 Today we celebrate the book birthday of Daughter of the Light-Footed People. We sat down with Belen Medina to learn all about the inspiration behind this book. But first, a little bit about this non-fiction picture book biography: Experience a sixty-mile run with Indigenous athlete Lorena Ramírez. She runs in the traditional clothes of the Rarámuri, “the light-footed people,” to show that her people and their way of life are alive and thriving—outpacing runners in modern, high-tech gear and capturing the world’s attention. Lorena’s career as an athlete is an inspiring real-life example of the power of perseverance that will encourage young readers to follow their own dreams. Where did you get the idea to write this particular story? I watched a documentary about Lorena Ramirez with my children. I was immediately mesmerized by her story and saw how engaged my kids were with her strength and accomplishments. I searched for further reading material about her and realized there wasn’t a book for children about her. I thought she was a worthy protagonist that children and adults could learn a lot from. Are you agented? If so, can you share how you got one? Yes. I queried my agent Brent Taylor at Triada in August 2023 with a YA novel in verse that is on submission now. We hit it off from the first conversation and after speaking with his clients, knew that the enthusiasm he had for my writing was real. Can you share your path to publication for this book? My former agent submitted the book to various publishers in late 2021 and I received a Request for Resubmission from Sophia Jimenez at Atheneum/S&S in early 2022. I thought her notes were thoughtful and I made the suggested edits. She took the manuscript to their acquisitions team and I received an offer in March of 2022. What is the most important lesson you have learned as a writer until now? To keep writing and working on your craft. That’s what I have in my control. The rest–whether a book sells or not, is a subjective process that I have little control over, so I need to let it go, especially the many rejections that have and will come my way. It’s all part of the process. What message are you hoping readers will take away from this story? I hope they will take from Lorena’s story a message of what grit and perseverance looks like and how, with little resources, a person is able to achieve what appears impossible.
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