1. What inspires your authorship for young readers?
I’m inspired by the young people themselves. Their curiosity, their chaos, their calm, their adaptability to an incredibly challenging world. My experience in working with 5th – 12th graders is that they often feel silenced out of conversations that are about them. I’m a huge proponent of giving them a seat at the table about matters that include them. Whether those are conversations about climate change, gun violence in schools, race inequity, or why they are denied the right to read books that resonate with their experience. While they are still growing and developing their ideologies, it doesn’t negate the value of their ideas and questions. Yes, I think young readers are our future, but I also think they are our now.
In the case of picture book readers, I write for them because that is the age where we begin to develop acceptance, compassion, confidence, community, inclusivity, and self-esteem. I didn’t have access to many books that fostered that as a young person, and it means so much to me now. Some books that come to mind are: All Around Us by Xelena Gonzalez, illustrated by Adriana Garcia, A Different Pond by Bao Phi, illustrated by Thi Bui, Lubna and Pebble by Wendy Meddour, illustrated by Daniel Egneus, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Renée Watson, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith, The Notebook Keeper by Stephen Briseño, illustrated by Magdalena Mora, The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art by Cynthia Levision, illustrated by Even Turk, The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad, S. Ki. Ali, illustrated by Hatem Aly, Today by Julie Morstad, Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston-Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, Watercress by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin, We Are Grateful: Ostaliheliga by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frane Lessac, and What If by Samantha Berger, illustrated by Mike Curato.
2. Please tell us about Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules.
Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules is the story of a confident, female, Mexican American drummer who struts into kindergarten ready to roll out a solo on her desk, chairs, and pretty much everywhere. Lupe’s teacher, Mrs. Quintanilla, tries to reason with her that the rules of school don’t always allow for her to launch into a solo act. Can a rock star in training maintain her sense of self and exist in the community of school? Can friends be even better than fans? And is it possible to shine even if you aren’t Lupe Lopez?
This is my first foray into picture book writing, and what an honor to collaborate with NYT bestseller Pat Zietlow Miller and have ALA award winning illustrator Joe Cepeda bring Lupe into leaping-off-the-page form. A story that was born from my first day of school in small-town, South Texas. Like her, I strutted into kindergarten with a Texas sized rock star personality only mine came with a KISS belt buckle, a KISS T-shirt, a metal KISS lunchbox, and a pair of cheap reflective sunglasses. A teacher called out my full name and said, “Take off those sunglasses.”
I pivoted in my off-brand shoes and said, “Can’t do it. I’m a rock star.”
What was I thinking?! I was thinking I was destined to be the drummer for KISS. Ay, I ended up sitting across from the principal, pleading my case on the very first day of school.
Fact and fiction part ways first in the removal of anything KISS and focusing more on the spirit of Lupe’s overall rock star persona. Also, the book is set in Hector P. Garcia Elementary. While I didn’t attend that school, I felt strongly about setting Lupe’s story there. Dr. Garcia is a prominent figure in Mexican American history in Texas, and this was a way to spark curiosity about him. And because it’s a work of fiction, Lupe’s journey didn’t entail a visit to the principal, and let’s say she’s a little better to the journey of understanding the rules of school and identity than I was.
3. What message/s do you hope to share through your work?
I hope to share the message of confidence, compassion, kindness, and the importance of valuing yourself. Growing up in a book desert, the books I had access to didn’t often do this in a way that I needed. Part of my work on the page is to hopefully create stories that spark imagination and joy, but acknowledge some of the genuine challenged and rough realities of our world. So that young readers know they are not alone and that their voice is always necessary in the conversation and verb of making this a more inclusive and equitable space.
4. Any message you’d like to share with young creators (and their teachers)?
Young creators the time to share your story is now. You don’t have to wait to be twenty or thirty to be a storyteller. Pick up your pen, your phone, your chosen tool for telling your story now. With that, not every person wants to be a storyteller of the arts. However, when you recognize what you say and imagine has value, it opens up the possibilities of what your voice in action might look like.
Teachers, you are absolute rock stars. You show up day in and day out through the demands of the Covid crisis and all that came before that. The reason I am able to live my dream as a writer, filmmaker and youth literacy activist is because of an English teacher who fought for me to see I had something to say. While you may not always know the impact of your showing up, it is generating impact. Thank you for all of the ways you strive to make education work for every kind of learner.
5. Any future work you’d like to share about?
I’m so excited that there is a Lupe sequel! Lupe Lopez: Reading Rock Star. Again, we are exploring a moment from my own childhood, but approaching her challenges with reading and overcoming them with a more modern and uniquely Lupe perspective. I saw the cover a few weeks ago and audibly cheered. Also, Pat and I have another collaboration that will release in 2023 through Viking Press with Keisha Morris as illustrator titled A Girl Can Build Anything. Less character-focused and more poetic, it journeys through the experience of young girls who build and how that fosters empowerment and community. I can hardly wait to share more about the origins of both of the picture books and the ways they can be utilized in classrooms, libraries, after-school programs, or simply read aloud at home!
Bio
Mexican American author, filmmaker and youth literacy activist e.E. Charlton-Trujillo has been called “a force of nature” by Kirkus Reviews for their work on and off the page. They have written several award-winning books for teens and children, most notably the Fat Angie series, an ALA Stonewall Award Winner, and Prizefighter en Mi Casa, a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor recipient. e.E.’s fiction appeared in the Read Across America anthology Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican.BookPage called their debut picture book, co-authored with Pat Zietlow Miller and illustrated by Joe Cepeda, Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules, “a fun, fresh addition to the back-to-school picture book canon . . . who will leap off the page and right onto your bookshelf.”
Off the page, e.E. co-founded the nonprofit Never Counted Out, has served as a Madrina for Las Musas, co-host for the Instagram Lives series Off The Cuff, and founder of #600BooksOfHope. Find out more about e.E. at www.eecharlton-trujillo.com/ or on social media at @pinatadirector.
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