Last Friday, we had the pleasure of welcoming students from Yo Creek Compassion School in Orange Walk to the Cubola office as part of their wider educational tour. Their energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm made the morning one to remember.

I had the opportunity to share the inspirations behind my novel, The Land of the Night Sun, and did a live reading from one of the chapters. The selection featured Itzel’s first encounter with the howler monkeys—so of course, it required a full performance. There was shouting. There was howling. There may have been a few annoyed neighbours. The students, thankfully, were amused.

We also had a small exhibition of illustrations from the book on display. This turned into a lively Q&A session filled with the kind of wonderfully unfiltered questions only children can produce:

“I have no idea what’s going on.”
“Who’s the woman with the tattoos?”
”What monster is that? She looks like my sister when she gets up in the morning.”
And a recurring favourite:
“Why does he have no legs?” (Poor Quashy…)

Before heading back to Orange Walk, some of the students picked up signed copies of the book to take home as souvenirs of the day.

A heartfelt thank you to the teachers, parents, and especially the students of Yo Creek Compassion School for visiting. I hope they returned home with a spark of inspiration and a renewed appreciation for the joy of reading.