SCBWI members from all over the world: Meet some of them here!

2003 June 25 Manila 

Mary Ann Floresta

 

Mary Ann Floresta has written and published several children's books, mostly for and about
war-torn Mindanao — the southern island in the Philippines where she lives. An especially
timely and appealing story that she recently wrote is War Makes Me Sad. Mary Ann says
that she wrote this story so that other people will hear their side in Mindanao and see what
a child's perception is about war. In order to do this, she went out of her way so she could
interview evacuees. She also took pictures of actual situations so that Biboy Royong, the
book's illustrator, could draw pictures that were realistic or close to the truth.
 
It is said that when writers write, they do not merely express things in words. They first had
to choose to see what was around them, recognize what they saw, and then choose to write
about them. That is exactly the case with Mary Ann. She says that when she was
researching for this book, she saw military men, guns, and tanks. But in every Muslim
evacuation area, she never saw their men. No fathers, no sons. Only their women and
children, with a couple of armed men left to watch over them. All the other males, including
those as young as twelve, were out in the field, at war. Mary Ann says that her experience
of mingling with the war evacuees, giving them simple things like noodles and bananas, was 
worth the risk of being kidnapped or killed. She has seen for herself the agony, pain, and
hunger that children suffer. In war, she says, there are truly no winners, only losers.
 
In April 2003 Mary Ann's book War Makes Me Sad was included in an exhibit titled Stories
for Peace which was mounted by Museo Pambata, an interactive children's museum in
Manila. The book has also been used by Museo in play therapy for children war victirms
in Pikit, Cotabato, under another project called "Balik Kalipay" which, loosely translated,
means "the return of joy".

When Mary Ann joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) 
in May 2001, she became one of the earliest, if not the first person who is based in 
the Philippines to do so. Other books written and published by Mary Ann are Diola Ang 
Bayani ng Philippine Eagle, The Crying Trees, The Smelly Fruit, and My Muslim Friend. 

 

           

 

           

 

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Mary Ann Floresta lives in Kidapawan, Philippines and may be contacted at [email protected]
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