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Books to Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month 2023

National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed between September 15 and October 15 and celebrates the histories and cultures of people from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. Here are some books to read with kids to celebrate Latinx and Hispanic authors.

Young Readers

Esme’s Birthday Conga Line
By Lourdes Heuer
Illustrated by Marissa Valdez
76 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback
ISBN 9780735269453 | Tundra Books
Esme lives with her grandparents on the uppermost floor of the topmost best building. It’s her birthday. Mimi and Pipo gave her a beautiful guitar. But they didn’t plan a birthday party. Esme thinks this is the way with grandparents. They don’t know about parties or piñatas or birthday cake. No problem! Esme is great at problem solving. With the help of her cat, El Toro, and a LOT of help from her neighbors in the topmost best building, the irrepressible Esme gets the birthday party of her dreams.

Pepita Meets Bebita
By Ruth Behar and Gabriel Frye-Behar
Illustrated by Maribel Lechuga
40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593566985 | Knopf BFYR
Welcoming a new baby can be hard, especially when you’re used to being the center of attention! When it’s time for Pepita, the puppy of the family, to meet the brand new bebita, she’s in for a few surprises. What do you mean that Mami is too busy to bounce a ball for Pepita? And Papi seriously can’t find any time to scratch her ears? This new bebita is a bit of a problem . . . . But along the way, the two will grow to love one another and become a family with even more smiles and heartwarming moments. From award-winning author Ruth Behar and her son, Gabriel Frye-Behar, comes a true-to-life story about adjusting to new additions and embracing change.

Spanish Is the Language of My Family
By Michael Genhart
Illustrated by John Parra
40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780823450046 | Neal Porter Books
As a boy prepares for his school’s Spanish spelling bee, he asks his grandmother for help with some of the words he doesn’t know how to spell yet. When she studies with him, she tells him how different things were back when she was a girl, when she was only allowed to speak English in school. This only inspires him to study even harder and make his family proud. Based on stories author Michael Genhart heard from his mother as a child, Spanish is the Language of My Family is about the joy of sharing cultural heritage with our families, inspired by the generations of Latino people were punished for speaking Spanish and the many ways new generations are rejuvenating the language.

The Only Way to Make Bread
By Cristina Quintero
Illustrated by Sarah Gonzales
40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735271760 | Tundra Books
What’s the only way to make bread? You might use white flour in your bread, or whole wheat flour or corn flour. You might use water or milk, maybe an egg or two. You’ll use a handful of this, a dash of that, a bit of this and a splash of that. Some dough will rise, some dough will bubble. Sometimes it will be sticky, sometimes it will be shaggy. What’s the only way to make bread? Your way! This tasty celebration of all kinds of bread will tempt bread lovers big and small. No matter what kind of bread YOU like to make, this book is for you!

Vlad, the Fabulous Vampire
By Flavia Z. Drago
40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536233322 | Candlewick
Vlad is a vampire with the misfortune of having rosy cheeks that – gasp! – make him look abysmally alive. But being the fabulous vampire that he is (and hoping to avoid rejection), he hides his rosy complexion behind elaborate vampire outfits in traditional black. That is, until he finds out that his best friend has a pink secret of her own . . . . With signature flair, Flavia Z. Drago offers a story about being yourself and finding your community, strikingly illustrated in a distinctive, detailed art style influenced by her Mexican heritage.

Middle-Grade

Barely Floating
By Lilliam Rivera
240 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593323120 | Kokila
Natalia de la Cruz Rivera y Santiago, also known as Nat, was swimming neighborhood kids out of their money at the local Boyle Heights pool when her life changed. The L.A. Mermaids performed, emerging out of the water with matching sequined swimsuits, and it was then that synchronized swimming stole her heart. The problem? Her activist mom and professor dad think it’s a sport with too much emphasis on looks – on being thin and white. Nat grew up the youngest in a house full of boys, so she knows how to fight for what she wants, using her anger to fuel her. People often underestimate her swimming skills when they see her stomach rolls, but she knows better than to worry about what people think. Sometimes, she feels more like a submarine than a mermaid, but she wonders if she could be both. Barely Floating explores what it means to sparkle in your skin, build community with those who lift you up, and keep floating when waters get rough.

Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman
By Diana López
288 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593326497 | Kokila
When Felice learns that she’s the daughter of La Llorona, she catches a ride to the magical town of Tres Leches, where her mother is said to be haunting the river. Growing up with her uncle Clem in Corpus Christi, Felice knew that she had been rescued from drowning – it’s where her intense fear of water comes from – but she had no idea her mother remained trapped between worlds, looking for her. Guided by the magical town’s eccentric mayor, Felice vows to help her mother make peace with the events that turned her into the most famous monstruo of US-Mexico border lore. Along the way, she meets the children of other monstruos, like La Lechuza and the Dancing Devil, and together they free Tres Leches from magical and metaphorical curses that have haunted its people for generations. Diana López’s electric return to middle grade – the first in a series – brims with magic, adventure, and Mexican folklore, and is perfect for fans of Ghost Squad by Claribel Ortega and the Jumbies series by Tracey Baptiste.

Lalo Lespérance Never Forgot
By Phillippe Diederich
256 Pages | Ages 10+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593354285 | Dutton BFYR
Lalo Lesperance lives with his older brother and Mexican American mother in a low-income apartment building in Fort Myers. They moved there from a subdivision after the family lost Lalo’s Haitian American father. At school, Lalo is known as the boy who can’t remember anything and needs special help in all his classes. But when the first COVID lockdown hits, he finds himself in a friendship of convenience with Vivi, a Mexican American kid his age who gets perfect grades and who never gave him a second thought when they were in school. Vivi’s abuela watches the kids while their mothers work long shifts as nurses at a clinic slammed by COVID. As Lalo navigates his much smaller pandemic world, he discovers his apartment building has its own mysteries, like a sinister stranger in an old RV and a storage closet full of junk, including an old radio that just might hold the key to remembering why Lalo’s family moved to the apartment and what happened to his father.

Mexikid
By Pedro Martín
320 Pages | Ages 10-14 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593462287 | Dial
Pedro Martín has grown up hearing stories about his abuelito – his legendary crime-fighting, grandfather who was once a part of the Mexican Revolution! But that doesn’t mean Pedro is excited at the news that Abuelito is coming to live with their family. After all, Pedro has eight brothers and sisters and the house is crowded enough! Still, Pedro piles into the Winnebago with his family for a road trip to Mexico to bring Abuelito home, and what follows is the trip of a lifetime, one filled with laughs and heartache. Along the way, Pedro finally connects with his abuelito and learns what it means to grow up and find his grito.

Turtles of the Midnight Moon
By María José Fitzgerald
320 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593462287 | Alfred A. Knopf BFYR
Twelve-year-old Barana lives in a coastal village in Honduras, where she spends every spare minute visiting the sea turtles that nest on the beach. Abby is feeling adrift in sixth grade, trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs after her best friend moved away from New Jersey. When Abby’s papi plans a work trip to Honduras, she is finally given the opportunity to see his homeland – with Barana as her tour guide. But Barana has other plans: someone has been poaching turtle eggs, and she’s determined to catch them! Before long, Abby and Barana are both consumed by the mystery, chasing down suspects, gathering clues, and staking out the beach in the dead of night . . . . Will they find a way to stop the poachers before it’s too late? A heart-pounding mystery with a hint of magic, María José Fitzgerald’s debut novel explores the power of friendship, community, and compassion to unite all living creatures.

Young Adult

Lucha of the Night Forest
By Tehlor Kay Mejia
368 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593378366 | Make Me a World
A scorned god.
A mysterious acolyte.
A forgetting drug.
A dangerous forest.
One girl caught between the freedom she always wanted and a sister she can’t bear to leave behind. Under the cover of the Night Forest, will Lucha be able to step into her own power . . . or will she be consumed by it? This gorgeous and fast-paced fantasy novel from acclaimed author Tehlor Kay Mejia is brimming with adventure, peril, romance, and family bonds – and asks what it means for a teen girl to become fully herself.

The Fall of Whit Rivera
By Crystal Maldonado
352 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780823452361 | Holiday House
Frenemies Whit and Zay have been at odds for years (ever since he broke up with her in, like, the most embarrassing way imaginable), so when they’re forced to organize the fall formal together, it’s a literal disaster. Sparks fly as Whitney – type-A, passionate, a perfectionist, and a certified sweater-weather fanatic – butts heads with Zay, a dry, relaxed skater boy who takes everything in stride. But not all of those sparks are bad . . . . Has their feud been a big misunderstanding all along? Blisteringly funny and profoundly well-observed, The Fall of Whit Rivera is a snug and cozy autumn romcom that also tackles weightier topics like PCOS, chronic illness, sexuality, fatphobia, Latine identity, and class. Funny, honest, insightful, romantic, and poignant, it is classic Crystal Maldonado – and it will have her legion of fans absolutely swooning.

The Wicked Bargain
By Gabe Cole Novoa
368 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593378014 | Random House BFYR
On Mar León de la Rosa’s sixteenth birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn’t enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father, and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar’s father and the entire crew of their ship. When Mar is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean, el Diablo returns to give them a choice: give up their soul to save their father by the harvest moon, or never see him again. The task is impossible – Mar refuses to make a bargain, and there’s no way their magic is a match for el Diablo. Then Mar finds the most unlikely allies: Bas, an infuriatingly arrogant and handsome pirate – and the captain’s son; and Dami, a gender-fluid demonio whose motives are never quite clear. For the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic. It could be their only redemption – or it could mean certain death.

Viva Lola Espinoza
By Ella Cerón
400 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593405628 | Kokila
Lola Espinoza is cursed in love. Well, maybe not actually cursed – magic isn’t real, is it? When Lola goes to spend the summer with her grandmother in Mexico City and meets handsome, flirtatious Rio, she discovers the unbelievable truth: Magic is very real, and what she’d always written off as bad luck is actually, truly . . . a curse. If Lola ever wants to fall in love without suffering the consequences, she’ll have to break the curse. She finds an unlikely curse-breaking companion in Javi, a seemingly stoic boy she meets while working in her cousin’s restaurant. Javi is willing to help Lola look into this family curse of hers, and Lola needs all the help she can get. Over the course of one summer – filled with food, family, and two very different boys – Lola explores Mexico City while learning about herself, her heritage, and the magic around us all.

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Tundra Telegram: Books That Deserve a Red Carpet 2: Electric Boogaloo

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we zoom in on a few subjects that have people doing long takes, and filter out some great books that really hit the mark: both blockbusters and cult classics.

As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA labor dispute with major studios and streamers enters its fourth month, the Toronto International Film Festival, which starts this evening and runs until September 17, will look a lot different. There will be no press conferences and fewer actors and writers in town to promote their works. But that doesn’t mean the festival won’t feature a variety of delights for filmgoers.

As we did last year, we’re going to shine the spotlight on a shortlist of highly anticipated films screening at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and recommend a few books that could be just the ticket for you or your young reader. Let’s get rolling!

PICTURE BOOKS

All the film buffs are psyched about South Korean films, so the Gala Presentation of a new action movie from Ryoo Seung-wan, Smugglers, is sure to be a hot ticket. A female-led heist movie and action film about a crew of free divers turned smugglers, the movie features some dazzling underwater action scenes. While Constellation of the Deep by Benjamin Flouw features a underwater fox explorer in pursuit of a rare and valuable plant and some mind-blowing aquatic scenes, no laws are broken in Fox’s sea quest.

One of the most high-profile films at TIFF is Dream Scenario, the surreal new Nicolas Cage movie, directed by Kristoffer Borgli and co-produced by Ari (Midsommar) Aster, about a university professor who suddenly finds celebrity when he starts appearing in nearly everybody’s dreams (!). Frankie, the bear who has trouble getting to sleep, may not appear in others’ dreams in A Bedtime Yarn by Nicola Winstanley and Olivia Chin Mueller, but the waking world nevertheless affects the dream world. When Frankie’s mother gives him some yarn to hold while sleeping, so she can knit a surprise for him, the yarn’s colors enter his sleeping thoughts, affecting the plot and color, and reminding him he’s always connected to loved ones, even in his dreams.

It’s not just narrative films drawing attention at the festival. Stamped from the Beginning is a buzzed-about documentary from filmmaker Roger Ross Williams, based on a book from Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, that takes a deep dive into the full history of anti-Black ideas in a way that grapples with present-day racism. For younger audiences, Antiracist Baby by the very same Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky is what you should read to your kid before watching the film: a picture book that encourages parents and children to uproot the racism in society and ourselves.

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

Awkwafina and Sandra Oh star as sisters Anne and Jenny in Jessica Yu‘s comedy Quiz Lady, which has its world premiere at TIFF. When the siblings find out their mother has racked up an impressive gambling debt, there’s only one solution: hit the road and use Anne’s trivia skill to win a television game show. Of course, the film reminded us of the comedic No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen, in which homeless twelve-year-old Felix Knuttson attempts to win on a national quiz show to turn his and his mother’s luck around.

The director of Borat (Larry Charles) will premiere his wild, queer musical-comedy take on The Parent Trap, Dicks: The Musical, as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness program. The film follows a pair of identical twins who conspire to reunite their divorced and disturbed parents (Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally). The kids may not be identical and the plot not as madcap or crude, but Auriane Desombre‘s The Sister Split is also a queer, reverse take on The Parent Trap, featuring a pair of soon-to-be-stepsisters who try to break up their parents so they can stay out of the suburbs.

TIFF’s opening film is the long-awaited new (and perhaps final?) film from Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron. During World War II, young Mahito Maki suffers a heartbreaking family tragedy and must move immediately to the countryside, where his father works for a family making planes for Japan’s military. There he encounters a grey heron, which eventually leads him into wondrous, strange world. The film was originally planned as a direct adaptation of Genzaburo Yoshino‘s novel How Do You Live?, one of Miyazaki’s favorite books. But in the final film, that philosophical coming-of-age story is but one of the many layers of inspiration that connects fiction with the director’s own youth.

YOUNG ADULT

Everyone is talking about the world premiere Next Goal Wins, the new film from Taika Waititi, an off-beat sports comedy about the American Samoa soccer team’s attempt to make a World Cup twelve years after a disastrous 31-0 loss in a 2002 World Cup qualifying match. While the young soccer players are not quite as hopeless in Warren St. John‘s Outcasts United, they are a team of real underdogs. The book is the story of the Fugees – a real-life youth soccer team made up of refugees from around the world – and how they overcame many challenges and rallied support in their Georgia community.

The Holdovers marks the return of director Alexander Payne to TIFF, and it stars his sometime muse Paul Giamatti as a strict professor stuck supervising students who stay at an elite boarding school over winter break. Enter one rebellious student, which leads to a battle of wills and, eventually, a mutual respect. The students are less rebellious and more assassin-y in S.T.A.G.S. by M. A. Bennett, a book in which a scholarship student at a prestigious private school learns the legacy students are keen to invite her to a real-life game of manhunt – with her as the prey!

In a North American premiere that was just announced, director Ava DuVernay will present her new film Origin at TIFF in a Gala Presentation. The film is a creative biopic of author Isabel Wilkerson’s life, as she works on the book that would become her New York Times bestseller, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. You can read the final product, as there is a version of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents adapted for young adults by Isabel Wilkerson. The book (and we’re guessing the film) chronicles the lives of real people to reveal an insidious phenomenon in the United States: a hidden caste system. It looks at social hierarchies in India and Nazi Germany, and explains how these systems destroy the lives of vast sections of societies – and how those systems work in America today.

Finally, if you’re in the mood for a good, old-fashioned horror-comedy directed by one of the kids from Stranger Things, check out Hell of a Summer in the Midnight Madness program. Directed by actors Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), this is a self-aware slasher set at a doomed summer camp with plenty of twists. There’s no better pairing than the new YA horror-comedy There’s No Way I’d Die First by Lisa Springer, which hit bookstores earlier this week! The book concerns teen horror buff Noelle Layne, who throws a massive Halloween party that turns deadly when the actor she hired to play Pennywise from Stephen King’s It starts killing off her party guests. Luckily, Noelle has been spending most of her life training to be a final girl.

That’s a wrap! See you at the movies – AND the bookstore!

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Tuesdays with Tundra

Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. These titles are now available in stores and online!

Hans Christian Andersen Lives Next Door
By Cary Fagan
160 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880159 | Tundra Books
Andie Gladman is your typical kid – she lives in a small town, doesn’t have many friends and quietly puts up with taunts from the school bully, Myrtle Klinghoffer. But one day, a new neighbor moves into the house next to Andie’s family . . . and he looks awfully familiar. Could he be famous author Hans Christian Andersen? Andie sure thinks so, and the arrival of this well-known writer inspires Andie to write her own poems (with a feminist twist) based on his classic fairy tales. Her newfound hobby leads her to make a friend and finally feel some excitement about her previously quiet life . . . but will a shocking revelation change everything for Andie?

Hans Christian Andersen Lives Next Door is also available today in Audiobook!

House of Ash and Bone
By Joel A. Sutherland
336 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880968 | Tundra Books
Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger is a talented writer with special abilities she doesn’t fully understand. Over the years she has developed methods to cope with the voices she hears in her head, but the old house her family has inherited in Vermont makes Josephine question what’s real and what’s not more than anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s filled with shadows, and whispers, and the unshakable feeling of being watched. Josephine then catches her first glimpse of a shadowy woman with long hair, pale skin, an impossibly wide smile and hollow pits for eyes. Her name is Dorcas, the ghost of a witch who died three hundred years ago. She has summoned the family to Vermont to ensnare them – then consume them – in order to rise from the grave and live again . . .

House of Ash and Bone is also available today in Audiobook!

Mama’s Sleeping Scarf
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing as Nwa Grace-James
Illustrated by Joelle Avelino
32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774882696 | Puffin Canada
Chino loves the scarf that her mama ties around her hair at night. But when Mama leaves for the day, what happens to her scarf? Chino takes it on endless adventures! Peeking through the colorful haze of the silky scarf, Chino and her toy bunny can look at her whole family as they go through their routines. With stunning illustrations from Joelle Avelino, Mama’s Sleeping Scarf is a celebration of family, and a touching story about the everyday objects that remind us of the ones we love.

New in Paperback:

How to Give Your Cat a Bath in Five Easy Steps
By Nicola Winstanley
Illustrated by John Martz
36 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774883631 | Tundra Books
Step one: fill the bath
Step two: put the cat in the bath
Step three: put shampoo on the cat
Step four: rinse the cat
Step five: dry the cat
Seems simple, right? One problem: the cat has no intention of doing ANY of these things! Watch as the steps keep changing, the cat keeps escaping, the girl keeps eating cookies and the mess keeps escalating. Soon it’s not just the cat who needs a bath – it’s the whole house!

Narwhal and Jelly: Super Pod Party Pack!
By Ben Clanton
136 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774883730 | Tundra Books
A double helping of Narwhal and Jelly in a brand-new format! Join the underwater duo in this two-book graphic novel bind-up of their first two adventures – with extras like drawing guides, a superhero name generator and a pod pledge! A podtastic offering for new and old fans alike! This paperback bind-up of the first two Narwhal and Jelly titles (Unicorn of the Sea! and Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt) is full to the brim with personality, hilarity and most importantly, waffles. Join Narwhal and Jelly on their very first meeting, all the way to them becoming superheroes!

We can’t wait to see you reading these titles! If you share these books online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.

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Tuesdays with Tundra

Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. This title is now available in stores and online!

Sharon, Lois and Bram’s Peanut Butter and Jelly
By Sharon Hampson, Lois Lilienstein, and Bram Morrison, with Randi Hampson
Illustrated by Qin Leng
40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735271104 | Tundra Books
From the creators of Skinnamarink comes another picture book based on the classic sandwich song made famous by this beloved trio of children’s entertainers.
First you dig the peanuts and you dig ’em, you dig ’em,
you dig ’em, dig ’em, dig ’em.
Peanut, peanut butter, JELLY!
Sharon, Lois & Bram invite readers to join them on an adventure to a magical place where a diverse group of animals and children come together to create the most delicious of snacks: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Accompanied by Qin Leng’s wonderfully whimsical illustrations, this delightful picture book celebrates friends, community, music and a favorite tasty treat – mmm mmm mmmm! 

We can’t wait to see you reading this title! If you share this book online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.

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Cover Reveal: Catfish Rolling and Rebel Skies + Q&A

We are excited to reveal the covers for two enchanting and action-packed YA debuts coming soon from Tundra Book Group: Clara Kumagai’s Catfish Rolling and Ann Sei Lin’s Rebel Skies!

Keep scrolling for the covers and as an exclusive treat, the authors interviewed each other!

Cover Design: Deena Micah Fleming and Sophie Paas-Lang
Illustration: Andrew Davis

Catfish Rolling
By Clara Kumagai
352 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774882764 | Penguin Teen Canada
Release Date: October 3, 2023
There’s a catfish under Japan, and when it rolls, the land rises and falls. At least, that’s what Sora was told after she lost her mother to an earthquake so powerful that it cracked time itself. Sora and her father are some of the few who still live near the most powerful of these “zones” – the places where time has been irrevocably sped up, or slowed down.
When high school ends, and her best friend leaves for university, Sora finds herself stuck and increasingly alone. She begins secretly conducting her own research, tracking down a time expert in Tokyo. She also feels increasingly conflicted in her quasi-romantic feelings for her best friend – and for the time expert’s assistant, a strikingly weird and confident girl named Marina, the first other hafu (half-Japanese, half-non) Sora has ever met.
But when Sora’s father disappears, she has no choice but to return home and venture deep into the abandoned time zones to find him, and perhaps the catfish itself . . .

About the Author:
Clara Kumagai is from Canada, Japan and Ireland. Her fiction and non-fiction for children and adults has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Banshee, Room, The Kyoto Journal and Cicada, among others. She is a recipient of a We Need Diverse Books Mentorship, and was a finalist for the 2020 Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. Catfish Rolling is her debut novel.

Ann interviews Clara

Ann: What inspired you to write Catfish Rolling?

Clara: The first inspiration is the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and its aftermath – I was drawn into thinking about what life might look like after such a catastrophe, on the personal level of individual characters but also to a landscape. Because of the nuclear disaster at the TEPCO power plant, there are still exclusion areas in Tohoku where people can’t return to, and those deserted places were the inspiration not just for setting but for the time zones in the novel.

Ann: Where did you get the idea for fractured time and what inspired you to blend sci-fi with Japanese mythology?

Clara: The idea of time breakage came when I learned that the 2011 earthquake was so big that it shifted the earth on its axis – it actually began to spin faster – and as a result our day is a tiny bit shorter. (1.8 microseconds, to be precise.) It also caused Honshu, the main island of Japan, to move more than 6ft east. This seemed like science fiction to me when I learned it because it was pretty mind-boggling. So my idea of time breaking came from there, and on a bigger level it also fit in with being caught in the past or painful events. Trauma, grief and loss can catch and hold people in the past or in certain memories, and I wanted to explore how I could create a physical setting that conveyed that. The Japanese myth of the catfish is an old explanation for the cause of earthquakes, so as I researched I came upon the story and it just made sense to me. I’ve always loved myth and folklore, and they can simultaneously function as both entertaining stories and serious metaphors.

Ann: How did you first create Sora and is she your favorite character?

Clara: A lot of my writing is led by voice, and Sora’s voice just emerged as I began to write this story. I enjoy writing dialogue, and find it’s a good way to build a character, as well as exploring relationships and dynamics with other characters in a story. Once I have a feel for a character’s voice, I build up other elements like background, habits, actions . . . those details that make a character full and real. I don’t know if Sora is my favorite character (though I do love her!). My favorite may be Naomi because she is so smart and intimidating!

Illustration: Amir Zand

Rebel Skies
By Ann Sei Lin
352 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774883983 | Tundra Books
Release Date: February 13, 2024
Kurara has never known any other life than being a servant onboard the Midori, a flying ship serving the military elite of the Mikoshiman Empire, a vast realm of floating cities. Kurara also has a secret – she can make folded paper figures come to life with a flick of her finger. But when the Midori is attacked and Kurara’s secret turns out to be a power treasured across the empire, a gut-wrenching escape leads her to the gruff Himura, who takes her under his wing. Under Himura’s tutelage, and with the grudging support and friendship of his crew, Kurara learns to hunt shikigami – wild paper spirits sought after by the Princess of Mikoshima. But what does the princess really want with the shikigami? Are they merely enchanted figures without will or thought, or are they beings with souls and minds of their own? As fractures begin to appear both across the empire and within Kurara’s understanding of herself, Kurara will have to decide who she can trust. Her fate, and the fate of her friends – and even the world – may rest on her choice. And time is running out.

About the author:
Ann Sei Lin is an author and librarian with a love for all things fantasy. Although London is now her home, she spent several years living and working in China, Japan, and is originally from Singapore. She received an undergraduate degree in Japanese Literature and completed an M.A. in Creative Writing, for which she was awarded a Distinction. When not writing, she is studying, gaming or doing origami.

Clara interviews Ann

Clara: What inspired you to use origami as the basis of a magic system?

Ann: I love origami (although I’m not great at it myself!) and so I wanted to make a world that revolved around paper craft. I think it’s quite interesting to turn something usually seen as fragile and weak into an instrument of power.

Clara: Were you influenced/inspired by other media such as movies, books, art, etc.?

Ann: I was really inspired by Ghibli movies, particularly Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke. I think there might be a touch of Howl’s Moving Castle in the design of some cities too!

Clara: The sky cities and origami are so visually striking – do you make maps or draw while you’re world building?

Ann: I did! Actually, the maps and insets in the books are based on my own sketches, which were then passed onto my illustrator to make them look a lot better. I like to draw and initially I did sketches of the characters and places, as well as commissioned some artwork as well. I think my favorite is a commissioned piece of the Orihime!

Clara: Names are significant (especially in Rebel Fire) and I was wondering how you chose Kurara as the main character’s name? (Asking this because my first name in Japanese is basically the same, though written in katakana only: クララ!)

Ann: I can’t remember who said ‘your name is your parent’s hopes for you,’ but I thought it was a beautiful sentiment. During the Meiji era, we were just starting to see girl’s names written with kanji, so in my mind Kurara’s name would be 苦楽楽 which includes the character for suffering and the character for comfort. It’s a bit of a weird reading, I know, but even though Kurara was going to suffer through this series, I wanted her to come out of things alright in the end. I suppose her name represented my wishes for her!

Tundra Book Group