On the air with... Bruno Magina

He's been asked where The Color Village is or if The Color Village is even on the map, but Bruno Magina has absolutely no idea!  All he knows is that The Color Village has never been the same since the day the Violet Family arrived.

I talked to the portuguese author now that the second edition of the book The Color Village is almost out.

1)            What was your strongest inspiration when you wrote this book?

This book started as an idea from ILGA Portugal (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association). They wanted to encourage people to write children’s books about LGBT rights. I thought about “rainbow families” and I started writing the story.

 2)            Did you have any concerns?

To be honest,I didn’t have any concerns at all. I just wanted it to be a very simple and funny story – and I think I accomplished it.

 3)            What was your biggest fear?

At first, I hesitated to write this book because I realized that the story was so rich that I would need very good illustrations. Later, I decided to look for someone who could help me, and I met Carolina Figueira. She loved the idea as much as I did and she came up with great illustrations for the project.

 4)            Can you describe how you created your characters?

In this topic, I had the help of another friend, Gian B. Lima. He is a musician and a very creative person. We looked at each color of the rainbow and tried to create families for each of them: red, orange, yellow… At the end, we added some irony to  all the process. I’m sure people will laugh with the name of some characters!

 5)            Are your characters stereotypes? On what/whom did you base them?

The concept was: to introduce an inversion to the colors. For example: while red colour is usually a sensual and sexy colour, Red Family is very traditional and conservative.

 6)            What’s your main goal with this book?

I want to show children and their families that diversity is important and that the prejudice has to end. Becuase around us, there are indeed families with a mother and a father, families with one mother,families with one father, families with one uncle, but also families with two mothers or two fathers. What makes a family is love – it may sound like a slogan or a cliché, but it’s true.

 7)            I suspect that there are many more stories and books to come. What will we see from you next? 

It’s true! In fact, when I wrote this book, I wrote 3 or 4 more. I have a new book waiting for the right moment to come out, probably early next year.

 8)           And where can we find you?

I’m promoting this book around Portugal, in schools, municipal libraries, bookstores…. You can find my full schedule by following me on facebook.com/maginabruno.