Similar to my excitement of when I learned about the then forthcoming publication of Across the Bay, I am thrilled to know about Coquí in the City, coming in March 2021! This picture book promises to be an essential Puerto Rican Kid Lit title, and one I will definitely give to my nieces and nephews.

Writer and illustrator Nomar Perez based Coquí in the City on his own experiences of leaving Puerto Rico to live in the continental United States. As a Boricua who has lived this experience, I look forward to reading this picture book and sharing it with patrons at Nashville Public Library. The book will also be simultaneously published in Spanish as De aquí como el coquí, which will make it so that more people can enjoy this promising forthcoming title.

Coquí in the City

Written and Illustrated by Nomar Perez

2021, Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House

ISBN 9780593109038 

Klem-Marí Cajigas has been with Nashville Public Library since 2012, after more than a decade of academic training in Religious Studies and Ministry. As the Family Literacy Coordinator for Bringing Books to Life!, Nashville Public Library’s award-winning early literacy outreach program, she delivers family literacy workshops to a diverse range of local communities. Born in Puerto Rico, Klem-Marí is bilingual, bicultural, and proudly Boricua.