Join illustrator Esmé Shapiro for storytime at Books are Magic on May 27th at 11 am. Esmé will be reading from Tina Oziewicz’s What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking, illustrated by Aleksandra Zając and translated by Jennifer Croft from the Polish, and her own book My Self, Your Self. 

In What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking, we enter the bustling bright world of feelings and insecurities. As young readers encounter each feeling, illustrated as a gray-furred floppy-eared creature, they’ll learn how to identify and grapple with complex emotions like gratitude, envy, and nostalgia.

My Self, Your Self joins a group of endearing forest creatures as they bake and eat cranberry-butter-pie muffins, sing silly songs at bathtime and stop to smell the chestnut-nettle roses, all the while exploring their individuality. This joyously affirming picture book encourages the youngest readers to be kind to their wonderful selves and the equally wonderful selves around them.

The event will be held at Books are Magic’s Montague location, and the reading will be followed by a drawing activity. RSVPs are highly encouraged.

Esmé Shapiro grew up in Laurel Canyon, California and Ontario, Canada. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Esmé is a past recipient of both the Nancy Lee Rhodes Roberts Scholarship and the SILA West 53 Gold Award-Phillip Hayes Scholarship. She has previously written and illustrated Ooko, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2016, as well as Alma and the Beast, which received two starred reviews, and, most recently, Carol and the Pickle-Toad. Esmé also illustrated Yak and Dove by Kyo Maclear and Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton by Margaret McNamara. She has exhibited at the Society of Illustrators, and her work has been featured in Taproot and Plansponsor magazines.

Tina Oziewicz is a Polish author and translator of children’s and YA literature. While working as a translator and teacher, she began writing stories for children and published her first book of stories in 2007. Tina has since published nine books for children and young audiences. What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking has been translated into ten languages.

Aleksandra Zając (b. 1988), a graduate of the Art Department at Opole University, works on graphic design, drawing, and modeling in clay. Her illustrated children’s book Dziksy advanced to the final stage of the 2014 Clairvoyants International Competition. What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking is her debut publication.

Jennifer Croft was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2018 and was a National Book Award Finalist for her translation from Polish of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights. She is the recipient of Fulbright, PEN, MacDowell, and National Endowment for the Arts grants and fellowships, as well as the inaugural Michael Henry Heim Prize for Translation. She was awarded a Tin House Workshop Scholarship for her illustrated memoir Homesick, which won the 2020 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She is a founding editor of The Buenos Aires Review and currently divides her time between Buenos Aires and Los Angeles.