“Good night Captain Mamá” by Graciela Tiscareńo-Sato

When was the last time you picked up a good book about Latinas serving in the armed forces?  How about a children’s book about this exact topic?  If you’re still thinking, keep at it.  You may find that your list of children’s book authors writing about this precise topic might come up a little empty, to be quite frank.

These aren’t the stories we as adults are used to reading about.  Much less our kids.

So U.S. Air Force veteran and former navigator, Graciela Tiscareño-Sato’s new book Good night Captain Mamá certainly reads like a breath of fresh air.  Having just hit bookshelves last week before Independence Day on July 3, the bilingual children’s book tells the story of Marco and his mother.  A Latina who just so happens to serve in the United States Air Force as well.

In fact, Tiscareño-Sato told NBC Latino it was her own son who inspired her new career as a children’s book author:

“It was really about him seeing me in my uniform,” says Tiscareño-Sato, of the moment that inspired her to write the book the night before Veteran’s Day in 2010. “I was trying on my uniform because his school’s veterans event was the next day and I was going to speak…It was a conversation about ‘What is this?’ and ‘What is that for?’…It was him who said, ‘Good night Captain Mama’.”

I think that’s kind of awesome!

Part of all sales of the book will support women military veterans through the Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-Wise) training program, operated by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.

Get your copy of the book here.

Juan Alanis

Juan Alanis is the founder and editor of the award-winning Latino Lifestyle blog JuanofWords.com .
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