorialcampana.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: MARIO PICAYO. Was born in Cuba, grew up in Puerto Rico and in the US Virgin Islands. He is a cultural activist, audiovisual artist and producer. When not in New York, Mario can be found somewhere in the world (most likely the Caribbean) with his cameras and notebook at a cultural celebration, such as Carnival. He has worked for the Smithsonian Institution, the Dominican Republic's Institute of Folklore, and many other cultural organizations in the United States and the Caribbean. Mario also worked for Sesame Workshop (Sesame Street) as Spanish Editor in their magazine division. In 2004 the New York State Assembly made public recognition to his artistic career and to his work as defender and promoter of Latino and Caribbean culture. You can write to Mario at:mario@editorialcampana.com. To contact the author please call Carla at: 845-559-4656

Praise for A Caribbean Journey from A to Y. 
Selected Reviews and Comments:

“This very original alphabet book gives brief descriptions of many aspects of the geography, animal species and history of the Caribbean. Even though a reader might consider an alphabet book as appropriate only for beginner readers, this one has so much information and poetic language, that older, more mature children will benefit from the information conveyed. Colorful and detailed naïve illustrations accompany the text. The best part of the book is finding out what the Z means to the Caribbean”.
(gr K-4) 
                  -- 2008 Americas Award Commended Title

“A Caribbean Journey from A to Y, written by Mario Picayo and illustrated by Earleen Griswold, describes insular portions of the Caribbean region in a manner that truly teaches and delights the child reader for whom the book is intended. Told as an account of the letters of the alphabet, the verbal side of the story engagingly caters to the child’s curiosity offering invaluable information about the flora, the fauna, the landscape, and the human populations of the region. Picayo delivers historical details throughout with beautiful simplicity, as in the explanation of “what happened to Z,” which alerts readers to the slavery period and the presence of Africans in the cultures of the region. With equal command of well chosen details, Griswold’s visual side of the story of A Caribbean Journey from A to Y depicts the rural, the urban, the past, the present, tradition, and change without resorting to binaries, while giving women their due at the center of life in the Caribbean and suggesting the region’s racial and cultural diversity. The images and the words combine to disrupt many of the visual and discursive stereotypes that often recur in representations of the Caribbean. I can think of no better book for children to begin the lifelong adventure of knowing the Caribbean”.
                   --Silvio Torres-Saillant.Author of An Intellectual History of the Caribbean

"Mr. Picayo, from his personal experiences, has compiled a fascinating collection of historical and natural facts. All young people in our islands and elsewhere, would gain immense knowledge and enjoyment from the lively narrative and brilliant illustrations. A Caribbean Journey should be on everyone’s reading list."
                 --Prof. Roy L. Schneider, M.D., Former Governor, United States Virgin Islands

"From a Caribbean perspective, this book is relevant to children living in the Caribbean and also to those children living outside the region. A Caribbean Journey is a must have in every library, and great learning tool in which a person of any age could pick up and learn a thing or two."
                  --Myron Jackson, Executive Director of the Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute

“ A simple search in the Internet will tell us that few ABC book about the Caribbean exists.  Another, more complex search allows us to see that these kinds of texts usually are limited to the normal experiences of a traditional US or European child.  A Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover What Happened to the Z), is an alternative to bigger publishers that don’t yet know the market or tastes of Latino and West Indian families nor take them into account in their marketing.  In the illustrations we see people of all colours and sizes, carrying out different activities that are particular to the Caribbean.  These are today’s natives, past natives, tourists and dozens of starting points for lessons on history, science music and vocabulary.  But a child isn’t given a book only because of the lessons we can get them to learn. A book is an object that activates the imagination and transports them to other worlds.  For a nine year old child, like mine, a book has to provide just the right details to fire his desires and passion.  It could be the birds or the iguanas, the flags, the volcanoes the indigenous people or the yachts.  A Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover What Happened to the Z) has all of these and more.  At the end, the Z surprises us with an invitation to make a leap across the Atlantic and continue the journey”. 
                   --Tanya Torres is a Puerto Rican artist and writer who lives in New York.  In 2002 she was selected one of the 50 Women of the Year by El Diario/La Prensa New York's oldest and most read Spanish language newspaper.

A Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover What Happened to the Z) ISBN: 978-0-9725611-8-1 Format: Hardcover   Price: $19.95 Number of pages: 64   Fully Illustrated Distributed by: Baker & Taylor, Follett Library Resources, Coutts, Brodart and soon, Ingram. Available online at Amazon.com, bn.com and many other virtual booksellers.

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