We are so excited to reveal to you the DELIGHTFUL cover of Kim Baker's THE WATER BEARS! 

But that's not all! In addition to revealing this lovely cover we are also sharing the first chapter AND doing an ARC GIVEAWAY!

​To enter leave a comment at the end of this blog post! (Open until August 15th)

Newt Gomez has a thing with bears.

Last year, he survived a bear attack. Now he finds an unusual bear statue that just might grant wishes. Newt’s best friend, Ethan, notices a wishbone on the statue and decides to make a wish. When it comes true, Newt thinks it’s a coincidence. Even as more people’s wishes come true, Newt is not convinced.

But Newt has a wish too: while he loves his home on eccentric Murphy Island, he wants to go to middle school on the mainland where his extended family lives. There, he’s not the only Latinx kid, he won’t have to drive the former food truck— a gift from his parents— and he won’t have to perform in the vaudeville festival. Most importantly, on the mainland, he can escape memories of the attack. Newt is almost ready to make a secret wish when everything changes.

Tackling themes of survival and self-acceptance, Newt’s story illuminates the magic in our world, where reality is often uncertain but always full of salvageable wonders.
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The Water Bears is a quirky, empowering story arriving April 21, 2020 from Wendy Lamb Books, Random House Children’s Books.

​The migrant story is our story. We are the descendants of immigrants. We are immigrants. We are descendants of ancestors indigenous to these lands. From them we all rise. Yet in this America, state-sanctioned policies of imprisonment and terror along the border and across the US destroy families and communities of color and the very fabric of our nation. As authors for children, our work is part of the human chain – the brown and black links that seek to create a bridge for all of our brothers and sisters. Our work is our prayer, our poetry, our memory, our voices, our protest.
 
We do not consent to the inhumane treatment of any migrant. 
We do not consent to the imprisonment of refugee and immigrant families in concentration camps. 
We do not consent to the separation of children from their caregivers. 
We do not consent to massive ICE raids of migrants in our cities. 
We do not consent to funding these draconian policies with our tax dollars. 
We do not consent to allowing US corporations to profit from this terror. 
\We do not consent that our government creates and supports these inhumane conditions.  
We do not consent to the molestations and rapes.  
We do not consent to their deaths. 
We do not consent. 
We do not consent.
We do not consent. 
 
We seek justice in the present to ensure the future of goodness and beauty on this planet. Cross our hearts, our voices will be a wall of resistance and rebellion to the racism, sexism, and homophobia that are responsible for these gross violations of human rights. 

​Authors (in order of appearance): Aida Salazar, Donna Barba Higuera, Ernesto Cisneros, Mia Garcia, Daniel Jose Older, Meg Medina (Cuba), Ismee Williams, Yamile Saied Mendez, Rebeca Balcarcel, Alberto Ledesma, Alex Villasante, Kim Baker, Nonieqa Ramos, Matt Mendez, Ana Meriano, Rene Colato Lainez, Natlia Sylvester, Liliam Rivera, Emma Otheguy, Nancy Mercado (Latinx In Publishing), Monica Brown, and Yuyi Morales.

Español traducido por David Bowles:

La historia de los migrantes es nuestra historia. Somos descendientes de inmigrantes. Somos inmigrantes. Somos descendientes de ancestros indígenas de estas tierras. De ellos todos surgimos. Sin embargo, en el Estados Unidos actual, las políticas de encarcelamiento y terror sancionadas por el gobierno a lo largo de la frontera y en todo el país destruyen a las familias y comunidades de color y al tejido mismo de nuestra nación. Como autores de libros para niños, nuestro trabajo es parte de la cadena humana, eslabones cafés y negros que buscan crear un puente para todos nuestros hermanas y hermanos. Nuestra obra es nuestra oración, nuestra poesía, nuestra memoria, nuestras voces, nuestra protesta.
 
No consentimos el tratamiento inhumano de ningún migrante.
No consentimos el encarcelamiento de familias de refugiados e inmigrantes en campos de concentración.
No consentimos la separación de los niños de sus cuidadores.
No consentimos las redadas masivas de inmigrantes hechas por ICE en nuestras ciudades.
No consentimos en financiar estas políticas draconianas con nuestros impuestos.
No consentimos que las corporaciones estadounidenses se beneficien de este terror.
No consentimos que nuestro gobierno cree y apoye estas condiciones inhumanas.
No consentimos los abusos y violaciones.
No consentimos sus muertes.
No consentimos. 
No consentimos. 
No consentimos. 
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La historia es lo que hacemos para buscar justicia en el presente, para asegurar el futuro de la bondad y la belleza en este planeta. Ojalá y nuestras voces sean un muro de resistencia y rebelión ante el racismo, el sexismo y la homofobia responsables de estas graves violaciones de los derechos humanos.

Las Musas are thrilled to host the exclusive first look at the cover of Loriel Ryon's debut INTO THE TALL, TALL GRASS!

INTO THE TALL, TALL GRASS comes out April 7, 2020 from Margaret K. McElderry Books. Learn more about this gorgeous debut and cover below!

​Read the dynamite first chapter...
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Yolanda crept to the bedroom door, cracking it just so and peering inside. Her abuela, Wela, was lying in bed with a yellow serape tucked beneath her arms, her chest barely rising. Three orange-and-black butterflies nestled into her long white curls, their wings opening and closing ever so slightly as the morning sun flickered through the tree branches outside the window. It was exactly the same sight it had been for the past two weeks.

Yolanda sighed in disappointment and pushed open the door, letting it groan loudly on its hinges, hoping the sound would cause Wela to stir. Wake up. Wela, please wake up. But Wela didn’t move.
Was this all her fault? She sighed and walked over to the nightstand, twisting the vase of scarlet milkweed blossoms toward the light. Two butterflies sipped nectar from the wilting flowers. She brought the vase to Wela’s fingertips in hopes that her touch would liven the blossoms. But they remained wilted, and she made a mental note to switch them out before she left for school.

The way the light danced across the serape and the fine lines surrounding Wela’s closed pale lips made Yolanda’s heart sink even lower. She’d seen this before, less than a year ago.

Dying.