Partly inspired by the TED talk What Kids Wish Their Teacher Knew, this story highlights the many challenges young children are facing like deportation, divided families, homelessness, and food insecurity. It engages kids on their level with issues they will identify with and encourages them to share them with their classrooms, families, and communities.
We chat with author Jackie Azúa Kramer and illustrator Magdalena Mora about I Wish I Knew You, writing and illustrating, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Jackie and Magdalena! Can you both tell our readers a bit about yourselves?
Jackie: I was born into an Ecuadorian, Spanish and Puerto Rican family in NYC and spent much of my youth travelling around the world with them. I live on Long Island, NY and am a proud mama of two amazing young adults, a teacher and an actor.
As a writer, I’m interested in stories and characters that reflect our common humanity. Stories which allow readers to interact with it, feel something and ask questions. I’m interested in writing picture books with a more inclusive representation of families in this country.
Maggie: I was born and mostly raised in Chicago and now live in Minneapolis. I also call parts of Texas, California, and Mexico home.
Prior to becoming an illustrator, I worked as a graphic designer, ESL teacher, and after-school arts instructor – all of which feel relevant to my profession now. Even though I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, I studied English in college and only started illustrating a few years ago, after I began teaching k-4 and fell in love with picture books as a form.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember and also one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Jackie: A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is the first picture book I remember. I grew up in NYC and Queens and I had never seen anyone the color of my brown Latina grandmother in a book. Peter’s mother in her bright yellow frock reminded me of the colors that many of the women in my family wore. I can’t stop thinking about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I’m a history buff especially about my city, NY. It was fascinating watching it change through Francie’s eyes as she and her family moved, went to school, worked and fell in love.
Maggie: The first picture book I remember was The Nutshell Library collection by Maurice Sendak. My family owned the box set and I remember being in awe of the illustrations and the mischievous children who populated his books. As a kid, I desperately wanted to get into trouble but was afraid of the consequences. I admired the brazenness and freedom of Sendak’s characters. The books were also perfectly child-sized, as if they were made for my small hands. They felt precious. I can’t stop thinking about Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. The book defies concise description but I’m in awe of the force and urgency of Melchor’s language.
Jackie, when did you first discover your love for writing?
I was eight years old in third grade when my father brought a typewriter home and allowed me to use it. I’d cut out the Sunday comics, paste it on a sheet of paper and type my own story underneath. Looking back it was destiny that I should love writing picture books.
Your new picture book, I Wish I Knew You, is out May 25th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Jackie: Hope, connections, families, love, compassion.
Maggie: Warmth, community, listening, empathy, hope.
Where did the inspiration for I Wish I Knew You come from?
I’m a big fan of Ted Talks and an educator shared how after feeling she was making little progress with her students, she asked them to complete the statement on a piece of paper, “I wish my teacher knew…”
She was astonished by their answers, she realized she couldn’t teach kids who felt sad, hungry, scared and angry. It reminded me of my time working as a school counselor in Queens. The need to create a community of meaningful classroom relationships based on compassion, respect and kindness needs to be established before students are open to learn.
At the heart of Estrella’s story in I WISH YOU KNEW (IWYK) was inspired by my father’s immigrant journey from Ecuador. The emotional cost he paid, and the courage it took, to leave his family and country to come to a new world with the hope of making a better life for himself just like Estrella’s father.
Magdalena, when did you first discover your love for art?
I’ve been drawing and writing since I was small. When I was in the second grade though, my teacher assigned us a project to write and draw a story of our own. Mine was about a mouse who runs away from home because he feels eclipsed by his twin mouse brother. Before turning in the assignment, my mom took me to a Kinkos to have the story laminated and bound. I vividly remember the pride I felt holding that first book in my hands and telling my mom that this was what I wanted to do when I grow up.
What was the collaboration process like?
Jackie: I love collaboration. I studied acting and voice in college and I feel that experience has been an unexpected benefit as a writer in multiple ways.
I’m honored to have an editor in Emily Feinberg who’s as passionate about Estrella’s story as I am. And to be included in Maggie’s process and see those first sketches. She revealed unexpected layers in the story. That often happens between a writer and an illustrator and it’s probably the reason I love writing picture books.
Maggie: Ditto! I loved working with Jackie and the Roaring Brook team. When I received the manuscript, I already felt like there was so much room in the text for the illustrator to help tell the story – which seems like an essential quality of great picture books. The language was evocative but not overly prescriptive – the story felt like a true collaboration, as did the process of making the book.
What do you hope your readers take away from reading I Wish I Knew You?
Jackie: The irony is that IWYK comes out during a time which has kept us apart from each other.
And the story at its essence is about seeing each other, talking and hearing each other. So my hope is that kids see the connections they can make with each other with compassion and kindness and see that they are not alone and that in itself is healing.
Maggie: I hope that readers recognize the power of community — that they are surrounded by classmates, teachers, family, and helpers who share their experiences and can support them through challenging times – and that they can provide the same support to others.
What’s next for you both?
Jackie: This fall I’m looking forward to readers discovering Dorothy and Herbert- Ordinary People and their Extraordinary Collection of Art. It’s my first nonfiction picture book about a librarian and postal clerk who collected modern art in a one-bedroom NY apartment, and then gave it all away to the National Gallery. And Miles Won’t Smile–a funny picture book about a little girl who can’t get her new baby brother to smile for her.
Maggie: I have a few picture books coming out in 2022-23: Dreaming, written by Claudia Guadalupe Martínez; Tomatoes in My Lunchbox by Costantia Manoli; and The Notebook Keeper by Stephen Briseño.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Jackie: Yes! The Blue House by Phoebe Wahl; Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos; Girl on a Motorcycle by Amy Novesky; Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
Maggie: Jump at the Sun by Alicia D. Williams and Jacqueline Alcantara, My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano and Jillian Tamaki, and Migrants by Issa Watanabe
