MILWAUKEE — After immigrating to Milwaukee from Ethiopia, a children's author has big plans that go way beyond just books.
“With the will of God, my plan is to build Fishta-Land just like Disney in the future. Even if I don’t get close to that, I will do something else that will help kids to learn, to enjoy, to entertain, and something that they will love to spend time on," Tattiana Kifile said.
She published her first book in December 2020. Since then, she has published seven more and sold thousands of copies across the globe. Her main series follows Fishta who is a talking fish. There are three books in that series.
All her publications are in Amharic, her native language, and English. Some versions include Amharic, the phonetic pronunciations of Amharic, and English.
"And I can make a difference, and I can add value to the Ethiopian children.”
Tattiana said there weren’t a lot of children's books in Ethiopia. That's what inspired her to write her first book at 13 years old.
“Growing [up] in Ethiopia we do not have that much that will develop kid's mind, that will get us ready for the world, so that was my first motivation to start publishing," she said.
She writes all her stories in multiple languages. Soon, her books will also be available in Oromo and Tigrinya which are other popular Ethiopian languages. She wants to expose American children to Ethiopian culture and vice versa.
Kifile moved to the United States in September 2010. She came to Milwaukee after her aunt told her that Milwaukee is a great place to live. Originally, she planned to move to San Diego.
"Ethiopia is in Africa, so America is a developed country. So I always wanted to visit and see how it looks if I live here, and it's a big country. It's a free world. I came here, [and] America welcomed me, and then I stayed over," she said.
Since learning how to publish books, Kifile has published eight books and sold more than 3,000 copies.
"I’m happy. Excited, but I just start working so this is - I’m not satisfied, so my plan is to go over 100 books, at least 100.”
She has already published five children's songs. Kifile is also working on making videos to go along with her books. There are also multiple workbooks that help children learn how to write Amharic.
You can find her books at Barnes and Noble or online at Amazon.
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