Sneak Peek: Beyond Borders 2023 Titles
Our Beyond Borders bilingual children’s book series celebrates young authors using their own lived experiences to inspire endearing and authentic stories centering immigrant families. 2023 heralds our second installment of this wonderful series in the form of three titles:
Belinda Lifts Her Voice / Belinda levanta la voz
The Adventure of Guz & Goz / Las aventuras de Guz & Goz
Fernando’s Big Idea / La gran idea de Fernando
Like last year’s titles, these books were written by youth participating in the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) after-school programming. They took part in workshops to learn principles of effective storytelling, discussed representation in children’s books, and wrote their own manuscripts. The youth were guided by both an SMP story coach and an emerging artist to help brainstorm, draft, and revise their stories.
Belinda Lifts Her Voice / Belinda levanta la voz is written by Luisa, Brizel, and Camila Melany, with Romeo Montero as the illustrator. This book explores how young people find the strength to overcome their fears, honor lost loved ones, and fight for change.
Initial character sketches of Belinda by illustrator Romeo Montero
The Adventure of Guz & Goz / Las aventuras de Guz & Goz is a story about leaving home shown through the eyes of a young child. It’s written by Yenner, Mich and Jonatan. (FYI: Yenner is also a co-author of Perla’s Magical Goodbye / El adiós mágico de Perla! from the 2022 Beyond Borders series!)
Initial character sketches of Guz by illustrator Yurieli Otero-Asmar
“I haven’t seen a story like this before because most books [about Latino characters] show a child who has already arrived in the country but not what they did to get here.”
Fernando’s Big Idea / La gran idea de Fernando is by Sol, Jonathan and Yasmina. The main character wonders how he can honor his family’s hard work and how he can help them. Will Fernando be able to find the right way to honor his loved ones?
These books will be up for pre-order soon, but in the meantime we’d love if you signed up for our mailing list so that we can tell you about it!
A teaser from Fernando’s Big Idea by Hee So