23 Jul Jolene Gutierrez and a GIVEAWAY!

EL: I can’t remember exactly when I “met” Jolene Gutierrez, but I feel like we’ve known each other for a while. I’ve loved all her books, and these two upcoming ones are no exception. Some day I hope to be able to get rid of the quotation marks and meet her in person!

Jolene has two wonderful books coming out soon. The Ofrenda That We Built written by Jolene and her daughter Shaian, is releasing on Aug. 6. As someone who has always been interested in different cultural traditions, I was excited to read this book. Although I was already familiar with Dia de Los Muertos, I did not know about the elaborate preparations for building the ofrenda, an altar to honor deceased family members. This lovely cumulative book, beautifully illustrated by Gabby Zapata, is a winner! If that’s not enough, Jolene has another book coming out that she c0-wrote with her son! Keep reading to find out more about that one. 

Welcome, Jolene! Before we get deeper into your books, please tell us a little about yourself. 

JG: I grew up on a farm in northeastern Colorado and live north of Denver now, so Colorado has always been my home. I’m a neurodivergent teacher librarian at a school for neurodivergent learners, and this is my 29^th year teaching there. I’m a mom to two young adults, a wife, and a pet mom to 3 rescue dogs and 2 rescue cats. I love animals and have always been surrounded by them. We’ve had some fun pets over the years, too, from crested geckos to a baby rescue squirrel that we raised during the pandemic and released in our backyard—my daughter named him Daffodil, and he still visits us.

EL: Your upcoming books showcase your family’s culture. Was that a specific decision, or do these books just happen to do that?

JG: This was intentional. My husband is from Mexico, and while I’m not fluent in Spanish, I speak un poquitito, so when we had kids, I searched for books that would showcase their papi’s language and heritage. I really struggled to find books like that. This was over 20 years ago–things have changed a lot in recent years, and I see so many beautiful books on the market now–but when my children and I decided to write together, we thought about the books we were looking for when they were little, and from my end, I sought to write books that I can share with my grandchildren someday.

EL: I was so pleased when I saw that THE OFRENDA THAT WE BUILT was co-authored by your daughter, Shaian and MAMIACHI AND ME: MY MAMI’S MARIACHI BAND was co-authored with your son, Dakota. Those sound like amazing collaborations. Will you talk a bit about that?

JG: During the pandemic, Shaian came home from college and Dakota was home from high school. They were distance learning,  I was teaching remotely, and I was very driven to create during that time. My brother-in-law and my father had passed in the year before the pandemic, and our ofrenda—an altar that helps you remember and celebrate loved ones who have passed, especially during Día de Muertos—had become so important and needed. I had this idea to write about some of the elements of an ofrenda in a cumulative, building way, like the story of “This is the House That Jack Built.” Because that format demanded rhyme and Shaian has a very musical, rhythmic ear, she was able to contribute so much to that piece. And she’s brilliant with language and art as well—illustrator Gabby Zapata’s artwork is stunning, but Shaian made some simple art for a very early version we created, and that was so lovely

After Shaian and I wrote our manuscript, my husband mentioned an NPR piece on an all-female mariachi group, but I misunderstood him and thought he called them a “mamiachi” group because they were all women, and then I had an a-ha moment—if that’s not already a book, it needs to be! I searched for the title and it didn’t exist, so I approached my son and asked if he would want to work with me to write that story because he’d been involved in orchestra, choir, and drama, and his senior year was supposed to be his mariachi year. Due to distance learning, there was no mariachi group for him, but at least we were able to write about a powerful all-female mariachi band! Working with Dakota, I could see his talent for lyrical writing and his ability to visualize these scenes and the characters that the amazing illustrator Mirelle Ortega brought to life.

 It was such a gift to have us all in the same house, under the same roof, creating something lovely that would hopefully live on even though it felt at times like the world was falling apart. And it was magical that my brilliant agent, Kaitlyn Sanchez, was able to find homes for both manuscripts and that they’ll be coming out within 5 months of each other!

EL: How exciting! Although it’s not coming out as soon as “Ofrenda,” readers should know that MAMIACHI AND ME is another book you will love. According to Goodreads, it’s a “lyrical and empowering picture book.” Here’s a sneak peek. Rosa is excited to play along with her mami in an all-female mariachi band, but she worries. Is she ready? You’ll have to wait until the beginning of 2025, but I promise it will be worth the wait! Jolene, Do you have anything else in the pipeline that you can talk about?

JG: Oooh, yes! I co-authored another book—this time with Minoru Tonai. My work with him was the first co-authorship partnership I ever entered into, and we started working together in 2017. At that time, I was researching and writing about Amache Incarceration Camp, a site in Colorado where Japanese Americans were unjustly and unconstitutionally incarcerated during World War II. My grandparents and my parents lived just down the road from Amache. I remember visiting my grandparents as a child, learning from them about Amache, and wondering why I hadn’t learned about Amache in my Colorado history classes. As an adult, I taught classes about Amache and was always shocked by how many of the teachers at my school said, “Oh, I’ve never heard of Amache.” As I researched Amache for the manuscript I was planning, a researcher/historian friend of mine, Dan Yoshii, suggested that I talk to Minoru Tonai. When I interviewed Min, his story was so powerful that I wanted to focus on it. Min and I tried writing his family’s story as a middle grade manuscript, then as a picture book, then as a graphic novel, and then we finally circled back to working on it as a picture book after Min mentioned a suitcase filled with rocks that his father brought to Amache when he was released from prison. Those rocks ended up becoming a beautiful symbol and throughline for our story, and THEN the picture book manuscript was acquired by Meredith Mundy at Abrams. This powerful, important picture book should be out in late 2025. Chris Sasaki is working on the illustrations, and I know from some of the pieces I’ve seen that this book will be a work of art, just as it should be.

EL: That sounds like a powerful book. I’m looking forward to it. Do you have any advice for aspiring kidlit writers?

JG: Creating will teach you courage, because you’re sharing part of yourself with others. It will teach you how to deal with rejection, because there will be times when your work will be rejected. . .if you’re like me, there have been hundreds of times, and there will be more. Creating will teach you patience, because it takes time to make something beautiful and it takes time to share it out with the world. And creating will give you connections. . .connections with people in our amazing kidlit world and, if you keep working at it, connections with our readers, which are ultimately who we’re doing this for.

EL: Great advice! Is there anything else you’d like readers to know? 

JG:My website is www.jolenegutierrez.com and you can find my books at your local independent bookstore or on Bookshop.org (https://bookshop.org/shop/writerjolene).

EL: Thank you so much, Jolene! I wish you loads of success with both of these books. Now, it’s time for a

Jolene is offering a 20-minute AMA Zoom or a 500-word-or less non-rhyming PB critique. Good luck! As always, to get into the running, just comment on this post and let me know if you are a subscriber or if you shared the post to get an extra chance to win.

Until next time,

Ellen

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On a personal note, I’d love you to check out some of my books here. They are also available wherever books are sold. THANK YOU! 

DEBBIE’S SONG: THE DEBBIE FRIEDMAN STORY

https://bookshop.org/p/books/debbie-s-song-ellen-leventhal/18680277?ean=9781728443027

A FLOOD OF KINDNESS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-flood-of-kindness-ellen-leventhal/15150623?ean=9781546034582