FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAINT PAUL, MN, August 21, 2018 – Jolly Fish Press, an imprint of North Star Editions, Inc. (NSE) is excited to introduce I Am America, an all-new, middle grade historical fiction series for readers ages 8-12, coming January 1, 2019.
The I Am America series features fictional stories based on important historical events from people whose voices have been underrepresented, lost, or forgotten over time. The series will launch with two books in January, the lead title, Journey to a Promised Land: A Story of the Exodusters by Allison Lassieur and Lines We Draw: A Story of Imprisoned Japanese Americans by Camellia Lee.
Journey to a Promised Land: A Story of the Exodusters (ISBN: 978-1-63163-276-1)
Hattie Jacobs has a secret dream: to go to school to become a teacher. But her parents were formerly enslaved and are struggling to survive in Nashville, Tennessee, after Reconstruction. When the Jacobs family joins the Great Exodus of 1879 to Kansas, their journey in search of a better life is filled with danger and hardship. Will they make it to the Mississippi unharmed? What will be waiting for them in Kansas, and will it live up to their dreams?
Lines We Draw: A Story of Imprisoned Japanese Americans (ISBN: 978-1-63163-280-8)
It’s August 1941 when Sumiko Adachi starts at a new school in Phoenix, Arizona. In spite of her first-day jitters, she finds a friendly face in Emi Kuno. But everything changes after Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, and the United States enters World War II. Suddenly the girls are faced with anti-Japanese sentiment from classmates and neighbors. When an arbitrary dividing line is drawn through Phoenix, the girls find themselves on opposite sides. Can Sumiko and Emi maintain their friendship when one of them is forced into a confinement camp, and the other is allowed to remain free?
Books in the series are 160 pages, 5″ x 7.5″ with a trade paperback binding ($8.99). Additional formats available include reinforced library binding (list: $28.50, school/library: $19.99), multi-user hosted e-book ($23.99), and single-user e-book ($8.99).
About the author (Journey to a Promised Land):
Allison Lassieur once lived in Tennessee and traveled the path Hattie and her family might have followed from Nashville to the banks of the Mississippi River near Memphis. Today she lives in upstate New York and shares a 110-year-old house with her husband, her daughter, three dogs, two cats, and more history books than she can count.
About the illustrator
Eric has illustrated over 25 books for children, and has created work for magazines and ad campaigns. He was a winner of the 2010 London Book Fair’s Children’s Illustration Competition; the 2010 Holbein Prize for Fantasy Art, International Illustration Competition, Japan Illustrators Association; Runner-Up, 2013 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award; Honorable Mention, 2009 SCBWI Don Freeman Portfolio Competition; and 2nd Prize, 2009 Clymer Museum’s Annual Illustration Invitational. He was also a winner of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award.
About Jolly Fish Press and North Star Editions
Jolly Fish Press, an imprint of North Star Editions, is dedicated to promoting exceptional, unique new voices in fiction. North Star Editions, Inc. publishes fiction and nonfiction for readers of all ages that inspires, informs, and entertains. For more information, visit jollyfishpress.com or northstareditions.com.
Contact: Megan Naidl, publicity@northstareditions.com or mnaidl@northstareditions.com (651) 424-4623