Best picture books for kids including Caldecott and other award winning books for children.
I wasn’t able to make it to the Maui Nuei Botanical Gardens on Maui so I was thrilled to see Native Hawaiian plants in front of the Kapalua Plantation Course building. This small garden had a lot of plants: Ape Kalo/Taro Awa/Kava/Kavakava Ahinahina Mamaki Ahu’awa It reminded me of a childhood favorite picture book sent…
I am thrilled that Betsy Bird reviewed Red Comet Press’s entire Spring and Fall catalog on School Library Journal. Here’s her review of Barbed Wire Between Us: Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, ill. Violeta Encarnación ISBN: 9781636551920 Publication Date: March 31, 2026 Isn’t that cover just jaw-dropping? This is a complex…
It is such an honor to win the California Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award for Fortune Cookies for Everyone! Fortune Cookies for Everyone! (Smithsonian): The Surprising Story of the Tasty Treat We Love to Eat by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage, and published by Red Comet Press An investigative picture book which cracks the…
Barbed Wire Between Us makes Kirkus’ Spring 2026 Preview: Must-Read Children’s Books Mia Wenjen’s picture book Barbed Wire Between Us (Red Comet Press, March 31), illustrated by Violeta Encarnación, intertwines the stories of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II and of young Latine immigrants imprisoned after attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in recent…
I’m excited to announce the release of my newest picture book, scheduled for October 13, 2026. I struggled for a long time to write a picture book biography about Yuri Kochiyama. Most people haven’t heard of her. She preferred to help in the background and not be front and center. Most people have heard of…
We are thrilled to get a starred review for Barbed Wire Between Us from Publishers Weekly! “Via a reverso structure and layered images, Wenjen and Encarnación trace the stories of two children, seemingly generations apart, in a haunting dual narrative of imprisonment and family separation. Spare reportorial lines and visual context clues appear first…
My author copies just arrived! I can’t wait to show you! Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación, and published by Red Comet Press This is the story of my heart. The manuscript that I struggled with for years, which was, at first, much too dark to be a children’s…