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Children's Fiction Parents

I Promise

text by Catherine Hernandez

illustrated by Syrus Marcus Ware

Publisher
Arsenal Pulp Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2019
Category
Parents, Bedtime & Dreams, LGBT, Alternative Family
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781551527796
    Publish Date
    Oct 2019
    List Price
    $18.95

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Where to buy it

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 3 to 8
  • Grade: p to 3

Description

Catherine Hernandez's literary career exploded with the 2017 publication of her award-winning novel Scarborough. Her latest, I Promise, marks her delightful return to children's literature, having published her first children's book, M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book, in 2015.

Featuring tender-hearted illustrations by renowned artist Syrus Marcus Ware, I Promise captures with love and honesty the intimate moments of parenting in all their messy glory - from dealing with a kid who doesn't want to brush their teeth to looking under the bed for monsters to cuddling after a long day. This charming picture book showcases the many shapes, sizes, and colours that families come in, emphasizing that every queer family starts with the sacred promise to love a child.

About the authors

Catherine Hernandez (she/her) is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is a proud queer woman who is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian descent and married into the Navajo Nation. Her first novel, Scarborough, won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript; was a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards, the Evergreen Forest of Reading Award, the Edmund White Award, and the Trillium Book Award; and was longlisted for Canada Reads. She has written the critically acclaimed plays Singkil, The Femme Playlist and Eating with Lola and the children’s books M Is For Mustache: A Pride ABC Book and I Promise. She recently wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Scarborough, which is currently in post-production by Compy Films with support from Telefilm Canada and Reel Asian Film Festival. She is the creator of Audible Original’s audio sketch comedy series Imminent Disaster. Her second novel, Crosshairs, published simultaneously in Canada and the US and the UK this spring, made the CBC's Best Canadian Fiction, NOW Magazine's 10 Best Books, Indigo Best Book, Audible Best Audiobooks and NBC 20 Best LGBTQ Books list of 2020. Her third children's book, Where Do Your Feelings Live? which is a guide for kids living through these scary times, has been commissioned by HarperCollins Canada and will be published in winter 2022. 

Catherine Hernandez's profile page

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Canadian artist, activist and scholar. He is currently a CLA Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts at McMaster University. He has worked since 2014 as faculty and as a designer for The Banff Centre. Ware is a founding member of Black Lives Matter Toronto. For 13 years, he was the coordinator of the Art Gallery of Ontario's youth program. During that time Ware oversaw the creation of the Free After Three program and the expansion of the youth program into a multi pronged offering. He has published four books and in 2020 co-edited (with Rodney Diverlus and Sandy Hudson) Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada, a collection of reflections on the Black Lives Matter movement in Canada.

 

Syrus Marcus Ware's profile page

Editorial Reviews

Hernandez's narrative is less an explanation of what queer families are than it is a quiet celebration of their presence. A normalizing view of often stigmatized families, tenderly told. -Kirkus

Other titles by

Other titles by

Until We Are Free

Reflections on Black Lives Matter Canada

edited by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson & Syrus Marcus Ware

Until We Are Free

Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada

edited by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson & Syrus Marcus Ware

Bridge of Flowers

by (author) Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
illustrated by Syrus Marcus Ware

Marvellous Grounds

Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto

edited by Jin Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa & Syrus Marcus Ware

Queering Urban Justice

Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto

edited by Jinthana Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa, Syrus Marcus Ware & Gabriela (Rio) Rodriguez

Queering Urban Justice

Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto

edited by Jinthana Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa, Syrus Marcus Ware & Gabriela (Rio) Rodriguez

Love Is In The Hair

by (author) Syrus Marcus Ware

Who's Your Daddy?

And Other Writings on Queer Parenting

edited by Rachel Epstein
contributions by Melissa Hart, Emma Donoghue, Syrus Marcus Ware, Shira Spector, Suzanne Pelka, Aviva Rubin, Allison Eady, Lori E. Ross, Scott Andersen, Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr, Maura Ryan, Derek P. Scott, Anika Stafford, Nancy Nicol, LGBT Family Coalition, Lois Fine, Diane Flacks, David Rayside, Becky Idems, Adinne Schwartz, Jamie K. Evans, Karleen Pendleton Jimenez, Cindy Holmes, Anne Fleming, N. Gitanjali Lena, Toby Hill-Meyer, Serena Patterson, Julie Mooney-Somers, Eamon Somers, Makeda Silvera, Elizabeth Ruth, christina starr, Shelley M. Park, Jaime Grant, Joanna Radbord, Allesandra (Alex) Iantaffi, Laurie Bell & Jonathan Feakins
interviewee Chris Veldhoven, Thom Vernon, Anne-Marie MacDonald & Single Moms Group

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