Newbery Honor Author Pedro Martín

Happy Monday! I'm launching my eleventh annual Newbery series today! Yay! I asked Dave Eggers, Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson, M.T. Anderson, Pedro Martín, Erin Bow, and Daniel Nayeri to answer two questions and finish two sentence starters. First up is Pedro Martín! Hello, Pedro Martín! Congratulations on receiving a 2024 Newbery Honor for Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir ! I love hearing about the CALL. What was running through your heart when the committee was clapping and cheering for you? Pedro Martín:  Well, first I thought it was a spam call. Then I tried to answer it but I was cooking at the time and my finger was wet, so I'm sure the first thing that THEY heard was me cursing as I tried to dry my finger. I was SHOCKED. I knew SOME people had read the book, but not the super cool and influential people! And now I was on the phone with fifteen of them! I’m sure I sounded like a babbling fool. What does a Newbery Honor for Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir mean to you? Pedro Martín:  It means my family and our stories are seen and part of the bigger world now. And that even though it was a very specific story about our adventure, it had things that folks everywhere could connect to. And that connection is pretty amazing. Please finish the following sentence starters:  Story is everything. It’s what connects us and makes us human. It binds the world. Libraries are often forgotten by cynical people and loved by the openhearted. Congratulations, Pedro!