It is not that surprising that local attorney-turned-author and fellow political junkie Stephen Cody has written another children’s book.
But that his co-author is former Natacha Seijas, who was recalled in an ugly weird thing that happened in 2011, might raise some eyebrows.
The fact that the book is a children’s book on bullying is going to absolutely floor some people — I can think of one or two bloggers whose heads could actually explode — because they would say Seijas was a bully herself on the dais. She has been depicted as the Evil Witch of the West and Jabba the Hut.
In all honesty, she was not always the nicest person to deal with. She told commissioners that the decision not to move her recall election to a separate date so she would not be on the same ballot as former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez “will haunt you” and once made some oft-quoted statement about someone leaving “in a bodybag.”
She has been called an arrogant bully by some bloggers. Even by some politicians.
“You know why they say that,” she asked Ladra Thursday. “Because I’m a woman. If a man would have said the same things I said, he’s just called difficult. But when I say it, it becomes, ‘That woman is a bitch.'”
And she is partly right. I know. Happens to Ladra, too. Because we are brutally honest. And while many may accuse Seijas of being a big bully — and certainly cozying up to other bullies (read: Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez) doesn’t help — the snappiness at the reporters was not worse than I see from most people hounded on the courthouse steps who, at first, politely refuse to answer. And I found that nobody was bullied more than she was in that misguided 2011 recall.
“Bitch?” Please! That would be one of the nicer things they said about her. To her face. Remember, this is the woman that they made a mock doll of and undressed down to her skivvies on some Spanish-language TV show. That’s bullying.
“My Secret Superpower” is a 32-page picture book for kids through third grade that should be available in print and in digital format for the iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Nook and in the iBookstore by mid August. At least that’s what ihear. There are teacher guides available, to use the book for lessons in class, and a video trailer that gives you a gist for how the drama unfolds. The iphone app will also have animated features.
The first half of the book — illustrated solely by Cody using the same 3D process used for movies like “Toy Story” — has six friends sharing stories about Luna McTuna, the school bully that tortures them. In the second half of the book, a new kid named Alice Allbright comes in and with a real superpower — self respect and self esteem — she shows the other kids how to (spoiler alert!) change Luna.
“She teaches them how to deal with Luna in a non-combative way,” Cody says. “Luna has to be depicted as a villain, but she is redeemable. And the book has to have a positive resolution.”
In the flashback scenes, each of the bullied kids — of all ethnic backgrounds (there’s even a kid named Rita, which is Cody’s wife’s name) — envisions he or she has a secret power to help them deal with Luna. One turns invisible. Another, the one whose head she dunks in the toilet in the boys’ room, wants to turn into an Aquaman-type marine hero who can stop her like dolphins stop sharks. Another kid wants to use time travel to go back 10 years and convince Luna’s parents to move to another side of town.
The overweight kid’s scene is inspired by an old Star Trek episode in which Captain Kirk meets with a giant lizard on a strange planet. The kid envisions Tuna as a giant lizard mocking him and then he has the ability to transport — via “beam me up, Scotty” powers — not just himself, but his whole class to safety.
“Because a lot of kids have fantasies where they save everyone from the bully,” Cody told me, explaining that the book was written after talking to several educators and a child psychologist who said a lot of kids say they wish they had superpowers to deal with the harassment.
Seijas had been talking about writing a children’s book to deal with mental issue problems since the Sandy Hook incident and Cody approached her about collaborating a few months after her son died. With her experience working with children through the YMCA and with depression through the Switchboard of Miami, she had insight that added depth to the characters, he said.
Bullying, which led to a series of teen suicides in the past couple of years, turned out to be the best direction to go in. “It is the most intense thing that is hurting kids today,” Seijas said.
And the book — which even touches on cyber bullying using a social network called Spacebook — turned out to have a mental health moral: It’s better to have a healthy ego than an alter ego.
Wait. What? Ladra doesn’t like that.
Natacha Seijas: From ousted official to kids’ author added by Ladra on
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