By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico.
This April, WOW Currents features publishing houses in Mexico whose work is actively transforming the landscape of children’s and young adult literature in Spanish. WOW Director Dr. Kathy Short, University of Arizona professor Dr. Carol Brochin, and I visited these publishing houses when we attended the 37 Feria Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenil (FILIJ) in Mexico City, Mexico, in November 2017. The FILIJ, the International Book Fair for Children and Young Adults, is the largest annual gathering of publishers specifically focused on children’s and young adult literature in Spanish. This 10-day cultural celebration surrounding books and literature hosted more than 442,000 people.
Writing in free verse and illustrating in stark black-and-white watercolors for Mary’s Monster, Lita Judge tells the story of Mary Shelley, the pregnant teen runaway who authored the first Gothic horror story, Frankenstein. Lord Byron’s challenge to write a horror story may be the often-cited reason Shelley wrote her book, but Mary’s Monster demonstrates the way the author drew on elements of her own difficult life to create the story of an experiment gone awry. Judge tells the story through Mary’s voice. Her sparse verse weaves the story of Mary’s own rejection with her creation of a monster rejected by society. 
In Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life, Ashley Bryan created a treasure of a book that deeply moves the heart, informs and influences our humanity. Following the January publication of