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Joanne Cucinello is a published author of children's books. A published credit of Joanne Cucinello is Wanda the Wilopent: A Fairytale for Children.

Joanne Cucinello is a mother of five, a poet and writer, an entrepreneur and co-owner of Tiger Lily Café, a lively Alternative Vegetarian Café and Juice Bar located in her home town of Port Jefferson, NY. Along with her daughter Lisa, the Café has also become a venue for budding young musicians and artists to display and perform their talents. “Inspiration has always been the driving force of my life”, she quotes. Inspired by the passions of her multi-talented mother and father, she grew up in Brooklyn, NY, among a colorfully musical and artistic family. One of five children herself, their home was always spinning with imagination and creativity. At sixteen, Joanne and her younger sister Judy signed a contract with Capital Records and recorded four pop songs as artists “Judy and Jo”. However, the loss of her mother at a young age and the increasing responsibility of her siblings cut the ending of a promising career short. Then at nineteen, life began to change. She married a young musician, Al Cucinello, and five years later gave birth to their first child.

As a young mother living “out in the boon docks” of Long Island, Joanne developed a weekly survival playgroup to inspire other young mothers with no extended families to become self-reliant and creative with their children. Later on, with her musical background, she became the director of Infant Jesus Children’s Choir, where she composed Liturgical music for children and directed musical performances. As the years went by, Joanne began the study of Astrology and her focus again was on the nature of children and the family unit and started her own company, Inner Visions, where Mother/Child Workshops again took focus and her writing began to thrive.
A love and talent for cooking spurred Joanne to help get the family through some rough years by starting her own catering and baking business, Joanna’s Kitchen, which eventually led to the joint venture of the café with her daughter in 1998.
Since then she has become a grandmother and her children’s stories are just beginning. The story of Wanda the Wilopent grew out of childhood imagination that has never left her and the belief that any child can grow beyond life’s circumstances. Her hope is to inspire her grandchildren and children everywhere to grab life by the tail and believe in the impossible.

Joanne’s poetry has been exhibited at the Smithtown Council for the Arts and she is a member of Alternative Arts of Long Island, the Academy of American Poets and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and is published in “A Splash of Verse” as Poet Sanctuary’s award of excellence.

Joanne Cucinello is a published author of children's books. A published credit of Joanne Cucinello is Wanda the Wilopent: A Fairytale for Children. Joanne Cucinello is a mother of five, a poet and writer, an entrepreneur and co-owner of Tiger Lily Café, a lively Alternative Vegetarian Café and Juice Bar located in her home town of Port Jefferson, NY. Along with her daughter Lisa, the Café ha... More