SAN ANTONIO – A local 13-year-old student is now a published author.
Sophia Rico wrote the initial story when she was just 10 years old.
The book, Ruby the Reindeer, started as a class assignment.
“I knew I wanted it to be about Christmas and about a girl elf,” she said.
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”She asked my advice, which felt good as a father," said Martin Rico, Sophia Rico’s father. “It was a Christmas story and the one piece of advice I gave her is there should be a villain and she pretty much wrote the whole thing.”
However, after she turned in her assignment for school, Sophia Rico wanted to do more with her story.
“I’ve always wanted to write a book and have one published,” said Sophia Rico. “So, I thought it would just be the perfect opportunity.”
Sophia Rico and Martin Rico started adding more characters and many versions later, they completed “Ruby the Reindeer."
”She did a lot of the dialogue," said Martin Rico. “I think that’s why it comes out as a great story for kids because it’s really written by a kid.”
The story of “Ruby the Reindeer” is also on YouTube.
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They used pictures from the book and a narrator for the video.
So far, the video book has gotten about 20,000 views.
“She’s always been persistent, and we’ve been working on this for years,” said Martin Rico. “For a 10-year-old to start a 3-year project and to see it through is amazing.”