A sweet and beautiful picture book about how queer families start with the promise to love a child, I Promise by Catherine Hernandez for children ages 3 to 8. This sweet and gentle book, featuring tender-hearted illustrations, captures the honest and intimate moments of queer parenting in all their messy glory—from building pillow forts and checking under the bed for monsters to kissing boo-boos and cuddling after a long day. It also affirms that families come in many shapes, sizes, and colours, and that every queer family starts with the sacred promise to love a child.
Catherine Hernandez is a queer Filipina femme, Navajo wife, radical mother, award-winning author, and the artistic director of b current performing arts. Her children’s book, M is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book was published by Flamingo Rampant, and her plays Kilt Pins and Singkil were published by Playwright‘s Canada Press. Catherine’s first full-length fiction, Scarborough, won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards, shortlisted for the Evergreen Forest of Reading Award, and longlisted for Canada Reads. Scarborough made the “best of 2017” lists for The Globe and Mail, National Post, Quill and Quire, and CBC Books. Catherine was named one of “17 Writers to Watch” by CBC Books. Scarborough is now being adapted into a full-length film by Compy Films, Telefilm, and Reel Asian Film Festival.
Syrus Marcus Ware (illustrator) is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Syrus’s work explores social justice frameworks and black activist culture. Syrus is a core-team member of both Black Lives Matter Toronto and Blackness Yes!/Blockorama. Syrus has won several awards, including the TD Diversity Award in 2017. Syrus is a PhD candidate at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.
