“We had no idea, this was not intended to do that and we are all surprised and it's a wonderful surprise,” Grandma Barbara Rieco says.
A Maryland grandmother is celebrating her dream come true after 50 years in the making, all thanks to her determined grandson.
Barbara Rieco was overcome with shock after opening a surprise gift from her grandson. It was a children’s book that she had written over 50 years ago.
Since writing the book, titled “More! More! More!,” Rieco had tried to get her work published for years but repeatedly got rejected. She tells Inside Edition she kept all the rejection letters she got.
Her grandson, Chad Cooper, grew up hearing about the book and put his multimedia-producing skills to work to make her dream come true. He self-published the book and made it available to buy on Amazon.
“We had sat down a day before we published and I said look, we have worked hard but realistically we are prob only going to sell 10 copies,” Cooper tells Inside Edition.
But to the family’s surprise, the children's book became a no. 1 best-seller in children’s multicultural literature on Amazon.
“We had no idea, this was not intended to do that and we are all surprised and it's a wonderful surprise,” Rieco says. “Every time we check the report there are more and more numbers. It's absolutely incredible.”
The children’s book has 98% five-star reviews according to the family and will continue to grow thanks to a loving grandson.
“This is the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me in my entire life, in my entire life,” Rieco said.
