Thank you to Nichi Bei for reviewing Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación, and published by Red Comet Press. BARBED WIRE BETWEEN US Written by Mia Wenjen Illustrated by Violeta Encarnación New York: Red Comet Press, 2026 48 pp., $19.99, hardcover/paperback “Barbed Wire Between Us” is a profound and…
Please welcome my guest author today, Jolene Gutierrez, with her list of 7 Picture Books about Hard History + Hope. We are giving away two picture books, Barbed Wire Between Us and Unbreakable. Please leave a comment to enter. 7 Picture Books about Hard History + Hope Unbreakable: A Japanese American Family in an American…
Thank you so much to NEA for including Barbed Wire Between Us in the Read Across America calendar. We are featured in April 2027, under the theme, Build Belonging. Build Belonging Belonging grows when people are able to be who they are and find their place among others. Encourage students to read and explore…
When I met with my publisher, Angus Yuen-Killick at Red Comet Press, we kicked around ideas to promote all the Red Comet Press authors in the Boston area, who are also friends of mine. It seemed too ambitious to set up Storytimes or Author Visits. Angus suggested that we contact bookstores in advance to see…
To fold an origami crane, you will need a square piece of paper. It does not have to be origami paper. Here are the instructions via a diagram from the U.S. Park Service, though personally, I find the diagrams to be confusing: This is an activity for Barbed Wire Between Us. …
Marilyn Singer invented the reverso poetry form with her seminal picture book, Mirror Mirror. In this Read Brightly article, Marilyn Singer describes her new poetry form. Here are some excerpts: A reverso is a poem with two halves. In a reverso, the second half reverses the lines from the first half, with changes only in…
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…