I was a vendor at West Coast Craft Fair back in 2024 and I’ll be bringing the same love and energy this year with a few new stickers, prints, etc. I’ll have several kids books too. If you’ve never been to the event, it is a large craft fair where the makers are the stars. You have jewelry makers, potters, fashion designers, artists, houseware designers, cooks, foodies, and so many other types of makers. More info on the event here.
Here’s a quick video to show you the vibe at this event. I was at this exact event so I remember the rush of people and the wide array of folks there selling their work.
I will be at booth #308 so if you’re coming come say hi! If you have a friend who is vending there, an organizer, or friend going please tell them about me:)
Song was so excited for the summer trip! Last year they got to go to “Slide land” and this year it would be “Castle Ville” which had a huge hotel with a pool and water slide, and the amusement park. Oh they couldn’t wait to get on all the rides! But this trip was special because they’d get to try out their new suitcase. Here was a list of all the things Mama said they could bring. A Stuffy, tooth brush, favorite books, their ipad, a sketchbook, headphones, their sleep mask, and of course the new suitcase!!!
About this short story: I’m getting ready to go on a trip with my family and couldn’t help but think of how excited my youngest is to have their very own suitcase. The kid in this image is a bit older, maybe 9 but inspired by my child.
What is this? This is a short story. They are a way for me to sharpen my skills, to play, and to stretch out by trying new ideas for stories. In 2010 they started off as a way to practice the format of picture books but I’m interested in other formats now too. My name is Robert Liu-Trujillo and my most recent book is Fresh Juice/ Jugo Frescopublished by Lee & Low Books.
Check out some of my past short stories worth checking out:
I did the cover illustration for this book by accomplished teachers Dr. Luz Yadira Herrera (CA) and Dr. Carla España (NY) a couple years back. I had some footage of the painting process but I misplaced it and cannot find it. But, lemme share some of the process with you.
First and foremost, this is a guide for teachers and educators. It’s meant to help Spanish and bilingual teachers recognize the life experiences of their Latine students, outline kids books that affirm that, and pack in hella tips, tricks, resources, and guides for how to get it cracking. Get the book here.
In this book you’ll find Unit projects, Sample activities, Language study, Translation discussion and reading group guides.
You’ll also find guides for dozens of great kid lit books by creators such as Duncan Tonatiuh, Claribel A. Ortega, Adrianna Cuevas, Emma Otheguy, Margarita Engle, Juan Felipe Herrera, Aida Salazar, Lisette Norman, Yuyi Morales, and more.
Ok, when I’m vibing out and really diving into a story or project for a client I’m exploring lots of options. I probably had 3 or 4 times as many ideas for how this cover could look. I settled on three main ones and pitched those to the art director from Brookes Publishing; Rachel Word who would then share key images with Luz and Carla. They chose A3.
From there, I refined the sketch and added some grey tones to convey light, shape, and composition. After that I did an outlined version with the last few tweaks.
From there, I shared some ideas for color and I try to pick some that are a bit odd, or different from what I’ve seen on other curriculum books.
Then, the final cover painting was done with ink and watercolor.
I passed it on to Brookes and designers there brought it to life with the accompanying type and back cover design. It came out really fresh and I hope K-6 grade educators are able to make use of the wealth of information provided by these two bad ass educators. Cop this book here for your classroom!
Dig this? Check out my cover for Robert M. Alexander’s book “He Hit Me First”
Got damn, I just crossed the 2000 number mark on Etsy. To celebrate here’s a discount code (GREATEST7) for 15% off anything in the shop that will be valid until May 22nd. Hella appreciate the support whether you’ve bought something from my shop once or 3 times.
History: I’ve sold on We Buy Black, My own wordpress site (new store coming), Faire, and a few other sites here and there. But My Etsy has been the most consistent for the past decade. I remember the first time at a class at Parsons in NYC a rep from the company came to a class . I think Trey Hoyumpat’s class (2008). He broke it down, I started a shop but didn’t think much about it. I sold zines, handmade light switch covers, original art with affirmations on it, and that was it from 2008-2014.
Fast forward to 2016, I’d been sending out my postcards to art directors in the kid lit world since 2008 and after getting little to no response I launched my own kickstarter for Furqan’s First Flat Top and then distributed the book myself. That book and those that followed it reignited my imagination. I began to sell prints from the book and decided to go beyond those and illustrate kids of color relating to literacy, identity, and self respect. That really started to kick things off, it felt like it was serving a need for folks and myself, it inspired me, and it was affordable.
Although I’d sold original art before this lead to a series of events as a seller. Local events like the Malcolm X Jazz Fest, then later my first large events like the SF Etsy Emporium where the focus was on the artists, nothing else. Here’s a photo of my first time selling at Malcolm X Jazz Fest with authors Jill Guerra and Gualikuya Mariposa fka Melissa Reyes. And then at a holiday market in Richmond with my wife.
This was my set up at the 2024 West Coast Craft Fair, my how things have changed. Anyways, this is just a short walk down memory lane. I plan to release a pdf on how I got to 2000 sales. In the meantime….
What up fam, I just got back from Columbus Ohio, a city I visited for the first time in 2019 for the SOL Con at Ohio State organized by Dr Frederick Luis Aldama and Dr Kaitlin Marisol-Sweeney and a school visit to Weinland Park Elementary.
This time I was brought out by librarian and author Elisa Stone Leahy (picture in the middle) and I read alongside local author and teacher Dia Mixon who has some great bicultural and bilingual picture books here. In 2025 I started reaching out to libraries outside of the Bay more proactively and Elisa is one of a handful that invited me to come read!
It was great to share the space w/ the amazing librarians there and Dia who has a beautiful story “One Whole Me”.
I went up first after the librarians and had a really great reading with lots of ideas, participation, call and response, etc. The majority of these photos were taken by Elisa (thank you Elisa).
Big shout out to Keithia and the other librarians and teachers for their support that day.
BIG shout out to Cover to Cover Bookstore in Columbus for supporting us by having tons of books there for students to take home and read. If you check out their Instagram there’s a short reel of the reading up.
Here are a few shots I took of Dia Mixon while she was reading her book.
If you dig this, check out some of these other schools and libraries I’ve read at:
Here are some of the lovely books I saw on display at this library. Full of diversity, beauty, color, and life! I love seeing books about Queer families, Black folks, AAPI, Native, Latinx etc communities too. This is the link to the reading and if you check out the site, they’ve got over 23 branches!
Some shots from around the city!
I went to the Wexner Center for the Arts to see my friend Dionne Custer Edwards who works in public programs there and is doing great work to uplift artists and to engage young people with art. And I went straight to the bookstore to see my great books and some friends’ work from the Bay and beyond. Then I walked the museum with her and was so inspired by the work of Hew Locke, who’s work as a British Guyanese artists’ work comments on imperialism, cross cultural expression, and it was fucking amazing.
Now, I know -the whole shit w/ the Epstein files and the news about the founder among many of the wealthy elite. And that is its own sick but revealing study of how pedophilic capitalists harm children and the way the wield power over law, governments, corporations, policy, etc to control the working class. More importantly its a reminder to us to act by putting our words, energy, funds, and resources behind people and places working to flip the script. That’s community based organizations, cooperatives, unions, collectives, media outlets, radical candidates , etc. I’m thinking of all of us who do not come from wealth trying to survive which is a huge number and I’m calling in those who have money or access to resources with politics that differ from the 1%. Put your $ where your values are.
Watch: Hey fam, I’m on the Bay Area Book Festival podcast “Short Cuts” w/ Dora La Flora talking about this year’s festival happening in late May, tune in to learn more. And come to the Bay Area Book Festival happening May30-31st in Berkeley California. You can find out more about the Youth Lit Specific day here and get the broader schedule here.
Why go?
If you’re a book lover or someone who wants to get your kids reading or get something new to read, there is such a wide array of books there from kid lit to romance, poetry, non fiction, etc. Its there.
If you’re someone who works in this field or you’d like to work in it, this is s great opportunity to meet folks ion your field at your level and folks who’ve been doing this for a long time.
Lastly, support community led events as opposed to corporations.
Dig this? Check out the Bay Area Book Festival’s YouTube page
Somehow I forgot to share this here but me, Justine Villanueva, and Mona Damluji were guests on Hard Knock Radio with Davey D on KPFA in Berkeley. You can go straight to KPFA to listen to the show, which aired right before the 9th annual Social Justice Children’s Book Fair of 2025. In this episode we talked about book bans, literacy, topics in kid lit that some adults shy away from, and why the book fair was founded. As I listener of Hard Knock, this was a proud moment for me because I have listened to the show off and on since it started airing.
If this is working right, you should be able to play it right here as well, we begin speaking at the 5 minute mark after the headlines.
Dig this? Check out this podcast I was on called Early Risers based out of Minneapolis
Later this month I’m headed to Los Angeles for the Renegade Craft Fair down there. If you’ve got folks out there , tell them to come check me out. I’ll be at booth #117. If you’ve never been to one of these its worth checking out for jewelry, plants, fashion, toys, food, and more. Official website.
Peace y’all, I just came back from a cool trip to Philadelphia to read the at the main branch of the public library. This is my first trip to the city and it was great to see it and connect with some old friends. Get ready, there A LOT of photos in this post!
I flew out on the red eye which I will not be doing again cuz I didn’t get much sleep. Once I landed I started hearing Black Thought lyrics in my head though because of street names and things like….
One of the things I loved about the city is the beauty and abundance of murals. I thought the Bay had a lot of walls but Philly is truly the mural capital. I didn’t get to meet up with her but Michelle Angela Ortiz is one of my favorite muralists out there. Another thing I love about the city is the styles of Graffiti which are distinct and historic. They often write tall and skinny tags!
On my way inside the library I met Lynne Haase, a Philadelphian librarian who answered the call when I set out to visit schools and libraries last year for the first time outside of the Bay. Me and my folks headed into the library (its amazing by the way), and headed down to the kids section where we saw lots of letters and drawings from children. Then we went into a theater where the children would listen to me speak.
First it was one classroom, then 2, then 3 whole classrooms full of children from a local school came on in to listen to me read. They had such great energy and questions!
The room was full, I introduced myself and I got down to business asking them questions and trying my best to engage them so they would not just be listening, but talking back and participating. That means questions, call and response, and good interruptions. I read my book Fresh Juice to the kids!
I wish I could show you photos with the faces of the children unblocked but I was not able to get permission slips for each child. But, they were there and thats the important part.
As I usually do, I brought some of the artwork from the book with me because its like a doorway to understanding how stories get made. Its a process and I try to drive that home with kids, not just about my story but about how the video games, cartoons, films, or other forms of media they consume are created.
Ok , the reading was awesome and if you’d like to see more visits I’ve made to schools or libraries I invite you to check out some of these:
After that I walked around the library to check out the art books and music books.
The library is underrated yall. You can check out tools, seeds, films, records, CDs, musical instruments, and so any different types of BOOKS!
I love walking around libraries. Especially kids sections because each librarian, city, and region is different. I love seeing Bay Area creators work up in other cities too. Here are some fotos I took walking around and some of the librarians checking out my prints. If you would like to see my prints, you can see them here.
A few fotos from around the city from the downtown area, West, South, etc. My good friends who I stayed with took me to a place called Saad’s Halal Restaurant in West Philly that had some of the best Falafel and bean pie I’ve ever eaten:) My friend also took me on a hike around Cobb’s Creek park. I saw Osage ave, infamous for the bombing of the MOVE family, and I saw the famous Hakim’s Bookstore. One of the oldest Black owned bookstores in the country.
Next, I took a trip to Germantown to see my friend Sarah and Uncle Bobbie’s coffee and bookstore!
Uncle Bobbie’s was a beautiful store w/ lots of light and a strong curation. After that I went for a nice hike in a local park w/ my friend Sarah Kolker who is from Philly but lived in NYC and the Bay, where we met!
Urgent, call your reps to tell them : Vote NO on HR 7661! This is a dangerous bill targeting Queer and Trans kids, families, and books, read the images and go to this link #authorsagainstbookbans
Confused? See my previous post about book banning and how it went from 1-200 a year to over 4000!
Dig this? Check out the film The Librarians which features librarians harrassed, threatened, and fired for stocking diverse books about Queer/ Trans identity or Race/ Criticism of White Supremacy.
