Press release

HARPERCOLLINS ACQUIRES CELEBRATED AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST CATHERINE HERNANDEZ’S PICTURE BOOK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

HarperCollinsCanada is excited to have acquired world, all-language rights to Where Do You Keep Your Feelings?, a picture book about emotional intelligence and mindfulness by Catherine Hernandez, the author of the acclaimed novels Crosshairs and Scarborough. The picture book is set for publication in winter 2022. Hernandez said of the acquisition, “When quarantine began, I hosted daily storytimes on my Facebook fan page to give tired parents respite for fifteen to thirty minutes. One day was particularly trying when the immensity of the pandemic’s impact and civil unrest was starting to take shape in our collective consciousness. I guided the kiddos in an exercise that had them pointing to where their feelings lived, coaxing them from their hiding places and allowing those feelings to safely express themselves. It was as much to comfort the kids as it was to comfort the parents. I am honoured that this humble exercise has inspired this commissioned children’s book from HarperCollinsCanada. Teaching this next generation of readers how to be in their bodies and compassionate towards themselves will be essential learning as we survive these scary times.”

Where Do You Keep Your Feelings? was inspired by Hernandez’s presentation during the virtual #KidLit4BlackLivesCanada rally, hosted by author Nadia L. Hohn and A Different Booklist Cultural Centre. The picture book was commissioned by HarperCollinsCanada and touches on themes of emotional intelligence, acceptance and mindfulness. Children’s books senior editor Suzanne Sutherland said of Where Do You Keep Your Feelings?, “In these times, it is such a welcome comfort to be in the hands of a gifted and empathetic storyteller. With her latest picture book, Where Do You Keep Your Feelings?, Catherine Hernandez brings her irresistible energy and compassion to young readers in an imaginative way that will help them better understand their world and themselves.”

CATHERINE HERNANDEZ is a proud queer woman of colour, a radical mother, a theatre practitioner, an award-winning author and the outgoing artistic director of b current performing arts. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian heritage, and she is married into the Navajo Nation. Her novel Scarborough, which is soon to be a motion picture, won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award for the unpublished manuscript; was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award, the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, the Edmund White Award and the Trillium Book Award; and was longlisted for Canada Reads. She has also written the plays Singkil and Kilt Pins, as well as the children’s books M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book and I Promise. Crosshairs is her most recent novel. She lives in Toronto.

Hernandez is represented by the Transatlantic Agency. The book deal was brokered by Marilyn Biderman, senior literary agent at Transatlantic Agency.

Date Posted

September 29, 2020

Subject

HARPERCOLLINS ACQUIRES CELEBRATED AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST CATHERINE HERNANDEZ’S PICTURE BOOK