María Celeste Arrarás Presents Her Book on The Today Show

María Celeste Arrarás has officially kicked off her career as a children's writer with the book El bastón mágico (The Magic Cane), a story she came up with while playing with her kids and wrote in a mere five hours on her Blackberry. The fiction work, which she presented this morning on The Today Show (NBC), marks the Puerto Rican's crossover to the U.S. market.

The launch of the children's book has kept the 47-year-old journalist busy. Last Saturday, she participated in the National Book Festival in Washington D.C., an event organized by the Library of Congress and First Lady Laura Bush. While in the U.S. capital, Arrarás had breakfast at the White House with the president's wife, who's known for her mission to promote children's reading.

The story of El bastón mágico, which is also available in English, centers around family. In an interview with PEOPLE EN ESPAÑOL, the journalist said that the tale's three characters, Julianchi, Adrianchi and Larilu, are based on her three kids, Julián, 9, Adrián, 8, and Lara, 6. “Once I'm gone, they'll know how to stay together, love each other, and protect each other.”

This is the second written work of the Puerto Rican mom, who published El secreto de Selena (Selena's secret) in 1997, an exclusive interview with Yolanda Saldivar, the woman convicted of killing popular Chicano singer Selena.