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​THANK YOU,  PROJECT DONORS!
of
Lorena and the Magic Mocha Mirror©

Anna Judith Allen      Ciara Cox*     Rose DeMaio    

Borzou Daragahi     Rhonda R. Jones    Vlatka Majstorovic-Fowkes    

Edwin Richardson    Fran Williams, PhD*
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for Isaiah and the Chocolate Mountain© and Eddie and the Hot Cocoa Hot Rod©

​Michael & Diane Owens     Mary Crescendo     Anastasios Panas     Annika Ford
Valerie Salembier     Dwight W. Ford     Judy Sampson     Dora Gomez     Lorena Sanchez**
Jamie L. Kitman*     Christianna Sherbanee   Thierry Vodounou   Sandra Lynch     Arlene Sontag
Karen McMullen      Linda B. O'Donovan     Steven M. Winoker
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**Lorena Sanchez (at right) is shown wearing a Cocoa Kids t-shirt, To get yours, send your information from the Contact page. 
Project Donors have supported publishing via Indiegogo campaign contributions. *Multiple project Donors.
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About the Author
​Valerie Williams-Sanchez 
​is the ​author/illustrator of the Cocoa Kids Collection™ and principal consultant for Valorena Online, L.L.C., Freelance Marketing & Communications. 
     A former journalist in the U.S. and Spain, Valerie has written and contributed to articles and essays in publications like the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Miami Herald, Orange County Business Journal, Long Beach Press Telegram, Injuve Magazine (Spain) and More Magazine, online. 
​     Valerie is currently a PhD candidate in Literacy at St. John's University, New York. She holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She also studied Spanish art, history, language and culture at the Universidad de Salamanca, in Spain, as an undergraduate.
     A black American, Valerie is Mom to her biracial daughter Lorena, 22, Auntie to her biracial nephew Isaiah, 10, and teacher to countless at-risk and special needs kids, (click to read a letter of support). ​
     Valerie names, among her passions savoring hot cocoa, creating fine art drawings and illustrations, and painting, as well as reading and writing creative yarns about "things momentous and mundane in the world of chocolate." 

                               Photos by Lorena V. Sanchez ©2015 and 2018.
In Media & Reviews

New! MCBD 2020 - Book Reviews:
Isaiah and the Chocolate Mountain -- a Book Review, by Susan Bruck, Soul Blossom Living.com, (January 23, 2020).
 
New! Original literacy scholarship based on W.E.B. DuBois's The Brownies' Book, the 1st magazine published for African-American children and youth, (2019).

"Valerie's Vignettes Reviews a Re-released Classic and Something New, Multicultural Books for the New Year." By Valerie Williams-Sanchez for 2019 Multicultural Children's Book Day. 
 
"Grandma Mimi's Kitchen" Cocoa Kids Collection™ Illustration. In HOME, a Rockland Center for the Arts Exhibit (October, 2017).

"Cocoa Kids Collection Books™ Original Illustration 
Selected for New York Art Center Exhibition," a Valorena Online Media Release, (September, 2017).

"Three Books All Children of Colour Should Own." 
By Mocha Carter, HuffPost, (May, 2017).

The Series Thesis

"The Cocoa Kids Collection™ Thesis: Revaluing Children of Color’s Lives Through Children’s Literature.” 
By Valerie Williams-Sanchez, Valerie's Vignettes, (July 9, 2017).
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