Marikit and the Ocean of Stars has been out for almost one year now! Happy almost first birthday to this magical middle grade book inspired by Filipino folklore! ✨
Author Caris Avendaño Cruz shares her thoughts from a year ago during the book’s release:
✨️ We did it, Marikit! ✨️
I have a book out in the world!! My book!!
Nine-year-old me only dreamed of becoming Jo March and tried to imagine if stories had new endings. Fifteen-year-old me scribbled them in notebooks in the middle of lectures―those weren’t interesting anyway. I was your average girl. Twenty-year-old me sat on the floor and gave up on myself. Reality extinguished my dreams. My heart wouldn’t pick another road. My future has to be with words. I squeezed myself into every small opening and it didn’t matter if I don’t have bylines or good pay as long as I got to create.
And then, came Marikit.
I’d like to thank the people who let me write for them. The kids at church who were my first audience. The choir who sang my songs. The people who patted my shoulder and said, “You have talent!” And there’s me, who only shrugged back. To my family who allowed me a space to thrive in silence, thank you for believing that something good will come out of that quiet. To my friends who’d take me out because I was in desperate need of socializing, taralets. To my cats, who’d knock on my door to ask for some petting, yes, but please stop stepping on my keyboard. To my dogs who’d bark in the middle of an Important call, we’re still cool, my dudes. To the people I met through this journey and made the writing community feel warm and welcoming, I’m glad to be with you. And I’ve said this before, and I’ll never tire of saying it over and over: there will be more Filipino stories, more Filipino writers, so watch out for them, because we ARE going to fill the shelves. 🇵🇭
