On My Block: Stories and Paintings by Fifteen Artists

Fifteen fine artists portray, in words and pictures, the places and spaces most special to them.

Is there a corner of your block that you love to explore? A room in your house that holds a special memory? A piece of your home country that you particularly miss? A faraway place you've only heard about from an elder family member that excites your imagination?

Children's Book Press asked fifteen gifted fine artists to portray, in words and pictures, the places and spaces most special to them, and On My Block is the remarkable result. The places these visual artists have chosen to represent are moving, funny, and unexpected. Readers will soar from the rooftops of South Brooklyn to the adobe-colored desert of Taos Pueblo, from a basement in San Francisco's Japantown to a Mississippi Gulf Coast porch. A garden in Mexico overflows with blossoms while another in Tehran hums with the purring of thirty-two cats, and an empty lot in a bustling Havana neighborhood is transformed into a country farm.

On My Block is a celebration of community, an homage to neighborhoods across the world, and an exploration of past and present. The fifteen gorgeous paintings and stories ask you to ponder the places that comprise your world. What's on your block, down your street, in another country, that makes up who you are?

Contributors:
Kim Cogan
Maya Christina Gonzalez
Yasmin Hernandez
Felicia Hoshina
Sara Kahn
Conan Low
Joseph Pearson
Elaine Pedlar
Ann Phong
José Ramírez
Tonel
Jonathan Warm Day

Dana Goldberg is a Bay Area-based writer and editor who published award-winning multicultural and bilingual picture books as Executive Editor of Children's Book Press from 2005-2011. Since then, she's been a resident wordsmith at the SFMOMA and the Exploratorium, a hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception. She co-authored The Art of Curiosity: 50 Visionary Artists, Scientists, Poets, Makers, & Dreamers Who Are Changing the Way We See Our World (Weldon Owen, 2019).

Cecilia Álvarez is a gifted fine artist. The daughter of a Mexican mother and a Cuban father, her artwork has been exhibited internationally and featured in a range of publications. Over the past decade, she has focused her creative energies on works of public art. Cecilia has two children and lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband.

Carl Angel is an artist, illustrator, and graphic designer whose work has been exhibited throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Hawai'i. A Filipino American who grew up in Honolulu, Carl lives in San Leandro, California. He is the illustrator of several books, including Willie Wins, Lakas and the Manilatown Fish, and Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel.

Cbabi Bayoc is a fine artist and illustrator whose artwork reflects his love of music and family. His paintings can be found in galleries and homes around the world. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and children.