Tía Isa Wants a Car

Nutty.

So I sat down, and I, I started to write what would become the book, um, "Tía Isa Wants a Car," mostly remembering my actual aunt, Tía Isa, who bought our first family car.

She was a terrible driver.

She was, uh, nervous.

The car was this gigantic Wildcat, Buick Wildcat.

But it just-- it was stuck in my memory, and I am a person who really believes that we remember things from childhood for a reason.

So when I started to write the picture book, the very first line that came out was, "Tía Isa wants a car." "Really?" I thought to myself.

And then the next line was, "Si, really, to take us to the beach." And so I wrote the manuscript not knowing what I was doing, just sort of repeating the refrain, Tía Isa wants a car, because I know little kids like to see repetition and know what to expect when they turn, uh, um, when they turn the page.