A new local children's book about a little elf contains a special appearance by the US President Barack Obama and his family.

But the author of 'Banana Leaf Faerie Elf', Joan Aspinall, said using the Obamas brought her surprising resistance from some quarters.

"When we took these up to South Carolina, (where it was published by print-on-demand company Book Surge) one man from South Carolina saw it and got all excited," said Mrs. Aspinall. "He said take it into this bookstore in Litchfield.

"So I took it to this bookstore and showed it to the lady there. When she got to the Obamas at the end of the story, she said 'oh, we don't carry anything with Obama on it'.

"So I think that is a real news item. South Carolina bookstore rejects books with Obama. She said our customers are all Republican, and Obama is death to the Republicans."

But Mrs. Aspinall expected that Bermudians would react much more favourably to 'Banana Leaf Faerie Elf'.

In fact, she rushed the book to publication to get it out as close to the inauguration as possible.

The book is about a little banana leaf faerie elf that is saddened when his banana patch is destroyed.

Luckily, he is nursed back to health by "The Angel Maker" Ronnie Chameau.

The real Mrs. Chameau is well known locally for her dolls made out of dried banana leaves.

In the book, she finds an extra special home for the little elf who is assigned to guard one of her creations.

Mrs. Aspinall and the real-life Mrs. Chameau have been friends for many years. In fact, Mrs. Chameau inadvertently inspired Mrs. Aspinall's latest book.

"This book stems from when Ronnie came over and spotted one design in my previous book 'The Tree Frog and the Poinsettia'.

"In one illustration I had a little black faerie elf. Ronnie spotted that and got all excited. She said 'oh, a lady of colour'. She said we need more ladies of colour in our books.

"I went 'ah ha'. So what I did that day was I did this design which went into the Poinsettia book."

In previous years, Mrs. Aspinall has won the adult category of the annual The Royal Gazette Christmas short story contest. "On November 11 I woke up with the whole story in my head. I went to the computer at 5 a.m. At 9 a.m. I called Ronnie and said, 'guess what we have a story'. I worked so hard to get it to the 1,500 word limit for the Christmas short story contest. Then I missed the deadline."

But in the end Mrs. Aspinall decided it didn't matter since it was going into book form anyway. She bought a special publishing programme called Adobe In Design which allows you to design a book from start to finish. Doing it all herself cut a large chunk off her production costs. "This has put me in a new direction," she said.

"In Singapore I was giving them two separate files, my art file and text and they were putting it together for me. Now I am doing it myself."

She is now a total self-publishing unit called 'Some Child Books'.

"The original story was done on November 11," she said. "When we went up to the US it was November 25. I knew we needed a print on demand facility because of the coming inauguration.

"I was trying to get it done as fast as possible to tie in with the inauguration." She said the advantage of using Book Surge has been that she can produce an immediate book, but the disadvantage has been that carrying it wholesale is more expensive. "If Ronnie and I sell directly we are OK," said Mrs. Aspinall.

The book can be purchased from Amazon.com (author J. K. Aspinall) or by telephoning Mrs. Aspinall at 293-2539, or Mrs. Chameau at 531-1387 or by e-mailing pina@ibl.bm or mchameau@ibl.bm. There will also be a book signing at the upcoming 'A Taste of Tamarind – Tales of Islands Lost and Found' book fair in the Mount St. Agnes auditorium on March 22 from 3 to 6 p.m.