A NEW SPANISH TRANSLATION OF GIRLS ARE NOT CHICKS
In 2009, I received an email from an educator in Nicaragua named Fernanda Siles who offered to translate my second coloring book Girls Are Not Chicks into Spanish after buying it at a conference. I could not have been more thrilled! The translated document sat on my computer for nine years before my publisher was ready to turn it into a book. Today, I am excited to announce the completion of the book after many years of anticipation!
Every day we hear stories on the news of Latinx folks here in the U.S. and those south of the U.S. border being recipients of brutal hostility and violence. At the same time, we see these same communities courageously risking everything so that they and their children can thrive. We see Latinx people organize despite this repression, many of them young girls. I am so inspired by their mobilization and offer this book as a token of love and appreciation that celebrates these brave and powerful activists, educators and communities of care.
The title of this book is Las niñas pueden ser reyes: Libro para colorear (Girls Can Be Kings Coloring Book), inspired by Seondeok of Silla, a seventh-century Korean girl who became the first queen of Silla despite a misogynist uprising against her fueled by the motto “girls can’t be kings!” I learned of her from the incredible book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.
This new book would not look as good as it does without the team of support I have around me. I want to thank my extraordinary interns Alanna Rebbeck and Joan Mena who assisted me with the redesign, and my partner Michael Wilcock for his technical design prowess. I am filled with gratitude to have met the multi-talented Maria Cristina Brusca, a bilingual children’s literature editor, who adroitly helped with final edits. Of course, I owe a world of gratitude to Fernanda Siles, who so carefully translated the book into Spanish because she wanted her students and consequently, all of you, to be inspired by it.
REVIEWS OF THE BOOK:
“Once again, Jacinta Bunnell has created a coloring book where children are encouraged to color their liberation dreams. In the pages of Girls Can Be Kings, little girls (and all readers, really) are inspired to resist social limitations, find strength in community, and have the courage to create their own narratives in a world determined to control their choices.” -Dr. Jessica N. Pabón-Colón, Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora
“For over 17 years, Jacinta has been giving us images that educate and revolutionize creative minds of all ages. This book features more art, more truth, and this time en español!" -Cristy C. Road, Next World Tarot, Spit & Passion, Choked Up
