Thank you to children’s book expert Dr. Susannah Richards for featuring Barbed Wire Between Us as a Conversation Starter in the Publisher Spotlight series, Books to Ignite & Delight Young Readers. Discover 20+ books sure to ignite and delight young people in this 45-minute webinar with acclaimed children’s book expert Dr. Susannah Richards. Learn strategies…
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…
In August 2024, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at O’Hare International Airport seized more than 40 shipments of fake driver’s licenses at the International Mail facility since August. College students under 21 often use these fake IDs to gain entry into bars or establishments that serve alcohol. The act of carrying or using…
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…
MacDowell is an artist’s residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. When our oldest daughter texted, screaming as one can do via text, that she and her business partner had both received a MacDowell Fellowship, I knew it…
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…