Join illustrator Cátia Chien for storytime at Vroman’s bookstore in Los Angeles! The event will take place on May 13 at 11 am PST. Cátia will be reading from Roger Mello’s João by a Thread, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn, and from her latest children’s book, All the Beating Hearts. João by a Thread,  which recently received a Mildred L. Batchelder Honor, is a luminous bedtime story that literally unravels into a reverie as a simple handmade blanket transforms into an earthquake, a mountain, a village, a dance. Mello’s intricate line drawings pay homage to Brazilian folk art and embroidery and illuminate the imaginative force stitched into every handmade item. After the storytime, Cátia will lead the attendees through an illustration activity featuring s character from  All the Beating Hearts. Learn more about the event at the Vroman’s Bookstore website here!

Cátia Chien is a Brazilian Taiwanese artist. She’s the illustrator of such titles as The Bear and the Moon, which was a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal for Original Art winner and a Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration winner, and A Boy and a Jaguar, an ALA Notable Book and recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award. Her art has been shown in galleries worldwide including the Beijing National Gallery and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair exhibition. She is also the founder of A THOUSAND WORLDS – a curated picture book directory celebrating BIPOC creators.

Roger Mello has illustrated over 100 titles – 22 of which he also wrote – and his unique style and adroit sense of color continues to push the boundaries of children’s book illustration. Rather than relying on written narrative to tell the story, Mello invites his young readers to fill the gaps with imagination. Mello has won numerous awards for writing and illustrating, including three of IBBY’s Luis Jardim Awards, the Best Children’s Book 2002 International Award, and the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award. In 2018, You Can’t Be Too Careful! was named a Batchelder Honor Book by the American Library Association. 

Daniel Hahn is the author of a number of works of nonfiction, including The Tower Menagerie. He is one of the editors of The Ultimate Book Guide, a series of reading guides for children and teenagers. His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007 and his translation of Agualusa’s A General Theory of Oblivion was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. He has translated the work of Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, and others.