How have I not written about this experience yet?

Lucia the Luchadora has been the most exciting happening of 2017! As far as I know from the publisher, she has entered at least 6400 bookshelves since March! I feel so honored to have worked on this fierce multigenerational Latina power story! Here are some of the highlights:

Homemade Lucia Costumes!

Children as Lucia for Australian Book Week 2017

Spotting Lucia in Bookstores

A Lucia Piñata !!!

A Luchador Fan

One of her new favorite reads

So much praise for Lucia!

The first exciting thing to happen was the Kirkus starred review. This being my first major publishing experience, I didn't know how big of a deal this was. The Kirkus review and the School Library Journal were the first major praise for the book. Here are some excerpts:

I read one of the reviews for Lucia about 1000 times - Review of the Day by Elizabeth Bird. I think we all cried a little reading that one. She offered such amazing detail about the story, its importance and what her favorite elements were. She even offered some constructive feedback which I am always open to hearing. I loved what she said about the book's endpapers -

"And did I mention the endpapers? Boy, you know I like a book when I start waxing eloquent on endpapers. The first ones you see display testimonial images to both Lucia’s abuela’s life (wedding photos, pictures of her cat, icons of Mary, lighted candles) and her loves (El Santo, her luchadora mask, etc.). Even better, when you turn that first page to look at the title page, the backside of the endpaper is now a repeating pattern of wrestling images done in blue ink. This becomes the pattern on the top of Lucia’s mask on the back endpapers. Who pays attention to that kind of detail?!? Class acts. That’s who."

This review from Building Future Readers says, "It is hard to find picture books that feature diverse characters. This book not only features Mexican culture through the main character it is also a universal and empowering story for girls. The pictures are vibrant and complement the text well and I love the influence from comic books and Mexican culture."

This review from Latinos in Kid Lit says, "The illustrations in this book are beautiful and bright. My favorite illustration shows Lucía when she gets angry. In a full page spread, red and orange peppers surround Lucia to show that she is “spicy mad. KA-POW kind of mad.” The illustrations are very detailed and show careful attention to the depiction of cultural artifacts and symbols such as rosary beads and the abuela’s perfume."

Here is the awesome interview on NPR featuring Lucia the Luchadora author, Cynthia Leonor Garza, "When She's Told Girls Can't Be Superheroes, 'Lucia The Luchadora' Grabs Her Mask" Another fabulous interview for her on Chron...

This review from Books4YourKids says it is, "one of those rare, great kid's books that is diverse without diversity being the subject."

Let's Talk Picture books says, "Even in the backgrounds of every scene Bermudez uses large, sweeping strokes to inject movement and energy into the spread so that readers can't help but want to flip the pages to keep reading. "

This review on SLAM Sports was conducted in part by actual children, so of course I had extra smiles. "I liked the whole idea of girls being super heroes," said Avery. "I also liked how she got 'Spicy mad. Kapow kind of mad.' They were good words."

Thank you world of readers for reading and reacting to this book in such a beautiful way.