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Shortly after I wrote and created a sketched book dummy for “Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist” in the summer of 2022, my wonderful agent Mela Bolinao of MB Artists sent it out to all of the big publishers.
A snippet of the storyboard I created for “Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist.”
This real response was a typical reaction:
“I’m so sorry to say this won’t be going forward. We had quite a discussion about it, and while everyone found the book to be incredibly moving, we were struggling with how to position the book, since so much of the story’s power depends on knowing who Alitihia was… it’s a quiet book, but with this additional messaging, and we worry that retailers won’t quite get what it is or how to shelve it. But I hope Violet finds a publisher who has a vision for making this work—maybe more school library market?
I’m sad the news isn’t better, but I appreciate getting the chance to see this!”
~A Much Loved Big 5 Acquisitions Editor
Focus: Texas
Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist wasn’t just any book project. Alithia’s family was involved! I knew I had to find a publisher. Mela and I researched independent Texas book publishers and I discovered Brown Books, a Dallas-based hybrid press. I queried them to get an estimate in case it came to self-publishing. I figured if all else failed, I could work with Alithia’s family to crowd-source the expense.
Brown required a physical submission, so I sent my book file to Landmark Printing in North Carolina, my go-to print shop in the US, and they shipped a bound dummy to Brown in Texas.
President and COO if Brown Books, Thomas Reale, sent me this photo of the “Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist” book dummy on his desk.
On Nov 15, 2022, I received this email from Brown Books:
We are in receipt of Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist and would like to talk to you regarding publication.
Please call the number below and ask for me personally.
Sincerely,
Milli
On Thursday, Nov 17, I spoke to Milli. She explained that Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist might be the perfect inaugural release for Brown’s brand-new TRADITIONAL imprint, Michael Sampson Books! No crowd-funding needed!
I Zoomed with Brown’s President and COO Tom Reale on Wednesday, Nov 22; a contract from Michael Sampson Books was sent to to MB Artists on Wednesday, Nov 23, the day before Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it all worked out. My advance and any future royalties fund the Alithia Haven Ramirez Summer Seminar Memorial Scholarship.
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It’s now late October 2023, less than a year later. Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist was released on Oct 10, and we celebrated with a launch party at the El Progreso Library in Uvalde on Oct 12.
Violet with Ryan Ramirez and Jess Hernandez at El Progreso Library in Uvalde, judging last-minute entries from Alithia’s Art Angels 2023 art contest.
After countless emails, Alithia’s parents Jess Hernandez and Ryan Ramirez and I finally met. Which was nothing short of AMAZING.
Jess and Violet at Alithia’s mural in Uvalde, Texas.
I just finished an extensive tour to promote and celebrate the release of Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist. While I was in Dallas I got to meet Milli Brown, Thomas Reale, and their amazing team. Before that, and before Uvalde, the tour took me to NYC where I met—drumroll—Michael Sampson!
Michael Sampson in NYC after breakfast at Ellen’s Stardust Diner.
It’s been an amazing whirlwind. I am exhausted but happy and am so, so blessed. THANK YOU Milli Brown, Tom Reale, and everyone at Brown Books (especially Amy, Kennedy, Sophia, Brittany and Danny); Michael Sampson of Michael Sampson Books; and of course, Alithia’s parents Ryan Ramirez and Jess Hernandez. Thank you! Thank you, Mela Bolinao! And thank you Lauren Przybyl and Fox 4 Dallas for the on-air interview .
On the set of the Dallas morning show with Lauren Przybyl.
Thanks to everyone who hosted me on my US tour, which has been the experience of a lifetime. Every librarian, teacher, and bookseller; all of my kidlit-creating colleagues; and every flight attendant, hotelier and Uber driver who has helped me along the way… THANK YOU!
In the process of writingAlithia Ramirez Was an Artist and creating the Alithia’s Art Angels website, I’ve become friends with Alithia’s parents, Jess Hernandez and Ryan Ramirez. Jess mentioned wanting custom Converse, two pair for herself—high-top and low—and one pair of high-tops for Ryan. I offered to find a shoe artist but didn’t have any luck, so I decided to paint them myself.
Finding shoes was easy. The best prices were at Journeys. I found some cool rainbow-y Converse high-tops that looked similar to the endpapers in Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist (above), and bonus, they were on sale! And I Chuck Taylors for Jess, the purple for Alithia’s Art Angels.
Shoe-painting research led me to Angelus Direct, from whom I ordered all of the paint supplies, including the masking tape that I used to protect the shoes’ white trim.
I used a white fabric marker from JoAnn to draw the curly scrolls on colorful high-tops for Jess and Ryan, and then drew and cut out little templates, replicating Alithia’s drawings which adorn the endpapers. From there, I penciled Alithia’s drawings onto the shoes, and painted several coats of white before adding colors.
The trick with painting shoes—at least canvas ones—is building up the color slowly. For example, painting the white Alithia’s Art Angels logo on purple shoes shown at the top of this post required 4-6 coats of white. Patience is required!
My husband and I live in Malaysia. We’re on an extensive summer trip. I painted these shoes while visiting my Dad in Missouri, both at his house and at our hotel. It was really nice to have a project to keep me busy!
This photo (above) shows the outer side of Jess’s completed high-tops. Ryan’s are similar.
Alithia’s drawings carry over onto the inner sides of the shoes. I think they came out pretty well. They certainly look similar to the endpapers!
The Book
Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist will be released on October 10, 2023. Jess, Ryan and I will be at a launch event in Uvalde…. perhaps wearing cool custom Converse! Other book events in Texas will follow, throughout October.
Alithia’s Art Angels 2nd Annual Summer Kids’ Art Contest is underway! All art created by kids K-12 is eligible for fun prizes, including art supplies. Check out last summer’s entries in the YOUR ART section of alithiasartangels.com!
The contest ends Aug 31, 2023.
Send one image, along with the name of the artist and grade just completed, to:
hello@alithiasartangels.com
Or, send via smail mail to:
PO Box 2017, Dilley TX 78017
The Backstory
Alithia’s Art Angels celebrates the life and art of Uvalde victim Alithia Haven Ramirez and the art of all children.
Alithia’s mom, Jess Hernandez, founded Alithia’s Art Angels with one goal in mind: to support, nurture, and encourage young artists, just as she did for her daughter Alithia Ramirez. The summer art contest is designed to showcase children’s artistic creations and shower them with love and appreciation.
For Little Activists
This summer we originally put out a call for End Gun Violence poster designs. The response was underwhelming, so we opened up the contest to ALL art, which includes End Gun Violence posters. If your kids started making posters, or still want to, that is terrific!
Follow Along :o)
All submissions will be posted on the Alithia’s Art Angels website and social media. Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
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The “End Gun Violence” poster above was created by Alithia Ramirez’s mother, Jess Hernandez.
This past year, Jess Hernandez has become a very special person in my life. I value our friendship greatly, but I wish our paths had never crossed. We only met because Jess’s daughter Alithia Haven was murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24 last year, along with 18 of her classmates and two of her teachers.
Immediately after the shooting I created a social media campaign in response, illustrating each of the victims. Scroll back in my Instagram to see.
Alithia’s dad, Ryan Ramirez, commented on my post about Alithia. The following day, I was listening to Anderson Cooper report on the tragedy. He interviewed Ryan, who described Alithia as an artist.
I drew Alithia again, as an artist this time. The inspiration for a picture book biography about Alithia popped into my head shortly after. I Zoomed with Ryan and Jess, who agreed to allow me to write and illustrate a picture book about their beautiful little artist. They told me all about Alithia, all about her exuberant spirit, her enormous heart, and her talent and drive to become a professional artist.
Many of Alithia’s drawings and paintings—all provided by Jess via email—are incorporated into my illustrations. (Click here to see a whole bunch of Alithia’s original art.) From the start of our email friendship, Jess has been open about what she has endured since the tragedy. For example, as you can probably imagine, Jess has a difficult time being around schools. She is triggered by elementary schools, but she has two small children and cannot avoid them. On top of this, she is terrified for the safety of her children when they are at school. Just think about that, about the daily stress this mother has to endure because of the trauma she suffered as a result of Alithia’s murder.
Jess has graciously agreed to allow me to share some of her own words:
Everyday has been a struggle for me. I’m always tired where I just can’t get out of bed, I cry everyday because just having flashbacks from May 24th and it just hurts me to know that my reality is every parent’s nightmare. I still can’t believe that this is my life now and that I lost Alithia because of gun violence. I always had my children close and made sure they are safe and I couldn’t save Alithia. People that say they want to be my support but they aren’t because when I bring up anything about my daughter and why she isn’t here they just ignore me, and that’s not support. This is my reality and people need to know there is no forgetting about it because it will always be with me.
Jess has often stated that she is broken and will never be the same—and she is one of a huge and growing group of family members left behind in America because of gun violence. I will never understand why Americans have not come together en masse to demand a common-sense solution to the VERY OBVIOUS problem of gun violence within their borders. The US is only as safe as the state with the weakest gun laws.
End Gun Violence
Jess has been creating art to help herself move through her grief, including this powerful “End Gun Violence” poster. Soon, Alithia’s Art Angels will host an End Gun Violence poster contest for all kids 18 and under. Gift certificates for art supplies will be awarded. Follow Alithia’s Art Angels on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so you won’t miss the announcement!
Lauren asked me all about the making of Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist, my picture book biography of Uvalde victim Alithia Haven Ramirez. I told her the whole story, which includes a lot of support from Alithia’s parents Jess Hernandez and Ryan Ramirez.
The interview was arranged as a cover reveal by my friends at Michael Sampson Books, publisher of Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist. Doesn’t the front cover look terrific? It was designed by the publisher.
I feel helpless when mass shootings happen. I wish I could do something—anything—to make them stop. You feel that way too, I’m sure of it.
The only skill I’ve got is making books for children. After New Zealand’s mosque shootings, I wrote and illustrated Let’s Be Friends. Perhaps the Uvalde shooting will inspire a book as well, but books take time, and I wanted to do something now. So when 19 kids and 2 teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School, I drew them, each beautiful child and teacher, and posted the images on Instagram and Facebook.
The story of Alithia Ramirez, one of the murdered students, caught my attention. I read that her house was still decorated with birthday balloons. Alithia had just turned ten when the shooting happened.
Alithia’s father, Ryan, responded to the post on Instagram. A day or two later, I heard Ryan tell Anderson Cooper that Alithia was a talented artist, always surrounded by crayons. After illustrating all of the other victims, I circled back and drew Alithia again, as her father described her.
In my family, we are all artists. My husband is a designer and an abstract painter, and our son was practically born with a Micron marker in his hand. As for me, well… art is all I can do. Alithia’s story resonated with me.
I reached out to her parents through Ryans comments on my Instagram posts. Since then, we’ve been working together to build a website that celebrates Alithia, her life and art, and the art of all children: Alithia’s Art Angels.
Alithia’s Art Angels
Alithia’s Art Angels is a free online art gallery for children’s art—because Alithia dreamed of seeing her artwork online some day.
“I just wish people could share their drawings so somehow I can make their dreams come true since I always told Alithia that I would make her dreams come true and she was so happy that I believed that she could do anything.”
~Jess Hernandez
Alithia’s mom, Jess Hernandez, was Alithia’s biggest encourager. Jess wants to encourage other young artists to follow their dreams. Toward that end, we created the Alithia’s Art Angels fundraiser, with a goal of giving away art supplies to artists who are 18 and younger. All of this can be accessed through alithiasartangels.com.
Sign up for the Alithia’s Art Angels newsletter, so you’ll never miss an opportunity to celebrate kids and their art with us.
Share, share, share! Please share this article, share our social media posts, share alithiasartangels.com—share with family, friends, your favorite art teachers and artists.
Please accept our thanks for your support. From me, Jess, Ryan, and Alithia: thank you! :o)
I wasn’t looking for an intern at the start of last term, but Raisa was looking for an internship. And my “ship” was docked right next door.
Yep, Raisa is my next door neighbor. I made a portrait of her once, before I properly knew her. (I imagine inspirational people like Raisa are the subjects of countless unsolicited portraits, especially when those inspiring people live next door to sneaky artists).
As I got to know her, I discovered that Raisa is an artist, and a writer. She is a gifted teller of stories. So much talent. So creative. So dedicated. (She also happens to an awesome and generous baker. And no, she did not ply me with brownies when she asked me about the internship. No baked goods were necessary!)
Kismet
You could say that fate had a hand in throwing us together in Malaysia—especially if you consider that Raisa is from Bangladesh, and I am from the US.
For an entire term, we met on Friday mornings at Shattuck-St Mary’s elementary school library to discuss books and writing and life. In the photo above, we’re studying the story arc of Erin Dionne’s picture book, Balletball, illustrated by Gillian Flint.
And in the above photo, Raisa is dressed as the White Rabbit for Book Week.
Read Raisa’s Stories!
Raisa is just about to begin her senior year of high school. Join her on her writing journey by reading her blog.
On Tuesday, May 24, a gunman killed nineteen students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The stories coming out of Uvalde are heartbreaking, sickening.
Single issue voters have recently proved their power. They play the long game, and get sh*t done. If I lived in Texas, I would make it my mission to vote certain people out of office. From now on, gun violence is my single issue.
CELEBRATE THEIR LIVES
I don’t live in Texas; in fact, I presently live about as far away from the US as possible (in Forest City, Malaysia). I’ve been wondering for days what I can do to help, and have come up with nothing but this: I will celebrate Uvalde’s victims through art. I draw kids for a living, and so I will draw the victims of America’s latest mass elementary school shooting, to celebrate their lives.
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