2018 Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award winners to be honored on campus
The recipients of Texas State University’s Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award for works published in 2016-17 — Xelena González, Adriana M. Garcia, Celia C. Pérez and Erika L. Sánchez — are being honored during a series of events.
The Rivera Award winners attended the Texas Book Festival Oct. 27 in Austin. They participateed in the Rivera Book Award panel.
The award, established at Texas State University in 1995, is designed to encourage authors, illustrators and publishers to produce books that authentically reflect the lives of Mexican American children and young adults in the United States.
All Around Us
In All Around Us, Grandpa and his granddaughter meditate on gardens and seeds, on circles seen and unseen, inside and outside us, on where our bodies come from and where they return to. They share and create family traditions in this stunning exploration of the cycles of life and nature.
Author González has roots in San Antonio, but currently lives in Guangzhou, China, where she works as a librarian in an international school. She studied journalism at Northwestern University and library science at Texas Woman’s University, but her true training as a storyteller has come from getting to know other living beings—including plants, animals, and people who happen to speak different languages or see the world in unusual ways. She tells these stories through picture books, essays, song and dance.
Illustrator García is a Texas-based visual artist, muralist and scenic designer. Garcia was most recently commissioned to create a mural for the San Pedro Creek improvement project in San Antonio. She has been invited to present and speak of her work at national conferences such as National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS), and the Roots and Remedies Conference. She has created murals with many community organizations in Texas and has exhibited nationally.
The First Rule of Punk
A wry and heartfelt exploration of friendship, finding one’s place and learning to rock out like no one’s watching, The First Rule of Punk tells the story of 12-year-old Malú, who, on the first day of Posada Middle School, inadvertently upsets the school’s queen bee, violates the school’s dress code with her punk rock look and disappoints her college professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, tells her things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.
Pérez has been making zines inspired by punk and her love of writing for longer than some of her readers have been alive. Pérez is the daughter of a Mexican mother and a Cuban father.
Originally from Miami, Florida, she now lives in Chicago with her family and works as a community college librarian. She still listens to punk music.
