Señorita Petita began life in Manhattan in 1992 when authors Stacey Haber and David Hofberg had a daughter named Emma. Stacey would habitually sing Emma to sleep with the refrain "Señorita Petita / had a fajita / for dinner" and managed to make "Petita", "fajita" and "dinner" rhyme, which is no mean feat.

That could have been the end of the story, but two years later Stacey's cousin Stuart, busy putting together a charity album, decided he wanted to include a children's story...and wanted it narrated by a British voice. In an ideal world he would have hired Ringo Starr (who had narrated Thomas the Tank Engine/Shining Time Station for TV), but it so happened that David was both British and a writer - and available!

And that's how Señorita Petita, Mr. Woo & His Book Full Of Wonders came to be. Co-written by Stacey and David, it was narrated by David in a Boston recording studio (with Stacey and Emma in the control room), the spoken word enriched with a soundtrack written and performed by Greg Hawkes, a member of multi-platinum band The Cars.

Once again, that seemed the end of the story. The words had been written and the recording made, and while Emma grew up, Petita remained fixed in time and place.

But now, thirty and a bit years later, the story proves itself to be true. In its own words, "Words in books are magical things / Shut the book's cover / and the words dance and sing / That's why when you open any book anew / you may find something you never knew / was there before." In other words, Señorita Petita has taken on a life of her own and is to star in her own book and perhaps even movie - just short ones, just like Mr. Woo - but a book and movie all the same.

Feel free to stay tuned for developments, and we hope you'll enjoy the results!

What next for Petita? Only time will tell.