By Frances Solomon
Two Brighton parents plan to write, illustrate and publish their own book to raise money for their children’s school.
Journalist Noemi Camara, her partner Dan Vaughan and fellow parent Iris Villarrubia hope that The Tortoise That Ran Too Fast will help raise funds for the Steiner School in Roedean Road, Whitehawk.
The book is a truly collaborative effort with Noemi providing the words, Dan the outline illustrations, Iris the colour and background – and Noemi and Dan’s five-year-old daughter Tallulah the title.
Noemi said: “My daughter made up the name of the book. I said I’m going to write another book and I’ll do it for the school – what do you think it should be about?
“She said I don’t know what it should be about but it should be called the Tortoise That Ran Too Fast, and that gave me the story basically.”
She added: “What better way to teach our kids about independence than doing it ourselves, so they can see that you don’t have to ask for anything – you can do things yourself and still create positive results.”
Ms Villarrubia’s children also attend the school, although the family is currently spending a year in Dubai.
The team is determined to do everything from scratch and funds for printing will be crowd-funded, with everyone who sponsors them receiving a copy of the book.
Ms Camara said: “This project is very much about community as well – the school, the children, other parents – which is where the crowd-funding came in. We’re not asking for donations, people are purchasing something and helping a cause.
“We are going to publish independently, we’re not going to use any of the commercial self publishing tools that are out there, from choosing the paper to the printers, copyright and sales, we’re doing it as ethically and mindfully as we can.”
Money raised will go towards new toys, trees and other new facilities at the school. They are keeping the plot under-wraps but revealed that the story takes place in animal world and follows a tortoise who is constantly missing out as he rushes about. It is a tale about living in the moment.
They have reached more than half of their Crowdfunder target and aim to have the book on sale for Christmas 2016.
Great stuff. Initiatives like these are what makes Brighton different!