Prize winner Matt de la Pena has new book coming in October

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Prize-winning children’s author Matt de la Pena has a new picture book planned for the fall that his publisher is calling “poignant and timely.”

G.P. Putnam’s Books for Young Readers told The Associated Press on Tuesday that de la Pena’s “Carmela Full of Wishes,” a collaboration with illustrator Christian Robinson, tells the story of a young “Dreamer” who lives in a migrant community “steeped” in Mexican culture. The book is scheduled for Oct. 9.

“In a time when we openly speak of building walls,” de la Pena said in a statement, “I was moved to tell the story of one young Dreamer, Carmela, who is filled with hope and heart and just a little dash of sass — like any other girl her age.”

De la Pena and Robinson also worked together on “Last Stop on Market Street,” winner in 2016 of the John Newbery Medal for the year’s best children’s story.

“When I first read Matt’s manuscript for ‘Carmela Full of Wishes,’ I was reminded of my favourite Ezra Jack Keats quote: ‘If we all could really see each other, exactly as the other is, this would be a different world,'” Robinson said in a statement. “I believe Matt is the kind of storyteller that brings us closer to that world.”

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