Behind the Book: Hannah Carmona Dias

Happy first day of April! I was super excited last month when I had the opportunity to join the launch team of a wonderful book that’s being released today. We fell in love with Hannah Carmona Dias’ work last year with her first release, Beautiful, Wonderful, Strong, Little Me! Her latest release, Dazzling Travis: A Story About Being Confident and Original is a wonderful book to teach your little ones that gender stereotypes are of the past. Travis wears what he wants and plays any games he wants, without being worried about what his peers think. Whether he’s practicing ballet or playing with blocks, Travis is confident in himself and his interests.

At the end of the book, Travis demonstrates just how important it is to be true to yourself by standing up to the kids who made fun of him. The rhythmic text is simple to understand and the vibrant illustrations are a great complement. Hannah also included questions you can ask your little one before, during, and after reading. Even better, you can purchase the Kindle version of Dazzling Travis today for just $1.99!

Hannah was kind enough to not only participate in the Behind the Book series, she’s also sponsoring a giveaway! One US resident over the age of 18 will win a paperback copy of Dazzling Travis. You can head over to our Instagram and Facebook pages to enter. For five extra entries, leave a comment on this blog post with your personal response to one of the Behind the Book series questions. This giveaway will close on Friday, April 5, 2019 at 11:59p EST.

Check out Hannah’s responses to our questions below:

What inspired you to become an author?

I had a wonderful teacher for 2nd/3rd grade who would allow us hours of time to just read, write, draw (anything artistic) everyday during class. I absolutely loved it! I was often under the table, wrapped in the pages of The Magic Tree House. That was the year that I discovered my love for words and love for writing. I began to use this time to not just read, but fill notebooks with stories and illustrations. Though my stick people illustrations have yet to improve, over the years I continued writing and learning what I could. It wasn’t until after college and the birth of my first daughter that I decided I wanted to really dive into the industry and share my books with kids who needed these stories too.

What was your favorite book(s) as a child? 

Well, as I said above The Magic Tree House series was the first set of books I remember whisking me away so beautifully. Next of course was Harry Potter, which to this day is hands down my favorite series ever. Also any book I could get my hands on about fairies or mermaids made me the happiest girl on the planet!

What was the last non-children’s book you read? 

Oooh yay! Talking about books I’ve read recently is my favorite!! My current read is Crazy Rich Asians (READ THIS BOOK NOW! It’s amazing) And right before this Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud (ALSO A MUST READ)!!

What impact would you like for your books to leave on the children’s literature community? 

Being a curly headed Puerto Rican/Dominican girl, my biggest struggle as a child was finding characters I could relate to. I want my stories to reach the kids that are having this same struggle and need a story or character to turn to that speaks their truth. I also hope that my stories can be educational and raise awareness for a child that may not necessarily relate to the character or story.

Tell us a random fact about yourself that we wouldn’t know from your website or your social media pages. 

Hmm… are we sure we want to go here. I have a list of random facts ready! LOL! I guess my top three are 1. I can eat an entire medium pizza by myself (and it will be by myself, don’t expect me to share!) 2. I really value my alone time and without it, I can’t function. I will wake up at 4 or 5 am just to sit on the couch with a cup of coffee by myself. 3. I’m easily overwhelmed by social media and email and will randomly disappear from it for days or weeks at a time to reset.

Many thanks to Hannah for being a part of this series! If you’d like to keep up with her work, please visit her website and Instagram for updates.