Texas State, Texas Book Festival host 2023 Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award winners

Celia Perez

The recipients of Texas State University's Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award for works published in 2021-22— Aida Salazar and Celia Pérez—were honored on Nov. 9 at Texas State and at the Texas Book Festival in Austin on Nov. 11.

The authors gave presentations from 9:30 a.m.- noon on Nov. 9 in the LBJ Student Center Grand Ballroom. Pérez discussed her book, Tumble, from 9:30-10 a.m. Salazar discussed her book, A Seed in the Sun, from 10 a.m.-noon, as both books were available for purchase. 

Aida Salazar

The Rivera Award winners also attended the Texas Book Festival Nov. 11 in Austin where they participated in a panel discussion in the Leamos Tent. For more information, visit www.texasbookfestival.org.

The Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, established by the College of Education in 1995, is designed to encourage authors, illustrators and publishers to produce books that authentically reflect the lives of Mexican American children and young adults in the United States. The Rivera Award also promotes literacy by promoting high quality children’s and young adult literature, in addition to encouraging authors to write about the Mexican American experience.

A Seed in the Sun

Lula Viramontes aches to one day become someone who can’t be ignored: a daring ringleader in a Mexican traveling circus. But between working the grape harvest with her older siblings under dangerous conditions; taking care of her younger siblings and Mamá, who has mysteriously fallen ill; and doing everything she can to avoid Papá’s volatile temper, it’s hard to hold on to those dreams. Then she meets Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong and other labor rights activists and realizes she may need to raise her voice sooner rather than later—farmworkers are striking for better treatment and wages, and whether Lula’s family joins them or not will determine their future.

Salazar is an award-winning author and arts activist whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the critically acclaimed middle-grade verse novels The Moon Within and Land of the Cranes, as well as the picture book anthology In the Spirit of a Dream: 13 Stories of American Immigrants of Color. Salazar is a founding member of Las Musas—a Latinx kidlit debut  author collective. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, Calif. 

Tumble

Twelve-year-old Adela “Addie” Ramírez has a big decision to make when her stepfather proposes adoption. Addie loves Alex, the only father figure she’s ever known, but with a new half brother due in a few months and a big school theater performance on her mind, everything suddenly feels like it’s moving too fast. She has a million questions, and the first is about the young man in the photo she found hidden away in her mother’s things. Addie’s sleuthing takes her to a New Mexico ranch, and her world expands to include the legendary Bravos: Rosie and Pancho, her paternal grandparents and former professional wrestlers; Eva and Maggie, her older identical twin cousins who love to spar in and out of the ring; Uncle Mateo, whose lucha couture and advice are unmatched; and Manny, her biological father, who’s in the midst of a career comeback. As luchadores, the Bravos’s legacy is strong. But being part of a family is so much harder—it’s about showing up, taking off your mask and working through challenges together.

Pérez is the daughter of a Mexican mother and a Cuban father. Her debut book for young readers, The First Rule of Punk (Viking / Penguin), was a 2018 Pura Belpré Award Honor Book; a 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards honor book; a winner of the 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award; and a Junior Library Guild selection. It also made several best-of-the-year lists including the Amelia Bloomer List, NPR's Best Books of 2017, the Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books, the New York Public Library's Best Books for Kids, School Library Journal's Best of 2017, The Horn Book Magazine's Fanfare and ALSC's Notable Children's Books. She is also the author of Strange Birds, a 2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List Selection. She lives in Chicago with her family, where in addition to writing books about lovable weirdos and outsiders, she works as a librarian.  

About the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award

The Tomás Rivera Award at Texas State celebrates authors and illustrators dedicated to depicting the values and culture of Mexican Americans. Rivera, who died in 1984, graduated from Texas State with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees before receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. A Distinguished Alumnus of Texas State, Rivera published his landmark novel in 1971 titled ...y no se lo tragó la tierra/ ...And the Earth Did Not Part. In 1979, Rivera was appointed chancellor of the University of California-Riverside, the first Hispanic chancellor named to the University of California System. 

For more information on the Rivera Award, visit the Rivera Award website at www.education.txstate.edu/ci/riverabookaward.