Isabel in Bloom by Mae Respicio

Happy Tuesday! I'm excited Mae Respicio returned to Watch. Connect. Read. to finish my sentences. We discussed Isabel in Bloom , gardening, novels-in-verse, and more. I wrote the words in purple, and she wrote the words in black . Thank you, Mae!  Isabel in Bloom tells the story of a girl who’s starting her brand new life in a brand new country. Isabel has only seen her mom five times in the past five years, because Mama left their home country of the Philippines to take a job as a nanny in the United States—all to give Isabel a better life. Now, Isabel has to leave everything she knows to be reunited with her mom who barely knows. The thing that helps Isabel make friends and figure out what home means to her is a dried up old garden at school. Gardening was a big part of my life growing up, and I’m sure that planted the very first seeds for this book. Both sides of my family were farmers in the Philippines and when my grandparents immigrated to California, they started new gardens. I have vivid memories of helping my lolas in their lush gardens—watering the beds, picking vegetables—I always knew where our food came from in that sense. I’ve recently tried reconnecting with my gardening self (thanks, Isabel!) and while I don’t have the greenest thumb yet it’s been fun, especially doing it together with my kids. And I do have a plant named Leafonardo DiCaprio… just like Isabel’s friends did in the book. Story is engrained in me. I come from a big storytelling family. During holidays as a kid, my extended Filipino family would sit around, and the aunties, uncles, lolos, and lolas would share stories with me and my cousins about their lives growing up in the Philippines, including my Papang’s wartime experiences surviving the Bataan Death March. Hearing their memories always brought me to such a different world and not only gave me an appreciation for my family’s history, but has sparked curiosity, research, and ideas for my MG novels. The tales that especially stuck with me were their Filipino ghost stories, which sometimes kept me up at night! Novels-in-verse  are so powerful! I love how they hit you with emotion from the very first line—even in just a few words or white space. Before writing Isabel’s story, I put myself through a novel in verse bootcamp, which essentially meant that I read as many MG verse novels as I could prior to drafting. What I learned is that verse novels encompass such a wide variety of topics but emotion guides each one, like a heartbeat. John Schu, you should have asked me about the book’s gorgeous cover! The cover was designed by Jade Rector and illustrated by Gica Tam. It brims with so many rich markers to Isabel’s story like the bright Philippine sun and a glimpse of Isabel’s new setting in San Francisco. The most poignant symbols are the two different flowers. The white one—in Isabel’s hair and that she’s holding—is Sampaguita, a type of jasmine and the Philippines’ national flower. The orange one is the poppy, California’s state flower. They each guide Isabel’s story in unexpected ways, and I can’t wait for readers to share in her tender, joyful journey and discover why. Congratulations, Mae!  Isabel in Bloom  releases on April 9, 2024. Pre-order a copy from your favorite bookshop.