Author Michelle Mulder will be launching her new book After Peaches this coming Saturday, October 31st, at Once Upon a Huckleberry Bush, 4387 Main Street, Vancouver, BC.

“Silence is not always golden”. Ten-year-old Rosario Ramirez and her family are political refugees from Mexico, trying to make a new life in Canada. After being teased at school, Rosario vows not to speak English again until she can speak with an accent that’s one hundred percent Canadian. Since she and her parents plan to spend the whole summer working on BC fruit farms, she will be surrounded by Spanish speakers again. But when her family’s closest friend Jose gets terribly sick, Rosario’s plans start to unravel. Neither Jose nor Rosario’s parents speak English well enough to get him the help he needs. Like it or not, Rosario must face her fears about letting her voice be heard.

Michelle says that this launch will be particularly special as it will be her first time meeting Erika del Carmen Fuchs from Justicia for Migrant Workers. Erika played a critical role in Michelle’s research for After Peaches. She answered Michelle’s many questions about migrant workers, read the manuscript twice and offered to help promote the launch. Michelle says “I’m both touched and grateful and really look forward to meeting her.” It promises to be an extra special book launch.

This past weekend, while visiting some friends in Texas, I had the pleasure of visiting the Austin Children’s Museum, whose permanent exhibits include En Mi Família/In My Family, based on artist Carmen Lomas Garza’s work. In celebration of all families, the exhibit includes scenes and personal narratives from her books Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia and In My Family/En Mi Familia (Children’s Book Press)—both touchstones of Latino children’s literature now—based on her memories and experiences growing up in South Texas, near the Mexican border.

The hands-on exhibit showcasing aspects of Carmen’s family life includes bedroom, kitchen, backyard and garden scenes, where children and adults can engage in assembling pretend tamales, working on a papel picado puzzles, making music, preparing a piñata for a birthday party, and more. Kids even get to sit on a special chair and make a wish under a starry sky—like Carmen herself did as child, when she wished to become an artist.

Very proud of and committed to promoting awareness of her Mexican American culture, Carmen Lomas Garza’s family-inspired work have won her all the major children’s book awards, including the Tomás Rivera, the Pura Belpré and the Américas. Entering her rich and fascinating world, whether through her books or through this lovely exhibit, we see exactly why.

Before leaving the exhibit, I made my own wish: that my daughter will grow up to be just as proud of her own heritage.