Authors & artists
FiWi Story books are made by a small circle of family and friends, with Jamaica at the heart of every page.
Judi Emanuel
Judi Emanuel is a Jamaican singer-songwriter and children’s author based in Vermont. Known to audiences as The Reggae Countess, she carries forward the musical legacy of her father, Count Owen, a pioneering mento musician and recipient of Jamaica’s Order of Distinction.
Her first book for children, Ena and the Rickety Bamboo Bridge, was written in 2012. Mitzie’s Morning Adventures followed in 2026. She writes every story in Jamaican Patois with English beneath, sings the songs that go with them, written with Myal Akette, and narrates the films.
A graduate of the University of the West Indies, Mona (BA Hons, Upper Second Class, in Media and Communication, specializing in Multimedia), Judi has sung on records including Judy Mowatt’s Grammy-nominated Working Wonders and Disney’s Sebastian. To family and friends she has always been Juds, a yard name, which is where the Ms Juds Kids channel gets its name.
The artists
Mickey Dyke
Mickey painted the first Ena pictures by hand in 2012, while she was still in high school. She is one of Nurse Ena Dyke’s grandchildren, so the book carries a family story in more ways than one.
Azim Akhtar
Azim redrew Ena’s world in 2021, based on Mickey’s original paintings, and designed the FiWi Story logo.
Abdul Aleem
Abdul drew Mitzie, her goat Dancer and the green hills they walk through every morning.
Myal Akette
Myal writes music with Judi, including the songs that go with the books. Together they wrote Ena and the Bamboo Bridge.