Usually when you think of a publishing company, big cities like Chicago and New York come to mind.

But there’s one right here in Weslaco with some award winning books under its belt.

"It was a passion of mine to always write books and a lot of people don't realize the path to write a book,” Rey Banda, owner of Northpolis Publishing Co. said. “You can go with a traditional publisher, but that could take months or years to finally hear anything, or you do self-publishing, or you create your own publishing company and you can do it that way.”

Banda found that starting his own publishing company helped make his dream of writing a book come true. 

"If you have a dream to become a writer, to publish a book, don't give it up,” Banda said. “It's not an unattainable goal.”

The books are based off of things he's done, but the first book – ‘The Magical City of Northpolis, A Christmas Story’ - is inspired by a familiar Christmas tradition. 

"Every year I decorate my house for Christmas and I've been doing it for 20 years and they're homemade decorations,” Banda said. My mom and I make them out of PVC pipe and she has magical sewing skills."

The characters from the decorations can be found in this book, where the main character - Ryan, has a dream to make his house the most festive of them all. 

That's not the only book, there are three others Northopolis Publishing Co. has put out. 

 "I have my two Christmas books and I have my two cat books,” Banda explained. “My cat books are based on how I rescued my cat back in 2010 and he's a special needs cat. He can live a normal life he's still with us today and I wrote a book about it."

Those books have actually won two awards already including a distinguished favorite children's inspiration book award - while the book 'Bean Saves the Day' has a five-star rating and is also an award winner. 

"I never thought it would be big, I was like hey we have some award winning books now, okay cool,” Banda said.

You can find the books on Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

So the next time you're looking for a good read, or your next bedtime book, look up Northopolis Publishing Co. for these reads: They’re Valley Made, and Local Strong.