GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Three Goodyear siblings recently wrote, illustrated and published their own children’s book.
“It took a year and a half to make, because I had hand painted all the pages,” said 16-year-old Katelyn Granados, who has been hard at work with her 15-year-old brother Jake and 12-year-old sister Emma.
Every week they’ve been holding regular family meetings for about two to three hours.
“We would all come to the table for a bit and then we’d brainstorm ideas,” said Emma.
Their goal was to create a children’s book, something their parents suggested.
And clearly, all of their teamwork paid off. Now, they have a published 31-page book.
“It’s ‘Oregano Makes a Pizza,’” said Katelyn.
“The book is about a calico cat who loves to cook,” said Emma. “She makes a pizza, invites her friends over just to have a nice meal, and have a good time.”
Coming up with the idea was simple for these siblings.
"We like to make pizza almost every other weekend,” said Katelyn. “So, we were like this is easy, this is cute.”
Plus, they have a sweet cat they adore, who’s one of the characters in the book.
“She is featured when they come over and when they’re eating pizza,” said Emma.
Naturally, Katelyn, who loves painting, is the illustrator, while Jake and Emma are the co-authors.
Looking back on all those countless hours of writing and painting, in between going to school and their extracurricular activities, they’re glad they did it.
“It was a really fun project to do,” Jake said. “I didn’t expect it to go this far… I thought it was just going to be some silly little book, but no it’s… it’s on Amazon.”
“We’re like people can buy this book guys!” Emma added.
It was worth it.
“Because now we have a book,” Katelyn said. “It’s exciting... I’m just like wow.”
When it first went live, they were thrilled.
“I never expected I could write a book,” said Emma. “Now that it’s actually here, it’s insane... I’m like oh my gosh, I helped write that.”
And their little sister even gave it her stamp of approval.
The Granados kids had so much fun creating this book, that they’re doing it again, with their second book set to be released later this year.
“It’s called 'Fig’s First Christmas,'” Katelyn said.
“It’s going to be a fun one,” Jake added.
They’re excited to see it come to fruition while hoping to inspire other young authors and illustrators along the way.
“I want them to feel like, I can do this too,” he said.
“Don’t really underestimate yourself too much,” Emma said. “I think anyone can do it, considering we are really young and if we were able to do this I think anyone can.”
Up to Speed
Catch up on the latest news and stories on the 12News YouTube channel. Subscribe today.