While still pregnant with their third daughter, Candelario's husband, Phil, died of a heart attack in 1996 at the age of 34. She wrote the book over 10 years ago, when her daughters were still very young.

On a Friday in early February, Cheyenne, 17, Camaryan, 14, and Trae, 12, helped unpack the first boxes of the book's first edition at Craft's Harriet Street home, sniffling as they handled the tangible completion of their mother's artistic goal..

"In many ways, I documented their grief as a means of not dealing with my own. It was much easier to watch what they were doing," Candelario said. "I didn't want them to have psychological repercussions from this. I didn't want them to have to go to therapy. I couldn't wallow in my grief. I had three children to raise."

Margo's childrens book distributed by Simon & Schuster. "Looking to the Clouds for Daddy" documents a family's experience with a particularly painful transition: the death of a father. Margo Candelario wrote the book, and Jerry Craft illustrated it using a combination of photography and pen and ink drawing. Jerry Craft is well known for "Mama's Boyz," a comic strip portraying a family of two boys and their single mother.

According to Margo, the book, fills a niche, making publicly visible common and universal experiences of love, tenderness, sorrow and grief not singularly from the perspective of a black family but inclusive of many perspectives.

Responses from the book:

"I have been honored to be able to view Margo Candelario's wonderful paintings for the last couple of years. She is blessed with an insight into her heritage and people's psyche which is often reflected in her work. The book that she and the talented illustrator Jerry Craft have produced is nothing short of genius. To tackle a complex and emotional subject in such a novel way presents a product that can help many grieving families over that tragic hurtle. Helping her family deal with the loss of her husband and her childrens' father created a means to help many others too. Kudos to Margo and her fellow artists." - Peter Muzyka