Lolo’s Sari-sari Store is a Rhode Island Children’s Book Award Finalist!
How cool to see that Lolo’s Sari-sari Store, written by me and illustrated by the wonderful Christine Almeda, has been chosen as a finalist for the 2025 Rhode Island Children’s Book Award!
According to the Rhode Island Office Library & Information Services, “The Rhode Island Children’s Book Award Committee, composed of Rhode Island teachers, school librarians, and public librarians, works annually to create a diverse list of nominated books using specific criteria. The committee is intentional in seeking books that affirm marginalized groups and champion stories and characters that reflect the lived experiences of Rhode Island youth as well as the larger world. The committee aims to provide an annual list of nominees that maintains diversity in race, gender, sexuality, family makeup, socioeconomic status, and ability. Nominee lists are thoughtfully curated with an anti-bias lens, to allow all youth to be seen and their voices actively heard. The Rhode Island Children’s Book Award Committee believes representation matters and strives to create mirrors, windows and prisms for all children.” How amazing is that? What’s even cooler is that kids in Rhode Island from grades 3 to 5 can vote for their favorites on this list of books that have been curated by folks who love kids and who love learning. What an amazing honor it is to be included in this list! Thank you so much for reading and appreciating our books
To learn more about the award and the other wonderful nominees on this list, please visit https://olis.ri.gov/programs-and-support/reading-programs/rhode-island-childrens-book-award.
You can buy Lolo’s Sari-Sari Store here, or if you are unable to do so, please consider requesting it at your local library. Even that does so much to help authors like me get our books out to more people.
If you’ve read the book already, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, and on Storygraph.
Thank you so much for reading!