Book News
FORTUNE COOKIES FOR EVERYONE is a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection!
We Sing From the Heart wins Julia Ward Howe prize for children’s literature!
We Sing from the Heart has been selected as the 2024 winner of our Julia Ward Howe prize for children’s literature! The Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Book Awards are awarded annually by the Boston Authors Club to authors living within 100 miles of Boston for books in both the adult and young readers’ categories.
WE SING FROM THE HEART is Carter G. Woodson Book Award Honoree!
Thank you to NCSS for this award, and congratulations to everyone on this list! More here.
Thrilled to be featured on Bold Journey
Thank you, Bold Journey, for featuring me!
New Title … for my picture book A PLACE TO CALL HOME
The new title is Green Homes, Happy Planet: Sustainable Houses Around the World, and the new publication date is February 2026!
The Traveling Taco on Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025!
Thank you to Reading Rockets for including The Traveling Taco on their Summer Reading Guide 2025! More here.
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We Sing From the Heart makes Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year 2025!
We Sing From the Heart has been selected as Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year 2025! Congratulations to everyone on the list, and thank you so much to Bank Street College of Education for this honor! More here.
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Thank you to Canvas Rebel for Featuring Me
Thank you, Canvas Rebel, for featuring me here.
Cover reveal for The Traveling Taco by
An exploration of the history of kids’ favorite foods from around the world
From pizza to pasta and ice cream to French fries, some of our favorite foods have a surprising history, and many of them have traveled far from where they originated! Did you know many well-known dishes are food immigrants? The Al Pastor Taco traveled from Lebanon to Puebla, Mexico! French fries originated in Belgium! And pasta arrived in Italy long before Marco Polo visited China. This fascinating nonfiction book featuring rhyming text takes the reader on travels around the world to celebrate foods, their history, and surprising origins. Join Mia Wenjen for a fact-packed journey of discovery that will make your mouth water as you travel the unexpected road of some of our favorite foods. [picture book, ages 5 and up]
Releases May 6, 2025. Pre-order here.
Kirkus reviews The Traveling Taco.
Picture Book Announcement: Fortune Cookies for Everyone by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage, and published by Red Comet Press.
Releases Fall 2025.
Picture Book Announcement: Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación, and published by Red Comet Press.
Releases Spring 2026.
Postcards from Malcolm X: How Yuri Kochiyama Became a Civil Rights Activist by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Keith Henry Brown
I am thrilled to be making a picture book biography with Red Comet Press! Keith Henry Brown will illustrate! Publication is slated for 2024.
Releases January 2027.
My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
The Traveling Taco:
- Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
- ALSC Notable Children’s Book
- 2025 Carter G. Woodson Book Award Middle Level Honoree
- Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
- 2024 Julia Ward Howe Prize for Children’s Literature Winner
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year 2025
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
- Sunshine State Young Readers Award Orange Blossom List for Nonfiction
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bank Street College’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
