By M.B. Paradise
​
There is a moment from one of my author events that sticks with me.
I was at the Belmar Library, sharing how an idea can become a book and then reading Beach Santa to a group of children and their guardians who had gathered around the edges of the room.
Afterward, a grandmother approached me. She had kind eyes and a directness that instantly commanded my attention. She told me that she thought there was a serious lack of quality children's holiday books in Spanish. And then she looked at me and asked, point blank, if I would consider getting Beach Santa translated.
I thanked her and I told her I would think about it.


What She Was Really Asking
On the surface, she was asking about a book. But what she was really asking was something deeper.
She was asking if the children in her family — children who might be more comfortable in Spanish, children who live in two languages and two cultures — deserved to hold a holiday book that felt like it was made for them. She was asking if the story of a generous Santa who never stops giving,  was a story that belonged to her grandchildren too.
Of course it did.
I knew I would do it. The only question was how. Ironically, that next day I ran into an old college friend who mentioned that his mom was working as a translator.  It was a sign!


The Decision
Creating a Spanish edition wasn't free. It wasn't without effort or risk. As an indie author without a publisher, every decision about the business is mine to make — and every dollar spent comes directly out of my own pocket.
But when I sat down and really thought about it, the decision wasn't hard at all.
If the book was worth writing in English, it was worth translating into Spanish.
So I did.
Papá Noel de la Playa was born — a Spanish-language edition of Beach Santa created for every Spanish-speaking child who deserves to curl up with this holiday book in the language of their heart.


What the Numbers Say
After I made the decision, I started doing some research. And what I found stopped me in my tracks.
One in four children in the United States is Hispanic. By 2050, one in three Americans is projected to speak Spanish. And yet the shelves of most bookstores and school libraries tell a very different story. The grandmother at Belmar Library wasn't just sharing a personal preference. She was describing a real gap — one that affects millions of families across this country every single day.
I am one author with one book. I can't close that gap alone.
But I can make sure that Beach Santa is available to as many children as possible.


What It Means to Me Personally
I live in a community where Spanish-speaking families are my neighbors, my children's classmates, and the people I see at the library. These are not abstract readers to me. They are real people — grandmothers who approach authors after events and say exactly what they mean.  I’m so grateful she did.



Papá Noel de la Playa — the Spanish edition of Beach Santa — is available on Amazon. Linked through www.beach-santa.com.  Free downloadable coloring and activity pages (in English) are also available 

How a True Story Became a Children's Book

By M.B. Paradise
Every children's book starts somewhere.

Some start with a dream. Some start with a character that arrives fully formed in an author's imagination. Some start with a problem a writer wants to solve or a lesson they want to teach.

Beach Santa started on a beach, on an ordinary afternoon, with a generous stranger with a pocket full of tiny conch shells.

And I almost missed it entirely.
An Ordinary Day at the Beach

It was a regular summer Saturday at the shore. No plans beyond sun, sand, and “shell searching”.

My kids were doing what kids do at the beach — searching near the water's edge for shells. And they were pretty vocal about the fact that they weren't finding good ones. If you have children, you know the energy. The announcements to no one in particular that this beach has no shells. The disappointment.

Nearby, a fisherman was doing his own thing. He was older, with a long white beard, a safari hat, and a fishing vest — the kind of man who looks like he has been coming to this exact spot for decades. He was minding his own business, casting his line, perfectly content in his own quiet world.

But he was listening.
The Moment Everything Changed

Noticing their frustration, the fisherman reached into his vest and tossed perfect shells onto the sand.

At first, my kids didn't notice. They kept searching, eyes down, scanning the same stretch of shoreline they'd already covered three times.

Then the fisherman looked over and said, simply — "Hey, you forgot to look over here."

My kids turned. And there they were — perfectly shaped, shimmery seashells, scattered on the sand like they had always been there. My children scooped them up, cupped them in their small hands, and came running to me with the particular breathless excitement that only a child who has found treasure can produce.

"Look what that fisherman gave us, “one of them said, eyes wide. "He's kind of like a Beach Santa."

I felt something shift in that moment. A little spark.

From Spark to Story

I had tried one other time to write a children’s book and let’s just say it was a flop.  It may LOOK easy but writing a book is a tall task, especially alongside being a working mom.

But that evening, I couldn't stop thinking about that fisherman.

About the fact that he didn't have to do anything. It was 100% a random act of kindness.  He could have kept fishing, kept to himself, let my kids walk away empty-handed. Nobody would have known. Nobody would have blamed him.

But he chose kindness anyway. Quietly. Without fanfare. Without expecting anything in return.

And because of that one small choice, my children experienced a moment of pure, unexpected joy. A ripple effect of positivity — set in motion by one generous stranger with a long white beard.

That, I realized, was a story worth telling.

Bringing Beach Santa to Life

From that spark came a lot of questions. What if Santa — the Santa — had a life after Christmas? What if, when his work was done and the world was asleep, he didn't simply disappear? What if he went somewhere to rest, to recharge?  What if he liked the same things that we do…surfing, snorkeling and fishing?

And what if, even on his day off, even when no one was watching, he still couldn't help but be generous?

I began to write.

The hand-drawn illustrations were essential from the beginning — I wanted Beach Santa to feel warm, personal, and real. Not slick or digital, but the kind of art that feels like it was made with love. Because it was.

The fishing vest made it into the book. So did the long white beard. And of course — the shells.

Meant to Be?
Maybe this book was meant to be.  Maybe that fisherman and I were at that exact beach, at that exact time for a reason. MAYBE, it’s all to tell a bigger story that kindness really exists in the world. Because there really are people out there — strangers— who toss shells onto the sand for children they don't know, just because they can.

And if a fun, playful book about an off-duty Santa can do that — if it can plant that seed in one child's heart — then that afternoon was about so much more than shells.
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*Beach Santa is available on Amazon and in select stores. A Spanish edition — Papá Noel de la Playa — is also available. A free Story Hour Kit with coloring and activity pages is available for download at mbparadise.com, along with a Teacher Resource Kit for $5.00.*


To learn more, follow along on Instagram or Facebook at @mbparadiseauthor.