Brownstone

Ages 14 And Up, Grades 9 And Up

An exciting teen coming-of-age epic from author Samuel Teer and debut graphic novel artist Mar Julia, Brownstone is a vivid, sweeping, ultimately hopeful story about navigating your heritage, even when you feel like you don’t quite fit in.

Almudena has always wondered about the dad she never met.Now, with her white mother headed on a once-in-a-lifetime trip without her, she’s left alone with her Guatemalan father for an entire summer. Xavier seems happy to see her, but he expects her to live in (and help fix up) his old, broken-down brownstone. And all along, she must navigate the language barrier of his rapid-fire Spanish—which she doesn’t speak.As Almudena tries to adjust to this new reality, she gets to know the residents of Xavier’s Latin American neighborhood. Each member of the community has their own joys and heartbreaks as well as their own strong opinions on how this young Latina should talk, dress, and behave. Some can’t understand why she doesn’t know where she comes from. Others think she’s “not brown enough” to fit in.But time is running out for Almudena and Xavier to get to know each other, and the key to their connection may ultimately lie in bringing all these different elements together. Fixing a broken building is one thing, but turning these stubborn individuals into a found family might take more than this one summer.

About the Author

Samuel Teer is the author of Brownstone and Veda: Assembly Required. He was born to a deaf maintenance worker and a Guatemalan immigrant who spoke English as a distant second language. So, obviously, he became a writer. Raised outside of St. Louis, Missouri, he now lives in Aurora, Colorado, with his wife and dogs.Mar Julia is an illustrator and cartoonist from South Florida currently living and making things on the unceded Piscataway land that makes up Baltimore, Maryland. Their previous comics credits include the Lumberjanes and Adventure Time series, and they have been nominated for multiple Ignatz Awards. Brownstone is their debut full-length graphic novel.