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Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson

  • Kepler's Books 1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA, 94025 United States (map)
Matt de la Pena © Heather Waraksa.jpg

With Carmela Full of Wishes, their first collaboration since the Newbery Medal- and Caldecott Honor-winning Last Stop on Market Street, Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson deliver a poignant and timely new picture book that's sure to be an instant classic. 

When Carmela wakes up on her birthday, her wish has already come true--she's finally old enough to join her big brother as he does the family errands. Together, they travel through their neighborhood, past the crowded bus stop, the fenced-off repair shop, and the panadería, until they arrive at the Laundromat, where Carmela finds a lone dandelion growing in the pavement. But before she can blow its white fluff away, her brother tells her she has to make a wish. If only she can think of just the right wish to make . . . 

This “powerful and beautiful” (Kirkus, starred review) picture book explores what hope looks like in a migrant community, and illuminates the experience of a mixed-status families through the lens of a heartfelt sibling story. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly says, "The award-winning team behind Last Stop on Market Street portrays Carmela's Spanish-speaking community as a vibrant place of possibility… Sensitively conceived and exuberantly executed, Carmela's story shines."

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Matt de la Peña is the #1 New York Times bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning author of five picture books
(including Last Stop on Market Street, Love, and the upcoming Carmela Full of Wishes) as well as six critically
acclaimed young adult novels. In 2016, he was awarded the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award. 

Christian Robinson is a 2016 Caldecott Honoree and also received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for his art
in Last Stop on Market Street, a #1 New York Times bestseller. His picture books include the Gaston and Friends series; Leo: A Ghost Story; School’s First Day of School; The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade; Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker; and many more. Robinson is also an animator and has worked with The Sesame Street Workshop and Pixar Animation Studios.

Don’t miss this chance to meet Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson and fall in love with Carmela Full of Wishes

Earlier Event: October 18
Story is the Thing
Later Event: October 22
Fiction Discussion Group