Though she is an ardent lover of literature and writing, children’s book author was not on EHS Spanish teacher Dr. Erika Said’s vision board: “I never thought I was going to become a children’s author, but when I was doing my Ph.D. at The University of Houston in Spanish Creative Writing, I had the privilege of being Nikolas Kanellos' student in his The Art of Publishing seminar—he is the founder and director of Arte Publico Press, the number one Latino publisher in the U.S. The final project for his class was to create a children’s book, and I came to the idea of writing about piñatas inspired by my daughter’s birthday and the different ways we celebrate across cultures.”

The result of this project was her debut, bilingual children’s book titled El cumpleanos de mi hermana Dulce / My Sister Dulce's Birthday. The book was published with Arte Publico Press and follows a young girl named Dulce turning six years old in search of birthday treats.

Said’s book won the Salinas de Alba Award for Latino Literature shortly after it was published in 2022. Dr. Said says, “Winning the Salinas de Alba Award was a beautiful surprise. Seeing the award seal on the cover has helped draw readers to the book and open doors with organizations like the Texas Book Festival, who have invited me to visit schools across Texas. That experience has been incredibly meaningful, as it has allowed me to share the book’s message—visibility for the Latino community—while bringing me closer to my community.”

In 2025, Dr. Said published a second bilingual children’s picture book with Arte Publico Press, Una niña migrante / A Migrant Girl, about Rocío, a young girl who moves from Mexico to Los Angeles, California, with her family. The book chronicles the differences Rocío appreciates about the two places, ending with her realization that she can preserve what she loves about both places in her heart. The inspiration behind the story was Dr. Said’s “imagining how my life would have been if I had migrated to the United States from Mexico as a child rather than as an adult. The stories in these books are inspired by my daughter and my own childhood in Mexico. They are a celebration of Mexican traditions and evoke the pride of being able to experience life in the U.S. with all its cultural perks.”

The EHS community is fortunate to benefit from Dr. Said’s creative energy, which both infuses her teaching and contributes to young peoples’ literature at large.