April 15, 2021

HEAR MY VOICE / ESCUCHA MI VOZ

Hear My Voice / Escucha mi voz shares the stories of 61 children who have been detained at the US-Mexico border.


The book was compiled by Warren Binford, the foreword is written by Michael Garcia Bochenek, and there are actually seventeen different illustrators, all Latinx artists, who contributed their work to the book. The stories themselves come directly from children ages 5 to 17 who have experienced these horrible conditions. All of them were ripped away from their siblings, parents, and families and forced to live in crowded cages while they were insulted, starved, and humiliated. And the hope is that reading their stories will inspire children who are safe and with their families to take action against the mistreatment of those who are imprisoned at the border.


Mechanically speaking, the book is really two books in one -- one side has the English version, and on the flip side is the Spanish version. It's so meaningful to experience the book in Spanish with the children's testimonies in their own words, untranslated. And creating the book as bilingual from the start really opens the door for children to learn about these experiences as authentically as possible. As mentioned, seventeen Mexican and Mexican American illustrators bring the children's stories to life on the page, and having so many different illustrators really only adds to the feeling that far too many people can relate to the experiences in this book and the situation remains as bad as ever even as we transition to new governmental leadership in the US.


Hear My Voice / Escucha mi voz published from Workman Publishing earlier this week, and a portion of every purchase goes to benefit Project Amplify, an organization that provides legal support for children in migration.



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