A Christmas book conceived and made in Seychelles |05 December 2013

A cartoon animated Christmas book with coco de mer as characters has been launched.

Entitled ‘Saved by Santa’, the book is written by Denise Ho-Tive and designed and illustrated by his husband Terry Ho-Tive.

The chief executive of the Seychelles Children’s Foundation (SCF) Noella Gonthier officially launched the book in a ceremony on Saturday at the Kenwyn House.

Present at the launch were the principal secretary for culture Benjamine Rose, Ministry of Education officials, children from the President’s Village and Foyer de la Providence, as well as families and friends of the authors.

A first in Seychelles, the Christmas book sponsored by the husband and wife tells the story of the two main characters -- Victoria the female coco de mer and Olivier the male coco de mer -- getting lost and later saved by Santa..

The story starts with Victoria and Olivier going further uphill to play and accidentally, Olivier falls down and Victoria tries to help him. Both end up rolling downhill towards the beach.

 As they are not used to being on the beach, they cry out for help to find their way back.  On being seen, locals chase and try to catch them and use them as household ornaments.

 But they are washed away into the sea by a wave. After long cries of help and prayers, Victoria and Olivier are finally saved by passing Santa on his ox-cart from La Digue.

The book is very colourful with the drawings set amid the background of Seychelles’ way of life.

In a small speech at the launch, Mrs Gontier warmly congratulated Mr and Mrs Ho-Tive for their inspiration to produce the book.

“This is a Seychelles Christmas book conceived and made in Seychelles. The book is unique for Christmas, lured into the values of life, caring, reaching out, giving and gratitude,” she said.
 
Mrs Gontier also conveyed special congratulations to Mr and Mrs Ho-Tive from Natalie Michel, the SCF chairperson.

Speaking about the book, Mrs Ho-Tive said they were inspired by the birth of their son Huan and after some discussions and consultations with her husband, things materialised.

“Looking at his cute little sleeping face, the children and Christmas inspiration feel got to me,” she emotionally revealed.

The book is dedicated as a Christmas gift to their son Huan and the children of Seychelles.

The preview of the book was read by Rajil Benjamin from the SCF.

All characters in the book got their names from streets and places in Seychelles. Father coco de mer, Albert, got his name from Albert Street, Quincy, mother coco de mer, got hers from Quincy street, Olivier from Olivier Maradan Street and Victoria got hers from our capital Victoria.

Bernada Wilcock, also from the SCF, read an opening poem at the launch of the book.

Mr and Mrs Ho-Tive signed and presented copies of the book to Mrs Gontier and PS Rose.

They also presented gifts to the SCF and Foyer de la Providence.

After that guests were able to buy copies of the book at R195 and they were also able to buy T-shirts, juice bottles and sandwich boxes with the coco de mer characters printed on them.

The book and the souvenir items will be on sale for the public in the Senpa Christmas fair from December 18-21.

Mr and Mrs Ho-Tive would like to thank all who helped and attended the book launch, especially Kenwyn House for providing the venue and Holbert and Christophe Jean for the bouncy castle that the children enjoyed after the launch.