The last year has felt like a delicate balance between grief and joy. Some days feel like centuries, and some weeks like seconds. When the good news comes, there’s a moment of exhilaration before guilt settles in. It’s a weird balance.
Feliz New Year, Ava Gabriela! has been out now for six months. What an incredible experience it’s been!
The last two weeks have seen some wonderful news. First, I received a notification that my debut, illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda and published by Albert Whitman & Company, won the silver medal in the 2020 Florida Book Awards, Young Children’s Literature. What an incredible honor!
From The Florida Book Awards website: “The Florida Book Awards, established in 2006, is an annual awards program that recognizes, honors and celebrates the literature by Florida authors and books about Florida published in the previous year.”
I’m especially excited because my friends Silvia Lopez and Marta Magellan won the gold and bronze medals, respectively, for their books Selena: Queen of Tejano Music and Dragonflies: Water Angels and Brilliant Bioindicators. Congratulations to all! (Once the list with all the winners is public, I’ll update this post with it.)
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, this week the cover reveal for my second book, Isabel and Her Colores Go to School, went live on the Las Musas blog! Go check it out–there’s a giveaway included! I’ll wait.
Isabel and Her Colores Go to School is beautifully illustrated by Courtney Dawson and will release this July 15, 2021 from Sleeping Bear Press as a bilingual, English/Spanish edition! I can’t wait to share her with readers.
You can pre-order a signed/personalized copy now from my local indie Books & Books; simply leave a note in the comments box when you pre-order. For more on Isabel, including other pre-order options, click here.
There are other exciting things happening, but I’ll have to wait they come to pass or until I can share them. In the meantime, I leave you with a wish: I hope you can find pockets of joy to cushion you against the grief and disappointment.
Alexandra Alessandri 