Debut Author Panel: Federico Erebia

Author Federico Erebia is a retired doctor and woodworker (who worked both of those careers simultaneously for 15 years!) and in continued multitasking fashion he’s also translating fellow panelist Levi De LaRosa’s answers for us today from Spanish to English. 

With the advent of the Pandemic Federico no longer felt safe working in stranger’s houses building cabinets and furniture, and so began to write down the many years of stories that had been rattling around in his mind. With everything that Federico does, he says, he’s approaching it after having already obsessed about ‘that thing’ a lot, calling it his neurodivergent approach to life and art.

His debut book, PEDRO & DANIEL, is also a memorial to his brother who passed away 30 years ago. Federico’s medical career was focused on providing care to HIV+ patients in the late 80s and 90s (Federico’s brother died of AIDS in 1993) and Federico describes that earlier era as a horrible time that people have forgotten about, the amount of ostracizing that happened for that HIV+ community cannot be downplayed. It’s important to not forget our history, he says, it’s always important to revisit it so that we aren’t destined to repeat it. Federico wanted his book to be a place to remember and celebrate the memories of the 40 million people that have died of AIDS.

Moderator Martha Brockenbrough talks about how we live in an era where people are trying to prevent young people from reading diverse stories and suppressing the truth and that stories like Federico’s are the ones that are trying to be banned. Federico talks about how the entire first part of his young adult novel is actually made up of his 17 picturebook manuscripts that he’d written that people had told him weren’t appropriate issues for children to be reading about. But Federico is aware that many young children are living these difficult, violent experiences.

“It’s such a powerful time the first time you SEE yourself in a book, or on a movie screen, or on a TV show.” 

Martha reminds us pushback like the kind Federico experienced is often not about keeping children safe, it’s about adults being too uncomfortable to hear the truth.

Federico is on the SCBWI Impact & Legacy Fund Steering Committee, among others, and one of the reasons that he does so much volunteer work for SCBWI is because joining SCBWI was the most important thing he feels he did to become an author, “There are so many opportunities to volunteer, it’s a wonderful organization all over the world.”

When remembering his path to publication, Federico says, “It’s hard to explain to people that haven’t read it, I did take a lot of risks, and I’m so glad that my Levine Querido editor, Nick Thomas, kept letting me take those risks.”

Bonus detail for artists: Julie Kwon, whose illustrations appear in PEDRO & DANIEL was found on Instagram by Thomas.

Nick Thomas: Celebrating Diversity, Tradition And Change

Nick Thomas is an editor with Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, where he started as an editorial assistant. He also held positions with Bloomsbury, Chicken House, and David Fickling Books before returning to his AALB roots. He edits middle grade and young adult books, and looks for stories that change something about you by the time you're finished.

Get ready for some book recs! Nick Thomas, a relatively new acquiring editor at Scholastic's Arthur Levine Books, joined the rest of the team to talk about the imprint's diverse list of titles, from Harry Potter on.

"I grew up reading the Harry Potter books -- there's actually a photo of our family behind Arthur during a parade in our town, so I was thrilled to work with him," says Thomas of joining the house that built Harry. "But that's one of the things I appreciate about Arthur. He didn't think about sales, he just said, 'This is a talented author we want to bring on.'" 

One of his other recent favorites was Russell Hoban's The Mouse and His Child, which the house rebooted this year in a 50th anniversary edition. "I doubt that the book had the most tremendous publishing hook," Thomas says, "but again, it's such a good book and it was out of print, and Arthur brought it back to much success." 

Another recommendation from Thomas is Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich's 8th Grade Superzero. 

"Kids deserve books that are fun and serious at the same time, and Olugbemisola's book sort of captures that perfectly," Thomas says. "It deals with homelessness, community and race in everyday life, but does it in a fun, humorous way."

Next up: Jaclyn Moriarty's Colors of Madeline series. "It's a fantasy that sort of bucks genre conventions -- it's cozy and funny and whimsical, but dark and challenging at the same time," says Thomas. "And it's one of a long line of Jackie books we've done. She started out in contemporary and ended up doing her first fantasy, but it's her voice that you want to follow." 

"Openly Straight, by Bill Konigsberg works on so many different levels," Thomas says. "Books that have multiple hooks that you can use right off the bat are really phenomenal and Openly Straight does that -- and it's really funny."

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth is a modern #ownvoices Native American stories. "It's very much vased on his own experiences. But it exemplifies how an author can address series issues without talking down to kids. So read that book." 

"The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb is singular on our list because it's narrative non-fiction, and that's something we're always, always looking for," Thomas says. "And I love the publishing story because we're always looking for the best to bring to kids and this was originally an adult book, and Cheryl Klein asked him to adapt it for kids and he did."

A middle grade series that Thomas highly recommends is The Great Greene Heist and The Parker Inheritance. "Varian Johnson writes the best books ever. They're kind of like James Bond meets Ocean's 11 -- short and action-packed and satisfying," Thomas says. "They make the secondary characters feel so three dimensional. Jackson's friends all have their backstories -- there's like 300 pages on each of them sitting somewhere in Varian's head."

Arthur A. Levine 2.0 - The Keynote Celebrating Diversity, Tradition, and Change

Left to right: Publisher Arthur A. Levine, Editor Nick Thomas, Associate Editor Kait Feldmann, and Assistant Editor Weslie Turner.

Nick Thomas: How to Make Me Miss My Subway Stop: Ways to Cause That "Spark" in an Editor

Nick Thomas is is an editor with Arthur A. Levine Books, where he started as an editorial assistant. He edits middle grade and young adult books.

Nick chose the work spark very deliberately. He believes falling in love with a book is a lot like falling in love with a human being. When you meet that book it makes you say, "Wow!" It's something you can't get enough of and it's something you want to tell everyone about it.

You always want to put your best foot forward with query letter and first chapter. Create a well crafted query letter. It will make an editor more inclined to think there might be something there.

Show, don't tell. If you are on a date, you are not going to say to your date, "Hey, I'm super funny and 50% of the people in room usually laugh at my jokes." Instead, you would want to show the person you have a sense of humor. The same is true in story. Dramatize through action.

Don't give everything away in the first chapter.

Ask questions. Create initial questions within the beginning pages. With trust the reader will want to follow along to find the answers.

Present your best self. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Don't waste any space in your first chapter with anything that isn't worthwhile.

Don't make your first chapter too long.

A cliffhanger never hurts.

Read as much as possible.

"Just because someone doesn't like your book doesn't mean it isn't good."