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Saturday 13 July 2019

Children’s Book starring Aruba about Friendship and Diversity

SAN NICOLAS — Aruba Today re- lustrations showing Aruba’s animals
cently had the honor to meet the in their natural habitat. The book
Lipoffs from Maryland, a remark- not only has a deeper message
able American family that fell in that is important to children, but is
love with Aruba a long time ago. also shows the island’s typical flora
We met at the Red Anchor in San and fauna. In a playful way chil-
Nicolas for a very special reason. dren learn that it is okay to have a
Here it is where the book ‘Super friend that looks very different from
Coco; “Will You Be My Friend” was themselves.
born. An idea that sprouted out of
an encounter between a black The book has brought the Lipoffs
rooster and a pigeon. “This is a friendships for sure. An example is
book about making friendships, di- with Mr. Coco, the man that sells
versity, acceptance, animals, the the coconut water on the side
habitat and all with a backdrop of of the road near the anchor. The
our beloved Aruba,” says Jay M. family connects easily with the lo-
Lipoff. cal community, and that is what
they love to do. “We try to absorb
Julie and Jay with their two sons as much of local life as possible
come to the island frequently, and while we are here, and support lo-
the book has played an important cal restaurants and venues. Every
role in their visits since it was pub- time we come here we buy Mr.
lished. “I have been visiting Aruba Coco’s desserts, we are all hooked
since 1998. It’s a wonderful place, on his sweets”, Jay says laughing.
and now with my family, we head The family donates a portion of the
out every couple of years.” The last proceeds back to animal organi-
time they were here they came zations in Aruba concerned with
across a black rooster and a pi- the health of the animals and find-
geon hanging out together day ing them homes.
after day near Seroe Colorado,
on the way to Baby Beach. “We Super Coco not only fascinates
chuckled and started to make up a children in Aruba, the Lipoffs have
story. We named the rooster Coco brought the book under the atten-
because he was near a vendor’s tion of schools in the United States
ice chest with Super Coco written too. “I just read it to a 3rd grade
on the side of it.” The story went class and they loved it. I showed
from there and eventually resulted them pictures of all of the animals
in a colorful book with amazing il- from my trips and we discussed vis-
iting Aruba,” Jay says. He has writ-
ten the book together with his wife
Julie over the last two years and it
is now published on Amazon, and
for sale in Bruna Bookstore on the
island. The author is sorting out to
get more books to the island to
make sure that more children get
to know Super Coco, and his story
about friendship and acceptance.
As Lipoff wrote on Facebook: “We
would like to bring this message
to #childreneverywhere about
understanding the difficulties that
come with making new #friends,
but also about opening their hearts
and having a willingness to wel-
come new ones regardless of their
differences; learning how amazing
Aruba is with its diversity of culture
and people, as well as, learning
about the island of #Aruba and
the #animals that live there.”

For more information: Facebook
Super Coco.q