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Scholastic Announces Multi-Book Publishing Program With 15-Time Emmy Award Winner Sonia Manzano
NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic is thrilled to announce a new four-book deal with legendary entertainer and 15-time Emmy® Award winner
About this update from Scholastic Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic is thrilled to announce a new four-book deal with legendary entertainer and 15-time Emmy® Award winner Sonia Manzano. Best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street for 44 years from 1971 until 2015 (for which she received an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016), Manzano is also the acclaimed children's book author of Scholastic titles The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, which won a Pura Belpré Honor Award, and the stunning young adult memoir Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx. In this partnership, Manzano and Scholastic will launch two new middle-grade novels and two new picture books. \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\"As an award-winning author, multiple Emmy Award winner, activist, and actress, Sonia Manzano has been an inspiration for both children and adults for decades. I am delighted that Scholastic will be teaming up with Sonia Manzano again for the publication of four new and powerful books that are sure to engage and inspire engage young readers for years to come,\" noted Ellie Berger, President and EVP of Scholastic Trade Publishing.\nPublishing in spring 2022, this first novel, Coming Up Cuban, is a remarkable story that's set in 1959 in Cuba right as Fidel Castro came into power. This extraordinary novel follows four children – Ana, Miguel, Zulema and Juan – and each of their wholly unique journeys of struggle and triumph. In this story, two of the kids make it out of Cuba, one of them flown out as part of a program called Operation Peter Pan and brought to Miami. Over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors were sent to the USA under this system by frightened parents who hoped to protect them from the real or rumored Castro policies. Two are left behind, where poverty and uncertainty lurk. Perfect for fans of Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Refugee by Alan Gratz, Coming Up Cuban imparts resonant and interwoven tales of children enduring trying moments in history, as they grow through these emotionally-charged experiences.\n\"Social upheavals affect everyone. I wanted to write a novel that examined the impact the 1959 Cuban Revolution had on four children. Through these four separate life stories, I hope our readers see how interconnected we all are, regardless of any tumultuous times we might be living in. Scholastic, with their everlasting focus on diverse books, ...