Levine Querido Fall 2020 Catalog

Mission Statement Levine Querido

is born of a fervent mission to give voice

to a uniquely talented, exceptionally diverse group of authors and artists whose books will inspire young people while offering them a sense of their (and others’) rightful place in the world.

Our books will be characterized by great storytelling, undeniably powerful and beautiful artwork, and a fearless commitment to telling deep truths. (Full disclosure: Sometimes we will make you laugh while doing so.)

Levine Querido is a team of passionate book-lovers, and our audience is as wide and diverse as that term encompasses.

We look forward to an ongoing, exciting relationship with you about books, authors, and artists, and making the world a better place, book by book.

Our Two Lists Arthur A. Levine Extraordinary Picture Books, Poetry, Novels, Nonfiction, and Graphic Novels, written & illustrated by, and centered on the experiences and points of view of the magnificently diverse creators among us, writing in English.

Em Querido An exciting selection of the work of some of the world’s most gifted authors and artists, translated from other languages around the world, created and curated in partnership with Querido NL.

Passport Photograph Emanuel Querido, circa 1940.

Courtesy of Querido Publishers, NL.

WHO WAS EMANUEL QUERIDO?

Q

By Arthur Levine

uerido is how you might address someone you care about. It means

“dear one,” literally, expressing a deep affection and warmth. Of course, that’s how I hope readers will feel about the books of LQ; so the meaning of the word is very important to me.

But there’s more to the story: Querido was also a person—Emanuel

Querido, to be exact. He was born to a family of Sephardic Jews who fled from the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal in the 1490s. The Querido family developed roots in the Netherlands.

In 1898, when Emanuel was 27, he opened a bookstore in Amsterdam

that became a center for all kinds of readers and thinkers. In a very short time he started publishing books, first among them a book on the ethics of love and marriage by the Swedish feminist educator Ellen Key. It was the beginning of a passionate effort to find and translate great writers for the delight of his readers.

In 1915 Querido made the leap from occasional publisher to founder

of a publishing house. From the start the company embraced the ideals of fine writing and craftsmanship in bookmaking, as well as an openness to innovation. In fact, it was Querido who published the Salamander books —the first true paperback series—in 1934, a year before the first Penguin paperback was sold.

But perhaps most inspirational to me was the Querido response to

the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Although Emanuel himself was not a particularly observant Jew, he was still moved by the censure of German writers—dissidents and Jews—that gradually erased these writers’ voices.

(And perhaps he knew that Nazis would not distinguish between a Jew who was observant and one who was assimilated.) Together with Fritz Landshoff they founded Querido Verlag, based in the Netherlands, from which they spread the urgent writing of these silenced creators as widely as they could. In 110 works of resistance, these exiled writers spoke out about the Nazi regime’s plan to start a war and rule the whole world.

Only a few days after the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, the Gestapo

stormed the Querido offices, ultimately shutting it down. Querido himself was captured and sent to Sobibor, the concentration camp, where he died in 1943.

Fortunately, Querido’s colleagues re-launched the company after the war, continuing its great traditions and growing its fine reputation. In 1971 a children’s book division was founded which has consistently produced stunning, award-winning titles.

Now, with the help of my Dutch colleagues, I bring the Querido name

to North America, in the form of a list that seeks out glorious talent from around the world for the pleasure of English-speaking readers. There’s a saying in Jewish culture that a person isn’t truly gone until the last person living no longer remembers their name. I hope that not only can this (Levine) Querido list bring great joy to readers, but that it can keep alive the name, the memory, the legacy, and the brave spirit of Emanuel Querido.

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The Wanderer

By Peter Van den Ende “Wonderfully strange and strangely wonderful,

The Wanderer is an epic dream captured in superbly meticulous detail.” — Shaun Tan

As with Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, it gives us collective goosebumps to introduce the singular talent and imagination of Peter Van den Ende to North America. Without a word, and with Escher-like precision, Van den Ende presents one little paper boat’s journey across the ocean, past reefs and between icebergs, through schools of fish, swaying water plants, and terrifying sea monsters.

The little boat is all alone, and while its aloneness gives it the chance to wonder at

the fairy-tale world above and below the waves uninterrupted, that also means it must save itself when storms approach. And so it does. We hope that readers young and old will find the strength and inspiration that we did in this quietly powerful story about growing, learning, and life’s ups and downs.

Peter Van den Ende

makes his remarkable debut as a picture

book artist with The Wanderer. When he’s not drawing, he works as a nature guide in the Cayman Islands. The beauty of the sea was his source of inspiration for his wonderful wordless story.

The Wanderer $21.99 U.S. HC ISBN 978-1-64614-017-6 Trim: 9 x 12 96 pages • Picture Book (All Ages) Rights: U.S./Canada On Sale: October

$21.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-017-6

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But there’s a... very big animal.

She’s standing with her white bottom to Little Fox. On legs like thin branches.

Little Fox hesitates for a moment, then creeps closer.

The animal has spots.

She also has very, very, very big ears.

She looks up.

She’s not scared of Little Fox. Why not?

The dream keeps going.

It is still very early.

The sun has just risen. It’s yawning in the sky.

Little Fox is thirsty.

The smell of fresh water always gives him a happy giddy feeling, so he runs towards it!

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Little Fox

By Edward van de Vendel Illustrated by Marije Tolman Translated by David Colmer G ood parents everywhere know the tension of wanting our kids to be curious, to have rich experiences and friends…but to be perfectly safe while doing it. Little Fox knows all about it! His father (in classic picture book fashion) warns him of the danger everywhere. But Little Fox still frolics with butterflies, scavenges for food, and searches for new friends. Then one day he takes a tumble, bumps his head, and starts dreaming of things that reflect both the beauty he’s seen and the scary things he’s heard. Marije Tolman’s ingenious illustrations use a fresh technique that FEELS like a movie and a dream, starring the cheerful, bright orange Little Fox on grainy mixed media landscapes of blue and green.

And when Little Fox wakes up, he’s perhaps a little wiser, but still every bit as curious and full of life.

Edward van de Vendel

has been a school principal, founder,

and teacher. He has won many of the highest prizes for children’s literature in the Netherlands, including the Golden Kiss (an award for YA fiction), and the Silver Pencil (an award for picture books and Middle Grade). He lives in Rotterdam and travels widely.

Marije Tolman

studied graphic and type design at the Royal

Academy in The Hague and Illustration & Design at the Edinburgh College of Art, in Scotland. Her picture books are published in many countries, including Denmark, Germany, Brazil, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Mexico, South Korea, Qatar, Japan, and China.

$18.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-007-7

Little Fox $18.99 U.S. • £13.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-007-7 Trim: 7 x 9 ½ 88 pages • Picture Book Rights: World English On Sale: September

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Q & A: WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY? Edward van de Vendel & Marije Tolman

Q: How did you meet?

Edward: Marije is quite well known, so I have been admiring her work since her first books. It was not until I wrote a picture book story about the power of dreaming that I met her, since my publishing company brought us together. Marije is not only an artist to admire, she is also someone who is very accessible, very sincere, and we agree on what we want to make: high quality books that are still for a larger audience.

Q: Will you describe your creative process?

Marije: I live with my family close to the dunes, the beach and the sea, in The Hague, in The Netherlands. While I was sketching the natural habitat of Little Fox in the dunes, I thought there must be a cleverer technique to welcome and embrace the environment of Little Fox. I started photographing while I was cycling through the coast of North-Holland.

Hundreds of photos later I printed a few dunes on Risograph. The next level was an exciting experiment: drawing and painting over the risograph by mixed technique (watercolor, acrylic, gouache, pen, ink, pencils). It worked out pretty well. So, I decided to make lots of risographs, like theater decors, or oldfashioned movies back in the 1930s. To express the difference in timeline, I used the same technique except on white paper.

If you look carefully and closely at the illustrations you will find a third technique: pencils, thin markers, and small pens, on Japanese paper. This paper is a bit more yellowish-brown because back in the 80s my father (also an artist) soaked this Japanese paper in a bath of tea and left it there a long time. The tea absorbed into the paper beautifully, but he never used it in his studio and instead kept the paper 40 years before he gave it to me; I guess that’s why the color became even more ‘test of time brownish.’

To bring all the styles together I blended many details into the three techniques. For example, the dune grass or the west wind trees, the little birds (spoonbills, oystercatchers, sandpipers, gulls, godwits, avocets). My goal is that the reader will observe these passers-by everywhere and will automatically read the different styles as one theater, as one book.

Last but not least: Little Fox is painted neon orange in the original illustrations and was printed using a 5th color. Little Fox, for me, is a symbol of life, a lust for life, curiosity, and passion. So, for me it was almost natural that his fur turned out neon.

Q. How did your teaching background shape this story?

Edward: Good question! I really hope Little Fox doesn’t show any educational intentions in the strictest sense of the word; I mean there shouldn’t be a moralistic lesson shining through the story. Having said that, I must say that I’ve always enjoyed the liveliness of young children, the urge to take on every possible adventure. This ‘fire’ is what Little Fox is about. It’s about enthusiasm, about putting yourself out in the world, and about our friends and families accompanying us in the background.

Q. What do you hope American children will take from this story?

Edward: Apart from the stunning images and the core of the story—how to engage in life’s challenges—there is also a bit of non-fiction. In Little Fox children really get to know how the first months of a baby fox could be.

I love combining fiction and non-fiction. Do you think that might be my background as a teacher? If so, this would be the alternative answer to your previous question!

Read the full interview at levinequerido.com.

That night, small girl and old dog both go to sleep in the soft gold room.

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This Old Dog

by Martha Brockenbrough Illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo W hen so much of the world is new, you want to go slowly…to stop and enjoy everything; hills to roll down, perfect-sized rocks, trees that seem to whisper their thoughts. It’s the same when you’re much, much older, and every time ’round the seasons seems precious. Yet the folks in the middle (we know who we are) are always rushing, rushing, rushing. Appointments to make, trains to catch, places to be, FAST. That’s what makes the bond between Old Dog and the little girl so special. From the time she takes her first steps, Old Dog finds someone—at last!—who wants to go the same pace he does. To walk with everywhere, through this wide, wonderful world.

A love song to the bond between young and old, this book will make you want to

sit right down and read to someone you care about.

Martha Brockenbrough

wrote this book as a tribute to her own

little girl and her precious old dog. She is a Kirkus Prize Finalist (for The

Game of Love and Death) and a brilliant writer of picture books including Love, Santa and Cheerful Chick. She lives with her family, including two dogs and two cats, in Seattle, Washington.

Gabriel Alborozo

is a dog lover, for sure, as you can see in these

illustrations, the best of his career. His energetic line, and beautiful sense of color have graced numerous picture books published around the world.

This is his first for LQ. Gabe lives in Bexhill On Sea, East Sussex.

This Old Dog

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-010-7

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$17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-010-7 Trim: 9 ½ x 8 ½ 40 pages • Picture Book Rights: World All Languages On Sale: September

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Ginger and Chrysanthemum

by Kristen Mai Giang Illustrated by Shirley Chan No doubt you can be close to someone who’s very different from you. Ginger is excitable; she leaps into action, throwing herself headfirst into any project.

Chrysanthemum is cooler-headed; she likes to plan, she’s organized. She makes

lists. Yet they are cousins, close as two beans in a pod. But planning Grandma’s birthday together is a pretty huge challenge. There are presents to buy, decorations to pick, and a special birthday cake to bake.

Together. How they manage it is a testament to affection being stronger than

differences.

Kristen Mai Giang

is a Chinese American author who immigrated

from Vietnam when she was 18 months old and grew up in San Gabriel, California, a melting pot of Asian cultures and cuisines, which inspired Grandma’s New Asian Kitchen. Ginger and Chrysanthemum, her debut picture book, draws from these memories as well as the antics of her two children and their cousins.

Shirley Chan

is secretly an alien from outer space, though she claims

to be an illustrator in Brooklyn. Her favorite pastimes are eating snacks and taking naps. Ginger and Chrysanthemum is her debut.

Ginger and Chrysanthemum $17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-001-5 Trim: 8 ½ x 11 40 pages • Picture Book Rights: World All Languages On Sale: October

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-001-5

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Bye, Penguin!

By Seou Lee You’d think that a penguin stranded on an ever-smaller block of ice, on a trip around the world wouldn’t be so…FUN! But it is! There’s our fearless penguin passing the Statue of Liberty…there’s penguin floating by the Sydney Opera House!

From the Aurora Borealis to a hilarious encounter with a surfer in Hawaii, this is a

wordless journey that truly FROLICKS. In fact, the adventures are so amusing that most readers will barely register the nod to global warming until it’s slipped right in on the breath of a laugh.

Seou Lee

is an author and animator who fell in love with illustration as

a child because of the many books in her parents’ daycare. Her greatest dream has always been to illustrate fun, heartwarming stories for kids.

Bye, Penguin! $17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-021-3 Trim: 9 ¾ x 8 ¼ 40 pages • Picture Book Rights: World English On Sale: October

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-021-3

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On we rode.

Through the wood.

Between the molehills.

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Bigger Than a Dream

By Jef Aerts Illustrated by Marit Törnqvist Translated by David Colmer People fear death (apparently just a tiny bit less than public speaking). We don’t know how to talk about it, especially to children, and we’re afraid to bring it up for fear of making people sadder. Yet children, especially, have questions, and this incredibly gentle and surprisingly light story is full of both comfort and vividly imagined “answers.”

The first one gives the book its title: A boy hears the voice of his sister calling him

one day, a sister he’s never met because she died before he was born. The sister in the faded photograph on the wall. So that night he asks his mother what death is like and she tells him, “It’s like dreaming, only bigger.” That’s lovely, but he still has questions, which it turns out his sister can answer! On a dreamy, carefree adventure they ride their bikes together, visiting places that were special to her when she was alive. And she talks to him in the older sister, teasing, straightforward, loving way that is exactly what he needs.

Much, much more than bibliotherapy, this is a work of art

that speaks with honesty and tenderness about one of life’s great mysteries.

Jef Aerts

grew up in a wooded village in Belgium. On this list we offer

you his first picture book, Bigger Than a Dream, winner of the Book Lion Prize. LQ also proudly brings you his tender and funny middle grade novel,

The Blue Wings. Aerts lives with his wife and three children on a small farm.

Marit Törnqvist

was born in Uppsala, Sweden, and moved to the

Netherlands with her family when she was five. Her illustrations of Astrid Lindgren’s work have gained her international acclaim, as has her writing.

The first book she wrote, A Short Story About Love, won a Silver Pencil.

Bigger Than a Dream $17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-020-6 Trim: 7 ¾ x 10 48 pages • Picture Book Rights: World English On Sale: November

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-020-6

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Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)

By Daniel Nayeri At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls “Daniel”) stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much.

But Khosrou’s stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are

beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy…and further back to the fields near the river Aras, where rain-soaked flowers bled red like the yolk of sunset burst over everything, and further back still to the jasmine-scented city of Isfahan.

We bounce between a school bus of kids armed with paper clip missiles

and spitballs to the heroines and heroes of Khosrou’s family’s past, who ate pastries that made people weep and cry “Akh, Tamar!” and touched carpets woven with precious gems. Like Scheherazade in a hostile classroom, Daniel weaves a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth. And it is (a true story).

It is Daniel’s.

Daniel Nayeri

was born in Iran and spent a couple of years as a

refugee before immigrating to Oklahoma at age eight with his family. He is the publisher of Odd Dot, an imprint of Macmillan, making him one of the youngest publishers in the industry. He has served on the CBC diversity committee and the CBC panel committee.

Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story) $17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-000-8 Trim: 5 ½ x 8 ¼ 368 pages • Middle Grade Novel Rights: World Dutch, World English

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-000-8

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On Sale: August

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Daniel Nayeri Ms. Miller D3 - English Lit. 25 August 2020

“PHOTO ESSAY: THE CHARACTERS OF MY STORY”

A

lright

Mrs. Miller, if you have to see a picture for this

assignment, then here, here’s me right now wearing a sweater in Oklahoma even though it’s summer. Seems happy enough, right? That’s a happy smile that people make, yes? People like happy people better. So you should tell me if I’m unlikeable in this picture. I can find something else. How about this? Better? This is cheaty cause it’s me when I was a little kid.

Little kids are happy cause they don’t know any better. That’s why people like little kids. Look at him. He’s basically brand new. Imagine the world when you’re brand new. He could be smelling honeysuckles for the first time in that picture, which we had in our house in Isfahan, which is where this was taken.

Or a butterfly just flew past his face in my Baba Haji’s orchard in Ardestan. Who knows? The point is little kids are happy for little things.

And besides, back then I could sit in my dad’s arms like this.

My sister is in the back of the picture, haunting it. My mom is here in this picture, so you can see we were rich in happiness. It was only a year after this that we exploded. My mom converted to Christianity after we visited my grandmother—who was exiled in England—and my sister saw a miracle. When we got back to Iran, my mom went to the underground church, until the secret police took her (my mom), and you probably don’t want to know about them, but we escaped and became

refugees in Dubai and I should tell you now that my dad didn’t come with us. I don’t have good reasons or answers for any of this.

Here is a picture of us in Italy, hoping America will give us asylum, before we knew how to look into cameras so they can’t tell what we’re thinking.

And now you might be thinking—if you’ve gotten this far, to the part where we got to Oklahoma and we’re poor, and no one would believe that we were ever anything else—you might be thinking, “Who’s that guy?” That’s Ray. He can beat up anybody. That’s all you have to know about him.

Anyway,

those

are

the

“main

characters of my life story”, which is an odd writing assignment if I’m being honest. But there is also Mrs. Miller’s whole class, who listens to me read my assignments about the feast in my Baba Haji’s house, my ancestor who saved the daughter of a Parsi king, and our house in Isfahan with the birds in the walls, and—like King Shahryar who listened to Scheherazade tell the 1001 stories—they are highly skeptical. But these are my memories, and they’re all I’ve got. So I wrote them down to keep them from disappearing. And as I write them, I realize, like you—Reader, and Mrs. Miller—that a patchwork memory is the shame of a refugee. These are all the pictures I will ever have. And now you’ve seen them. You’ve got as many of my memories as I do. Maybe you know things now that I’ll never know. But I will write them all so that I never forget my Baba Haji. Someday, I will wake up every morning before my family wakes up—I’ll be grown up by then in New Jersey or someplace, with a wife and a son I’ll never give over to anybody—and I’ll write it all down in a book. And not just the sad parts, but the happy little kid parts too, and now, Mrs. Miller, I believe I have performed this assignment at the A-plus grade level. Thank you.

Daniel

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The Blue Wings

By Jef Aerts Illustrated by Martijn van der Linden Translated by Laura Watkinson

Two brothers bound together by affection and responsibility. Jadran is five years older than Josh and huge enough to be nicknamed Giant. Josh is younger, and smaller; but his sweet and stubborn brother thinks in a way that would be more typical of a small child. They are both dealing with changes to their newly blended, Muslim family. So Josh looks after Jadran and they both adjust. When the brothers find an injured young crane, Jadran wants to bring it back to their small apartment and teach it to fly at any cost. And it turns out the cost is high.

Intensely moving without ever slipping into sentimentality, The Blue Wings is a

warm, love-filled story about fragility, strength, and brotherhood, in all its complications.

Jef Aerts

grew up in a wooded village in Belgium. On this list we offer

you his first picture book, Bigger Than a Dream, winner of the Book Lion Prize. LQ also proudly brings you his tender and funny middle grade novel,

The Blue Wings. Aerts lives with his wife and three children on a small farm.

Laura Watkinson

is an award-winning, full-time literary translator.

She translates into English, from Dutch, Italian, and German. She is the founder of the Dutch chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She lives in Amsterdam.

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-008-4

The Blue Wings $17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • ISBN: 978-1-64614-008-4 Trim: 5 ¼ x 8 ½ 240 pages • Middle Grade Novel • Illustrated Rights: World English

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On Sale: September

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Lupe Wong Won’t Dance

By Donna Barba Higuera My gym shorts burrow into my butt crack like a frightened groundhog.

Don’t you want to read a book that starts like that??

Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. She’s also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy…like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles.

And some not so much…like complaining to the BBC about the length between

Doctor Who seasons. Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who’s Chinacan / Mexinese just like her. So, when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym? Obviously, she’s not gonna let that slide.

Not since Millicent Min, Girl Genius has a debut novel introduced a character so memorably, with such humor and emotional insight. Even squaredancing fans will agree…

Donna Barba Higuera grew up dodging dust devils in the oil fields of Central California. She has spent her entire life blending folklore with her experiences into stories that fill her imagination. Now she weaves them to write picture books and novels. Donna eventually traded the dust of Central California for the mists of the Pacific Northwest. She lives there with her husband, four children, three dogs and three two frogs, and five glow-in-the-dark fish. She is currently working on her debut picture book and next middle grade novel.

Lupe Wong Won’t Dance $17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-003-9 Simultaneous Spanish • 978-1-64614-032-9 Trim: 5 5/8 x 8 1/8 272 pages • Middle Grade Novel Rights: North American English and Spanish

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-003-9

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On Sale: September

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The Boys in the Back Row

By Mike Jung Best friends Matt and Eric are hatching a plan for one big final adventure together before Eric moves away: during the marching band competition at a Giant Amusement Park, they will sneak away to a nearby comics convention and meet their idol—a famous comic creator. Without cell phones. Or transportation. Or permission. Of course, their final adventure together is more than just that—really, it’s a way for the boys to celebrate their friendship, and their honest love and support for one another.

That’s exactly what we love so much about The Boys in the Back Row: it’s an unabashed ode to male friendship, because love between boys, platonic or otherwise, is something to celebrate. And of course, because this is Mike Jung, we’ll be celebrating it with hilariously flawed hijinks and geekiness galore!

Mike Jung

is the author of Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities and

Unidentified Suburban Object. He is a library professional by day, a writer (and ukulele player) by night and was a founding member of #WeNeedDiverseBooks team. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and two children.

$17.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-011-4

The Boys in the Back Row $17.99 U.S. • £12.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-011-4 Trim: 5 5/8 x 8 1/8 272 pages • Middle Grade Novel Rights: North American English

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On Sale: October

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The Big Questions Book of Sex & Consent

by Donna Freitas What this book is NOT: The fear-based How-To on sex and consent, oversimplified and focused on technicalities, that represents so much of our sexual education today.

What this book IS: A journey into the Big Questions that will turn you into a thinking person about sex and consent, with the ability to wrestle towards the answers that work for YOU and continue to wrestle towards them for the rest of your life. What is the meaning and purpose of sex? How does it intersect with who I am? Why are people so afraid of it? What does a healthy and joyful approach to sex look like for me? Why is consent so much more than a yes or no question?

Who this book is FOR: Everybody!! No matter your sexuality, gender, religion, or race.

What could be more essential?

Donna Freitas

is a college professor whose research has focused

on issues related to sex, romance, relationships and consent for over a decade. She has spoken about this work at schools across the country as well as on NPR, The Today Show, and many other radio and tv shows. She lives in Brooklyn.

$18.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-018-3

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The Big Questions Book of Sex & Consent $18.99 U.S. • £13.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-018-3 Trim: 6 ½ x 8 ¾ 320 pages • Upper Middle Grade & Up Nonfiction Rights: World All Languages On Sale: August

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LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

by Donna Freitas

T

his is the book I was always meant to write. The last fifteen years of work

and research on sex, relationships, and consent on college campuses led to this one place—The Big Questions Book of Sex & Consent.

Throughout my career as a scholar, I’ve been talking to college students

across the country about all-things sex and consent, and so many of those conversations have been prefaced with statements that went something like

“I wish someone had told me . . . ” and “I wish I had known back when I was younger that . . . ” and “If I could go talk to my twelve-year-old self, knowing what I know now, I’d tell her . . . ” These statements are often followed by smiles and laughter, and sheepish grinning, but have always been full of longing and so much wishing—to have had a different kind of knowledge before college, to have had a much different kind of sex education than the one they received (if they received any at all).

And maybe that’s the word that this book resists more than any other:

received. The idea that a sex education is something given to you, that you take, without question.

I want kids to claim their sex and consent education, I want them to feel invited to figure out what sex, sexuality, gender, and consent mean to them.

My approach to everything that’s inside this book is the opposite—it aims to put the power, the responsibility, the effort into the hands of readers. What I want for kids who haven’t yet gotten to college (or even close!) is what I so often see missing in the college students I speak with: empowerment. True sexual empowerment, which is not just about following rules or conforming to the narratives and stories people inherit about sex when growing up. I want kids to claim their sex and consent education, I want them to feel invited to figure out what sex, sexuality, gender, and consent mean to them.

I am interested not just in teaching kids the how of consent (Yes means yes! No means no!) but the why of it— why it matters, why we should care about our partners.

The whole of this book is one Big Invitation to become Questioners about this all-important aspect of our humanity.

I think the best thing we can do for kids and young adults is offer them

the tools they need to build a framework for becoming thinkers about sex; one that is flexible enough but also sturdy enough that it can last a lifetime, and accommodate and include the myriad ways of being a sexual and gendered being. I believe that if you become a thinker, a philosopher of sorts, an ethicist even (!) around sex and relationships from a young age, then you will automatically become a person concerned about consent and all that goes with it. I am interested not just in teaching kids the how of consent (Yes means yes! No means no!) but the why of it—why it matters, why we should care about our partners. I really and truly believe that this is how we change the world and empower our kids within it—we help them take ownership over their education, including this one. We start them early thinking about these Big, Important things. We give them the questions that don’t have easy answers, and let them develop the courage to face these ambiguities.

My greatest (and cheesiest!) hope is that, when the readers of The Big

Questions Book of Sex & Consent get to college, instead of wishing they could go back and tell their twelve-year-old selves all the things they’d wish they’d known before, that instead they’re able to say: “I’m so glad that back

when I was nine (or ten or eleven or twelve!) I became a thinker about sex, gender, and consent—that has made all the difference in my decisions, my sexual health, and my relationship to my partner(s).”

32

The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americas

By María García Esperón Illustrated by Amanda Mijangos Translated by David Bowles F ifteen thousand years before Europeans stepped foot in the Americas, people had already spread from tip to tip and coast to coast. Like all humans, these Native Americans sought to understand their place in the universe, the nature of their relationship with the divine, and the origin of the world into which their ancestors had emerged. The answers lay in their sacred stories.

Author María García Esperón, illustrator Amanda Mijangos,

and translator David Bowles have gifted us a treasure. Their talents have woven this collection of stories from nations and cultures across our two continents—the Sea-Ringed World, as the Aztecs called it—from the edge of Argentina all the way up to Alaska.

María García Esperón was born in Mexico City and has won many awards including the Hispanic American Poetry Award for Children. Her novel Dido for Aeneas was selected in 2016 on the IBBY Honour List.

Amanda Mijangos

was born in Mexico City and is the founder of

the illustration studio Cuarto para las 3. Her work has been recognized with awards several times and in 2017 she was the winner of the VIII Iberoamerica Illustra Catalog.

David Bowles

is a Mexican American author and translator from

South Texas. Among his multiple award-winning books are Feathered

Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico, and They Call Me Güero. In 2017, David was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. $21.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-015-2

52199>

The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americas $21.99 U.S. • £16.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-015-2 Simultaneous Spanish • 978-1-64614-033-6 Trim: 7.5 x 10.5 240 pages • Middle Grade Illustrated Nonfiction Rights: World English; USC Spanish On Sale: September

9 781646 140152

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34

Apple (Skin to the Core)

by Eric Gansworth How about a book that makes you barge into your boss’s office to read a page of poetry from? That you dream of? That every movie, song, book, moment that follows continues to evoke in some way?

The term “Apple” is a slur in Native communities across the country. It’s for someone

supposedly “red on the outside, white on the inside.”

Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple (Skin to the Core). The story of his family,

of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

Eric Gansworth,

S ha-weñ na-sae?, is an enrolled Onondaga writer s

and visual artist, raised at the Tuscarora Nation. His award-winning books include If I Ever Get Out of Here, Give Me Some Truth, and Extra Indians.

He is a Professor and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College.

HHHH A Junior Library Guild Selection

HHHH

$18.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-013-8

51899>

Apple (Skin to the Core) $18.99 U.S. • £13.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-013-8 Trim: 6 x 9 352 pages • Young Adult Memoir-in-Verse Rights: World All On Sale: October

9 781646 140138

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36

Elatsoe

by Darcie Little Badger Illustrated by Rovina Cai Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead

animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect façade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

Darcie Little Badger is an extraordinary debut talent in the

world of speculative fiction. We have paired her with her artistic match, illustrator Rovina Cai. This is a book singular in feeling and beauty.

Darcie Little Badger is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting. She is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. Elatsoe is her debut.

Rovina Cai is a freelance illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia. She works out of an old convent building that is possibly haunted. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators and the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Recently she has illustrated books by Patrick Ness and Margo Lanagan.

Elatsoe $18.99 U.S. • £13.99 U.K. HC • 978-1-64614-005-3 Trim: 5 ½ x 8 ¼ 368 pages • Young Adult Novel • Illustrated Rights: World All Languages On Sale: August

$18.99 ISBN 978-1-64614-005-3

51899>

9 781646 140053

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LITERATURE IS LIFE American Indian Youth Literature Shines in 2020

By Naomi Bishop

I

n my

10-year

career as a librarian,

I have seen children’s and youth books by

Native American authors and illustrators become more visible, yet, the statistics show that only 1% of books published for kids in the U.S. are by Indigenous writers. In 2017, 1.6 million American Indian and Alaska Natives were under the age of 18. Indigenous stories are all around us and the art and culture lives in cities and towns across America, but U.S. publishers are overwhelmingly ignoring the contributions of 574 Tribal Nations. As a young Native librarian, I am often asked about my tribe and if there are kid’s books about my tribe, the Akimel O’odham people. I tell people that ask me this question that while there are a few kids’ books about Pimas, they are often not written by us and often contain outdated information. I tell people that the real stories of the Pimas are told by elders, aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents, grandparents, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.

Two books that I love dearly and read as a young adult were Pima Legends

and A Pima Past. My grandpa told me to read these two books when I was a teenager. In Pima culture, stories are shared every time we meet, gather, celebrate, pray, travel and experience life together. The stories we share are from our family and the art and nature all around us are our living books.

My grandpa could not read or write the Pima language, because it was not a written language until a linguist created a system in the 1960s and 70s. He told me the stories of helping linguists with pronunciation. He told me stories of his childhood and taught me words in O’odham. The language he spoke was not passed down to his children because he was punished for speaking it and he struggled to learn English. The O’odham language continues today and there is now a writing system and early childhood education with language learning.

It is not easy to understand literature unless you know and learn the language and culture. This is why youth literature is so important. As language revitalization efforts for tribes expand in communities and schools, we have

the opportunity to learn and share our stories through pictures and words published on paper with future generations. There have been many amazing American Indian Youth Literature Award winners and Honor books that share tribally specific literature by Native authors and illustrators with the world. Publishers that publish these works are doing the important work of sharing these voices and stories with the world. Each year, the AILA Awards honor books by authors from different tribes and celebrate our thriving cultures, languages and arts. When tribal communities share language

When a book is published the author’s voice, art, style, language, and humanity is recognized and honored. and literature with the world, it provides people from all over the globe the opportunity to read and enjoy these books together. Reading a book out loud to a child or reading a book as a teenager helps us connect with one another and helps us in life. When a book is published the author’s voice, art, style, language, and humanity is recognized and honored. I expect to see the future of AINA literature change the curriculum of kids across the US and the world. I yearn for the time when tribal communities publish their own works and when these works are supported by and recognized by all libraries and bookstores. I dream of the day when a Native author and illustrator wins the Newbery or Caldecott. I know the publishing world is starting to see that what people want and need to read are books from Native writers and artists such as Darcie Little Badger and Eric Gansworth.

There is so much richness in art and storytelling and the time is now for American Indian Youth Literature to shine.

Naomi Bishop, MLIS, is Akimel O’otham/Pima and a member of the Gila River Indian Community.

She served as President of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) from 2017-2018. Naomi chaired the American Indian Youth Literature Awards Committee from 2014-2018. She created an online module for librarians and educators on Indigeneity and Colonialism for Project Ready: Reimagining Equity & Access for Diverse Youth from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

She received the AILA Rising Leader Award in September of 2018.

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