Students Launch Donation Campaign to Share Book

Last spring, Emma Muchow, a junior media and communication major, and Marissa Terech, a junior Spanish and early education dual major, began the process of creating and publishing a children’s bilingual poetry book, Pig Tales and Poemas with Mia la Cerdita.

Since the self-publication of their book in August, they have been heavily involved in community outreach with local elementary schools to promote multilingual storytelling. In addition, they have created a donation campaign to provide a copy of their book to students in the Rochester City School District (RCSD).

Terech was inspired by the fourth-grade bilingual students she had the opportunity to student teach, leading her to create poems for them in Spanish and English. When she presented the poems to Muchow, who has a background in graphic design, the two discussed the potential of merging their skills to create a children’s bilingual storybook.

Both Honors students, Muchow and Terech decided to turn this idea, initially a passion project, into their keystone project. “It started as an Honors keystone collaboration, and then I thought, ‘what if I illustrate it and we have a character?’ and that’s when we came up with [Mia] the pig,” Muchow said. Their project differs from traditional keystone projects, which are typically research-based. Terech explained that while their project leans more on the creative side, it still meets the project criteria and explores their academic interests while also contributing to the community.

With the introduction of Mia the Pig to the book, Terech and Muchow worked on trimming down and revising the poems to create an empowering narrative around their new main character. 

Their book comes at a time where there are few original bilingual stories on shelves. “The critical period [for children’s development] ends at age seven. So, from zero to seven is the most important time for language development,” Terech said. “We teach language at the exact opposite time in high school … ​​that’s how important literacy is; reading at such a young age, finding books that are cute and have inspiring stories that [children] can relate to.”

The authors spent the summer keeping the process moving. While Muchow worked diligently on illustrating, Terech worked to create a website. With her passion for education, Terech designed a workbook to supplement the poems for the purpose of lesson planning for teachers, later making it available to the public for purchase. Terech also composed a bilingual theme song on the viola, accessible on their website, with sheet music available in the workbook.

Muchow and Terech never relied on publication as an outcome at the conclusion of this project. “I could never see it as finished,” Terech said. “I had to step back … if it’s meant for us, if we really believe it’s going to happen, then it’s going to happen.”

Muchow and Terech published their book under a company name they created themselves, Pigtail Publishing. They explained that many skills they developed during the process of this project, including publication, were self-taught. While they believe their book would have eventually been picked up by an established publisher, they valued the principle of owning full rights to their work. However, they are open to the possibility of animating their story for television in the future. “I’ve always been fascinated with PBS,” Terech said. “I would love to have some type of collaboration with that in the future.”

The authors have been collecting donations in order to provide a copy of their book to RCSD students. Each $6 contribution pays for the printing of a single book which will land in the hands of a local student. With donations from Wraithmarked Creative LLC, a local publishing company, and other community members, Muchow and Terech have been able to donate approximately 200 books to students, classrooms, and school libraries.

“With authors and illustrators, no matter what they’re paid, it’s never enough money for the amount of time they’ve spent, so the passion is what drives it,” Muchow said.

Aside from sharpening the Spanish skills of today’s youth, Muchow and Terech strongly hope to empower students through various themes of confidence, courage, perseverance, and dedication found in each poem. While they have been working closely with the community through library and classroom visits to promote dual-language literacy and literature accessibility, they hope these students grow to understand the importance of giving back to the institutions that shape society.

“They might be too young to understand the community engagement part of it and how it is benefiting them, but I think what they are understanding is that they can follow their dreams like we did,” said Terech. “I think that’s one of our biggest hidden messages that we might not have realized, but it’s following your dreams. Literally like, ‘when pigs fly’... and that’s what we did.”

“I think it reflects on Fisher as a whole,” Muchow said. “This isn't just an assignment from a classroom, we came up with it ourselves. No one’s telling us to do this, we decided to.”

Muchow hopes their project inspires other Fisher students to find ways to give back to the community as well. The duo hope to expand the availability of their book beyond Amazon and the United States, and have been discussing the possibility of creating another book after graduation.

To donate a copy of Pig Tales and Poemas to an RCSD student, visit mialacerdita.com.

This article was written by Brooke Eastman, a senior media and communication major. Eastman currently serves as a Public Relations Writing Intern with the Marketing and Communications department at Fisher for the fall 2024 semester.