This is the second time I’ve had the honor of having one of my books on the AALBC 100 best Black books list! Aalbc is one of the oldest websites supporting Black authors, bookstores, and a larger literary community. A stamp of approval from them is pretty awesome!
Ok, here you can see “Fresh Juice” included among a bunch of picture books, middle grade, and YA book written and /or illustrated by Black authors. I see a bunch of familair names there as well as some Bay Area friends such as Tiffany Golden, Maya Cameron Gordon, Angela Dalton, and Jessica Jones.
Ey, this is some pretty cool news to wake up to. Back a few months ago Storyline reached out to me and my publisher about including my book in their read aloud series, but I didn’t know it would be like this. Watch this video-check out the high production quality, the animation, and the talents of actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph who did an amazing job reading it.
Huge shout out to the marketing team at Lee and Low,Storyline Online, The Sag Aftra Foundation, my agent Marietta Zacker, the film production and editing crew, the animation team who made my characters move, all the orgs and actors involved with spreading literacy and a joy for reading, and of course and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. If you’d like to see an activity guide for the book go to https://storylineonline.net/books/fresh-juice/
Yo, I want to give a huge shout out to my sis Nancy from Latino Task Force in San Francisco, Jen Woo from SF Public Library, Patty from the YMCA, and all the librarians, volunteers, educators who came to this reading and presentation. Normally I’m in a classroom or library but it was dope to be here. Casa Apoyo or “Support House” is a hub for community resources in San Francisco’s Excelsior district where local familes can come get a bike, groceries, clothing, legal services, housing resources, and more.
Some fotos from inside the organizational hub!
As you can see in the above photos the spot is a hub, elders, women, and youth were coming in and out to get food and serve it. A was a perfect place to talk about my latest book because the theme is community.
I did a reading and presentation in English and Spanish. We talked about
Bilingual picture book reading
The importance of reading, writing, and literacy
Animation, gaming, engineering, art making, illustration
Art education through school, friends, sketchbooks, and self guided practice
The power of community, healthy foods, and more
We also talked about team work, editors, art directors, and collaboration
Via SF Days
Hopped on Bart from Fruitvale station in Oakland to Balboa next to Balboa HS and walked to Mission st where the org was.
Latino Task Force, SFPL, and several volunteers
During the reading Latino Task Force, SF Public Library, and several volunteers got the ingredients from the juice in the book ” Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco” , and juicers ready for the young people to not only taste, but to make themselves by putting the ingredients into the juicer and then they provided each kid a take home bag w/ more of the sme ingredients so they could share it with their family. These lovely folks also gave away English and Spanish copies of the book to each kid or adult who came.
Wanna invite me to speak or read to you students in elementary, high school, or college? Email me at info@robdontstop.com
I also brought my sketchbook, original drawings, and paintings and I passed them around while adults and children asked questions. It was amazing y’all and at that point it was beyond me as an individual and more about the concept of the story and the idea of interacting w/ a working artist/writer. Hasta la Proxima.
If youre in the Alameda area I welcome you to come hear me talk about art, books, career, and making it in kidlit. If youre in Alameda, come check me out and ask questions!
Shout out to San Francisco State University magazine for featuring my work. Thats more than I can say for any of the other schools I went to. BIG shout out to the marketing/promo team at Lee & Low for all of their hard work promoting the book!
To see all the other literary works by SFSU alumni GO HERE.
Dig this? Check out when “Fresh juice/ Jugo Fresco” was featured by Bank Street College
These photos were taken by teachers in the classroom at SF Brightworks a school out in the Presidio area of San Francisco. I spoke to 3rd graders and Kinder students. Here’s a link to their photos and site.
Here’s a package for the bilingual learners and Spanish teachers. Ever since I learned to speak Spanish it has been important to me that my books were bilingual or in both English and Spanish. If you can think of someone who could use this, you can order it from my shop with a note from you.
This week I had a chance to volunteer for this week for Children’s Book Project in San Francisco with students from Guadalupe Elementary School. I read my book in Spanish and it was a blast! Here are some more photos from the reading where I got to meet the super sweet staff.
Hey fam, I was invited to be a guest on the Multicultural Classroom podcast where Roberto German interviews teachers, artists, educators, and activists about education both in and outside of the classroom. I’ve been following his wife Lorena German for a while hearing about their collective work to not only share insights from people who work in education, but their work as teachers who develop curriculum. Give the interview a listen and check out their website here.
