Tatay's Gift: A book about giving

We are so pleased to announce the launch of our Kickstarter campaign for our new children's book, Tatay's Gift! It is a beautiful and poignant tale of a little Filipino boy and the life lessons he learns from his father (tatay [ta-tai]). We are going to need your help funding the launch of our book. Our goal is to produce a first run of 1,000 books to sell online and in independent bookstores around the country.

Krystal and I had always wanted to write and illustrate our own children's book, and now we have with Tatay's Gift. The idea for this project came out of a conversation we were having with our friend Jarred Romley about how we could use our talents to help the people most affected by Typhoon Haiyan. We each have little kids, and our conversation soon began to be about them. What do they think of all the devastation happening around the world? How do we instill within them a desire to serve and help others? That is when we decided we needed to write a children's book that would inspire our children to care about others.

In Tatay’s Gift we get to join a young Filipino boy as he goes out to work each day with his Tatay (Tatay is the Tagalog word for dad). The boy and is Tatay do a different job each day of the week, from selling popsicles by the beach to driving a Jeepney through the city. As they work, he learns the lesson of serving and giving to others by watching his Tatay everyday. The story is based off of my experiences from living in the Philippines for two years, learning the language and experiencing their amazing culture. Tatay’s Gift not only celebrates the hardworking, kind, and giving attitudes of the Filipino people, but it also teaches the valuable lesson of giving back to to your community and helping those in need.

Help us get this project off the ground so we can in turn help those who have lost so much from Typhoon Haiyan, and teach our kids about giving.

Here is how you can help:1. Please share our kickstarter page via social (Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, Stumble, 4chan, Reddit, etc…)

2. Please donate to this project via Kickstarter. Our goal will be fully funded if just 400 people donate at the $25-$35 level.

3. Let us know what you think! We want your feedback!

Tatay's Gift from Brad Woodard on Vimeo.