Gloria Elizabeth Kadry-Parra was born and raised in the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico. For more than twenty years, she worked as a federal lawyer for the Mexican Government. Throughout her life, she has enjoyed writing poetry and teaching creative writing to children, furthering her belief that creativity is the key to a happy, successful future. The Five-Year-Old Lawyer and Her Frog is a true story, Gloria’s first of what she hopes will be many children’s books about her early childhood years, living in Mexico with her five brothers.
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Book Blurb
Elizabeth is a five-year-old girl who loves all the stories, especially the frog poem that Mother reads to the children. Elizabeth dreams of the day she can go to school near her house and read, read, read! When school starts in the fall, Elizabeth is determined to join the other first graders even though she isn’t old enough. Elizabeth has a meeting with the principal. What will she say? What will happen? And why does the principal call her “the best lawyer”?
Interview
1. What inspired you to write your book?
I was especially inspired to write this book about my families’ wonderful adventures we shared, when my five brothers and I were growing up. Thanks to the love and dedication of our parents, our lives, were full of games and readings that inspired us throughout life.
2. How does your experience impact your writing?
This story is one of the many memories that my family and I built together. I must add that I feel that the stories that my mother read to my brothers and me had a profound impact on the writing of this book, too.
3. What was the most difficult part of writing your book?
I have had this book fluttering in my head, for the course of my whole life. So writing it really wasn’t difficult. The challenge was to have the courage to finally publish it.
4. What genres do you like to read personally?
Lyrical and Narrative. I love poetry, and one of my favorite writers is Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz who was a 17th century Mexican / Spanish nun, and a scholar and poet. Her poems were of the first feminist poems in all of Western literature. I also like to read stories and poems by Federico García Lorca. One of my favorites by him is: The Encounters of an Adventurous Snail, written in 1918 in Granada, Spain.
In addition, one of my favorite novels is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. It’s steeped in magical realism.
5. Do you have other writing projects in progress?
Yes, I have other writing projects in progress.
I’ve written a story about Elizabeth’s family’s Christmas dinner, and another story about the joy of dancing, combined with resistance as an antidote to teasing from other girls.
Each of these stories have a message for children to learn not only with words but with the example of another child’s adventure. These Elizabeth adventures are intended to instill a value that will help children read and grow and guide them to a successful independent future.
6. Who is your target audience?
My target audience is children in kindergarten and the first years of primary school.
As a consequence of the above, families can enjoy their time together reading about Elizabeth’s adventures.
7. What do you hope readers will take away from your book?
The children will enjoy learning to read a fun story and they will also discover that nothing is impossible, if they want to achieve a goal, just as Elizabeth dedicated time and effort to achieve her dream of becoming an elementary school student.
8. Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Everyone who wants to write their first book must believe they can do it; belief is the most important, in the same way that in my new book of The 5 Year Old Lawyer and Her Frog, Elizabeth believed she can do it. And she did.
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