Novel

“The Global Hunger and Migration Project”

When we began the Global Hunger and Migration Project, we wanted to understand why some 850,000 children and families were leaving their homes in Central America and coming to the United States to request asylum.  The journey to the U.S. is incredibly long: between 1200 and 2500 miles from the most common border crossing in Mexico to most destinations at the U.S. border. It is also incredibly dangerous, and the refugees know the dangers long before they set out on the journey.  They know all about the horrors of La Bestia (the train they will hop aboard for some of the way) and the people waiting to rob them and take advantage of them along the way.  They all know people who’ve made the journey – they’ve heard the stories.  Yet they come anyway.  Why?

We’re still learning a lot about that.  We’re learning about violence in their home countries and terrible choices their families are making in attempt to keep them safe.  We’re learning about food insecurity and despair (and about drought and climate change that is causing some of it).

We’re also learning how hard it is to know something well.  And how important it is to do the hard work of knowing something well.  My students learned early on just how complex the crisis is and that in order to make a difference on one aspect of it, we needed to understand how that one thing fits into the bigger picture.  We’ve also learned that failure is part of the process and we’ve had great ideas that we just couldn’t quite  figure out how to get off the ground.  But you can’t let fear of failure stop you from trying.

We’ve learned that we can make a difference.  All of us. When we work hard and bring out talents and creativity and passions to a project, and work together, we can do more than we ever thought possible.  We’re convinced – even more convinced now than when we started – that we can help make things just a little bit better. And that’s enough.

Mostly we’ve learned that it begins with empathy.  With meeting people who’ve made the journey. Most often this comes from reading stories and interviews and accounts of the journey.  But a spring break service-learning trip let some of my students meet and interact with refugees who had already made it to the United States.  My students have learned that though these refugees come from other countries and have different experiences and may speak a different language and share a different culture, they’re not all that different from you and me.  And when you meet these children and families, well, you want to do the hard work of knowing the situation well and making a difference.

We wanted you to meet some of the amazing children we met. Nando and Alessandra and Rodrigo and Laura are a lot like the children we met in our studies.  We hope when you meet them you will find where you want to make a difference.  Most of my students, like most of you, will not spend their lives working with refugees. I hope they’ve learned to love learning, and to love using what they know in the service of others. What do you want to learn to do well? How will you help others?

Published July 7th, 2020 by Six Foot Press

About the Book: Every year, roughly 50,000 unaccompanied minors arrive at the US/Mexico border to present themselves for asylum or related visas. The majority of these children are non-Mexicans fleeing the systemic violence of Central America’s “Northern Triangle”: Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

A Journey Toward Hope tells the story of Rodrigo, a 14-year-old escaping Honduran violence; Alessandra, a 10-year-old Guatemalan whose first language is Q’eqchi’; and the Salvadoran siblings Laura and Nando. Though their reasons for making the journey are different and the journey northward is perilous, the four children band together, finding strength in one another as they share the dreams of their past and the hopes for their future. Written in collaboration with Baylor University’s’ Social Innovation Collaborative, A Journey Toward Hope is a celebration of their humanity and an ode to the power of hope and connection even in the face of uncertainty and fear.

About the Authors: 

Victor Hinojosa, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Honors Program at Baylor University where his primary research is in Latin American Politics and U.S.-Latin American relations. His articles have appeared in scholarly books and journals including Terrorism and Political Violence, Political Science Quarterly, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Mennonite Quarterly Review. Dr. Hinojosa currently directs the Global Hunger and Migration Project, a social innovation laboratory at Baylor University that is bringing together an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students to address the challenges of child migration from Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador).

Coert Voorhees is the author the novels On the Free, In Too Deep (2013 Junior Library Guild Selection), Lucky Fools (2012 Junior Library Guild Selection), and The Brothers Torres (2009 ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults), as well as the picture book Storm Wrangler. He has been a Fulbright scholar in Chile and Visiting Writer in Residence at Rice University, and he now lives with his family in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for showing us how we can make a difference and what you are doing to do so also!

“The Truth Will Set You Free”

I’ve always had an affinity for Aesop’s Fables and Disney animated films. I suppose, in part, that’s why my debut Latinx middle grade novel Toro features talking animals as principal characters in a story suffused with moral lessons, conceived to entertain, inspire, and educate.

From age-old fables and fairy tales to Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio to present-day fiction, lies and liars have always been present in children’s literature.

Lies are a part of the human condition, told, in the simplest terms, to seek pleasure or avoid pain. They can be used as both a sword and a shield, to prey upon or protect. The duality of lies never ceases to fascinate me. There are forgivable lies and unforgivable lies, harmless lies and harmful lies, selfless lies and selfish lies, big lies and little lies. To further confuse the matter, there are varying degrees of lies, gray areas, and subsets. There are survival lies, protective lies, cover-up lies, persuasive lies, lies by omission, and so on. Interestingly, the truth is singular in form—there’s only one truth—the truth. While some tales teach lessons by dealing liars their deserved punishments, others reward liars for using their cunning as a survival stratagem to outwit dangerous enemies.

Stories can help children understand the complex nature of lies and guide them to navigate those they will inevitably encounter, discern the good ones from the bad ones, and learn the value of honesty and the truth.

In my book Toro, Alicía Catalina Cortés is a Spanish cow who wants to run with the bulls in Pamplona to prove herself noble y bravo, which is noble and brave. Because she’s a cow, tradition and her overprotective father, Don Murciélago Cortés, forbid Alicía from the running of the bulls.

Diego Del Toro is a Spanish bull who’s always dreamed of becoming a star of the Texas rodeo. Because he’s a toro bravo, which is a fighting bull, tradition and his overbearing mother, Condesa Maria Del Toro, force Diego to run with the bulls.

When their paths cross, Alicía sees Diego as a means to an end. She tells him that four cowboys from Fort Worth, Texas are in Spain to recruit bulls for the rodeo (a lie). She promises to arrange a rodeo audition for him (another lie, as the cowboys are simply thrill-seeking tourists visiting Spain for the running of the bulls). In return, Diego allows Alicía to go to Pamplona in his place, disguised as him.

Alicía deceives Diego to achieve her goal of running with the bulls. At this point in the story, Diego is little more than a stranger to Alicía, and it’s easy for her to lie to him. Without understanding the consequences of her deception, her lies can initially be seen as cunning or resourceful, creative, and inventive. She’s not lying to hurt Diego. She’s lying to help herself, blinded by desire and fueled by imagination.

As the story progresses, Alicía grows closer to Diego, and her deception weighs upon her conscience. Her best friend and confidant, an Iberian lynx named Doña Madonna de Doñana, forces Alicía to face the grave repercussions of her lies. By misleading Diego, Alicía risks permanently ruining his life, robbing him of his dream of becoming a star of the rodeo and condemning him to a life in exile from his family for disgracing them by breaking their tradition of running with the bulls.

Alicía ultimately feels Diego is more important to her than her desire to run with the bulls. When her goal changes, her lies become a double-edged sword. The same lies that brought Alicía closer to what she thought she wanted, now drive Alicía further away from what she truly wants. Despite the terrible consequences she fears will befall her, Alicía chooses to embrace honesty and the all-conquering truth.

One of the underlying themes of Toro is that it’s best to be honest.

When a villain lies, we associate the behavior with villainy. But when a hero lies, we understand that even good people can make mistakes and be dishonest. Alicía is a flawed character who makes mistakes. However, she becomes an exemplary character when she takes responsibility for her mistakes, learns from them, and proactively makes amends.

Alicía’s lies teach children that actions and words should not always be taken at face value. Sometimes we must question another’s intentions, even if they’re as likable or central to our lives as a story’s protagonist.

Toro may be used as a starting point for conversations with children about honesty and how to handle situations regarding lies. The following are some additional thoughts to ponder or discuss after reading the book:

Try to identify all the lies in the story and determine which are told to seek pleasure versus avoid pain; e.g., though Alicía lies to Diego to seek pleasure by pursuing her goal, the first lie she tells in the story is intended to avoid pain by escaping a prearranged marriage to a character who will become the book’s central antagonist, Don Julián Hernández. Because of her lie, Alicía unknowingly sets the antagonistic force in motion.

Sometimes we lie to ourselves, as Don Julián lies to himself until story’s end. No good comes of this. Only when Don Julián accepts the truth can he find peace, happiness, and contentment.

Don Murciélago tells a protective lie to Alicía, but eventually he tells her the difficult truth. Could his lie be considered forgivable?

By masquerading as Diego, Alicía exhibits another form of lying, impersonation.

Doña Madonna—the embodiment of honesty and integrity—serves as Alicía’s moral compass and voice of reason. Notice her contrasting counterpart, Jesús de los Jabalíes. These are two of my favorite characters. They can look at the same situation and draw entirely different and opposed conclusions.

Lying and cunning are both deceptive, yet the former is considered a vice, the latter a virtue.

The truth always surfaces in Toro, often echoing the biblical adage “the truth will set you free.”

September 17th, 2020 from Black Rose Writing

About the Book: Alicía Catalina Cortés is a fast and fiery Spanish cow who desperately wants to run with the bulls in Pamplona—but since she’s a cow, tradition forbids her to partake in the fiesta of San Fermín. Through her journey, Alicía learns that to be noble and brave, she must follow her dream and her heart, even if it means defying tradition.

Andrew Avner’s debut Latinx middle grade novel Toro is a pocket testimonial to the female protagonist’s fight for equality and empowerment. It also represents and celebrates diverse experiences and identities.

Toro is set in the colorful backdrop of Pamplona, Spain during the fiesta of San Fermín and the running of the bulls, famed as one of the most exhilarating, dangerous, and spectacular events around the world. Ultimately, it’s a heartfelt, coming-of-age fable told from the cattle’s point of view. Like Charlotte’s Web, The Jungle Book, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, anthropomorphic talking animals drive the narrative.

About the Author: Andrew Avner graduated with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Television. After working in Manhattan with Academy Award-winning producer David Brown, Avner relocated to Los Angeles to develop his own original material. He’s currently writing and producing short films for The Walt Disney Company while penning his next novel. To learn more about the author and his work, please visit: www.andrewavner.com.

Thank you, Andrew, for this post on honesty and inspiration!

“Supporting Teachers with #PointsforTeachers”

As a children’s author and literacy advocate, I am a huge supporter of helping teachers succeed in the classroom. Last summer, while trolling on Twitter one night, I discovered a grassroots movement gaining momentum on social media. A young teacher in Texas, tired of having to spend money out of her own pocket to provide basic classroom supplies for her classroom had come up with the idea of posting her Amazon wishlist on social media, asking other teachers to help fund it and inviting them to do the same thing. This effort became known as #clearthelists and thousands of teachers began posting their lists and buying items off each other’s lists. A single book sent here, a box of colored pencils there. The simple joy they felt at empowering themselves to solve this problem by helping fellow teachers spread like wildfire and it quickly became a movement. I found one of these lists that night and bought the teacher a few items, quickly tweeted them back, and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up to hundreds of replies to my tweet from teachers all over the country. We quickly put our heads together at Rise Up, the literacy foundation I founded in 2008, and agreed we should try to help as many teachers as we could. Using humorous tweets, I quickly became known as the #gifqueen, and by the time fall had settled in, we had helped fund over 500 teacher wish lists.

After engaging with so many teachers on social media, I’ve come to see the many fundamental needs that go unfulfilled, and their determined passion to find a way to help their students. Teachers spend on average $400-$600 out of their own pockets to provide basic classroom supplies for their students ranging from pencils, dry erase markers, colored paper to glue sticks— a fact which is both heart wrenching and hard to fathom in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Teacher’s lists are never ending because every year, the supplies are used up, and the needs start all over again. It’s not only tight school district budgets that make classroom funding sparse, but many low-income families are unable to afford the necessary school supplies for their children which means they show up to school without pencils or paper, putting the burden on the teacher to provide them with the tools they need. It’s easy to argue that it’s not their job but tell that to the teacher who’s heart breaks because her student doesn’t own a pencil. Replacing books is even harder with very few dollars allotted toward classroom libraries.

Since the global pandemic struck, we’ve seen a surge in requests for pandemic-related Back To School needs with teachers asking for remote learning tools such as document cameras and new laptops. Classroom needs are changing as well with a need for individualized containers to keep students supplies separate, along with increased sanitation supplies, face masks, hand sanitizer—all this is on top of their normal requirements. We at Rise Up tried to think of new ways to engage and help teachers meet the challenges ahead. I realized I had an enormous stockpile of unused credit card reward points sitting around that could easily be converted into Amazon dollars. Using reward points is easy on Amazon—all you have to do is register your participating rewards credit card—American Express, Citibank, Chase, and Discover are just a few they accept—and when you get to check out, you simply choose “use reward points” and the points value is deducted off your total. This inspired us to expand our efforts to help teachers clear their lists with a movement we call #PointsForTeachers. The goal is to educate individuals who would like to help but maybe don’t know how they can make an impact. We hope to encourage them to look at those unused reward points that are sitting idle on their credit card statements and reach out and find a teacher to help. It’s super simple and easy to make a big impact. All you have to do is follow these steps:

• Register your card on Amazon at amazon.com/shopwithpoints.
• Search for a teacher to help on Twitter using #pointsforteachers or #clearthelists.
• Shop for items on the teacher’s list.
• Use your points to pay at checkout!

To kick the program off we pledged 1 million reward points toward teacher’s wish lists. To date we’ve helped almost 200 teacher’s get back to school with essential items and we have many more to go before we run out of points. In addition, we registered with JustGiving so that individuals can donate their points directly to the Rise Up Foundation to help us supply classrooms. To donate your points, just go to JustGiving.com and search for Rise Up Foundation.

With everything that is asked of teachers during these challenging times, now more than ever, they need our support to get them the items they need to make a difference in the lives of their students. Won’t you join us in making a difference in the life of a teacher and their classroom today?

Witches of Orkney #3: Witch Wars
Expected Publication October 13th, 2020 by SparkPress

About the Book: Abigail’s second year at the Tarkana Academy has been an all-out disaster. She’s just unwittingly helped Vertulious, an ancient he-witch and powerful alchemist, destroy Odin’s Stone and restore his powers, and now all of Orkney is caught up in the threat of war as the witches prepare to destroy the helpless Orkadians. Determined to set things right, Abigail and Hugo set off for Jotunheim, the land of the giants, to find a weapon to restore the balance. All they have to do is track down the God of Thunder and convince Thor to turn his hammer over to them.

When their former-friend-now-foe Robert Barconian arrives with a band of dwarves, intent on stopping them, Abigail and friends must unite to prevent a war that will destroy them all. But has Abigail made the biggest mistake of all by trusting in the wrong ally?

About the Author: Alane Adams is the author of award-winning titles that include the Legends of Orkney™ Norse mythology series for middle grade readers, the Witches of Orkney prequel series including her newest book Witch Wars out October 2020, and a series of historical picture books set in the 1920s including The Coal Thief. Alane’s newest Greek mythology series, The Legends of Olympus debuted Spring 2020 with The Eye of Zeus. Alane Adams and her books have been featured on BBC, Fox, the CW, Parade, Bustle, Today, People, and many more! When Alane is not writing or talking to kids in schools about Reading Is A Superpower, she’s out hiking somewhere in the world or hanging out with her three boys in Southern California. For more information, visit https://alaneadams.com or follow Alane on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @AlaneAdamsBooks.

About Rise Up Foundation: Rise Up Foundation strives to improve the lives of children and families living in poverty and difficult circumstances, as well as teachers and educators of young children. Rise Up supports literacy projects as a path toward improving the future prospects of children in underserved communities by making book donations, providing classroom support, and grant-making. In addition to literacy efforts, Rise Up works with organizations committed to defining and solving the problems that chronic poverty brings to children and their communities. For more information, visit https://riseupfoundation.org or follow on Facebook @Rise.Up.Foundation and on Twitter @RiseUpFdn.

Thank you, Alane, for showing how to support teachers during this tumultous times!