A Collaboration Between Father and Daughter
Using over a year of pictures from their iPhones, Yanatha Desouvre and his wife, Amy, started compiling images of their two children partaking in different activities together. Desouvre would eventually bring them all together on his computer with the oldest daughter by his side.
Five-year-old Reanna would dictate the words to her father of what would become “Big Sister, Littler Sister,” a collaboration between father and daughter.
“My eldest daughter [Reanna] started to read at about three-years-old while she was attending a Montessori school,” Desouvre said. “It only made sense to do [the story] it with her. It would not only motivate her to read, but maybe inspire other children her age to do the same.”
Big Sister, Little Sister, self-published by Desouvre, chronicles the first day Reanna became a big sister to her younger sister Danielle and all the days beyond that over a course of a year and a half.
At such a young age, Desouvre felt that it was important to share his daughter’s story so that she could express the deep love that is felt between sisters.
“It’s never to early to learn to read and love it,” Desouvre said. “It’s critical to one’s success in the future.”
Desouvre started writing creatively himself when he was in middle school; he would sale his poems and give them to his peers.
“I use to write blogs on MySpace and had subscribers to my blogs from all over the world, it was a truly humbling experience,” Desouvre said. “I only published my first book when a friend of mine, Jason Fleurant, asked when my book was coming out.”
Originally born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Desouvre grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and presently resides in Philadelphia with his family.
He received his MBA in Marketing and Mass Communication and Media Management at Lynn University in June, 2010, and a Bachelor’s Degree in MIS and Marketing at Drexel University in 2001.
