{"id":25843,"date":"2018-06-01T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=25843"},"modified":"2018-06-01T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T12:00:35","slug":"reading-with-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=25843","title":{"rendered":"Reading with Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of my colleagues, both at BookPeople and at \"\"<\/a>ShelfTalker, are off at BEA this week, discovering new books and enjoying some time with friends and colleagues.\u00a0I wasn\u2019t able to get away this week due to my family’s schedule, but we\u2019re still having a lot of fun here at home.This Tuesday we were joined by fabulous Drag Queens Honey St. Claire, Louisianna Purchase and Mascara Rivers along with Drag King\u00a0Papi Churro and over 60 listeners for our second successful Drag Queen (and King) Storytime. And it was fantastic!\"\"<\/a>\u00a0One of the books they featured for their event was the dazzling Juli\u00e1n Is a Mermaid, <\/em>a book that\u2019s not only perfect for this event but that\u00a0honestly takes my breath away. I am certainly not the first person to rave about this book, but it\u2019s worthy of all the ecstatic buzz. Not only is the book stunning, with radiant aquas and greens and corals bursting from the book\u2019s warm brown pages, but its intimate celebration of creativity and individuality captures something astonishingly poignant and tender.
\nYou see, Juli\u00e1n LOVES mermaids. He can\u2019t believe his luck when he spies three costumed mermaids on the subway with his abuela. When he gets home, he follows their lead, using everything at his disposal (anything he can raid from his grandmother\u2019s home decor) to transform himself too. When his grandmother sees what he has done, her unflappable acceptance and love and for him is obvious and perfect. She simply loans him one last accessory and takes him to join a parade of gloriously bedazzled, fishtailed revelers, each embracing their pro\"\"<\/a>ud inner mermaid. Every single page offers something special (the illustration of his imagined adventures among\u00a0a swirling\u00a0school of sea creatures is a showstopper), but I have to say\u00a0there’s something I really love about the spread where Juli\u00e1n arrives at the mermaid procession and peers expectantly around the corner, his posture taut with\u00a0anticipation and excitement. In that moment the reader can clearly see that his homemade costume is both completely right for the spirit of the celebration and an authentically childlike imitation of some of the fancier fashion on display. You can also see that his abuela’s attention is 100% on Juli\u00e1n as she waits for him to let himself join in, and you can\u00a0feel the safety and promise\u00a0of that rock solid support.
\nI am a sucker for clever endpapers that add something extra to the experience of a book, and these are especially fun. Opening on Juli\u00e1n, his abuela, and her friends at a local pool in their bathing suits and caps, it closes with the same \"\"<\/a>group reimagined as mermaids. And there\u2019s Juli\u00e1n with glorious, streaming mermaid hair. Does Juli\u00e1n imagine himself like this all the time or just when he\u2019s dreaming of his mermaid persona? This book doesn\u2019t lay all of that out or step out of Juli\u00e1n\u2019s immediate experience on this special day, and it feels unnecessary to do so.\u00a0The text could not be simpler or more matter-of-fact: \u201cThis is a boy named Juli\u00e1n. And this is his abuela, And those are some mermaids.\u201d But under, in between, and around those simple words, the meaning and magic of Juli\u00e1n\u2019s sweet story soars.
\nIn honor of Juli\u00e1n Is a Mermaid<\/em> and the beginning of Pride Month\u2014which officially begins today\u2014here is a trio of books that I also recommend\u00a0for their explorations of individuality, identity, and self-expression.
\n\n\t\t