You are here
Back to topLullaby for Maddie/Canción de cuna para Maddie (Hardcover)
Email or call for price
Description
"In Lullaby for Maddie, Marta Miranda-Straub sings in English and Spanish about a young mermaid born into the sun-kissed love of a close-knit family.As we learn her story, we learn who she is and that love is like water and also like arms that surround us and hug us and hold us up."—Jeremy Paden, author and co-translator of Under the Ocelot Sun / Bajo el sol del ocelote (First Prize Winner of the North American Academy of Spanish Language Children and Young Adult Award Premio Campoy-Ada for 2020 in the Category Picture Book of Special Cultural Content)
About the Author
MARTA M. MIRANDA-STRAUB is a poet and storyteller who has spent her life working towards equity and inclusion and creating systems change. Her activism has focused on advancing social and economic justice for marginalized communities. In Cradled by Skeletons: A Life in Poems and Essays/Mecida por Esqueletos: Una Vida en Poemas y Ensayos (Shadelandhouse Modern Press 2019), she explores themes of complex and multiple identities within the experiences of birth, childhood, family, exile, trauma, addiction, resilience, community, discrimination and social justice work. It is Marta's hope to expand readers' capacity for love of the other— especially during these abhorrent political waves of hate, violence, and scapegoating of those seeking asylum in the United States—through her essays and poems about justice.
Until the age of twelve Miranda-Straub was raised in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. In 1966, she immigrated to New Jersey with her family. As a refugee family from Cuba, they were resettled by Catholic Charities in September 1966 in West New York, New Jersey, with a sponsor family. They left their extended family, photo albums, toys, worldly belongings, language, culture, flag, and land on the island. She now lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky, and she describes herself affectionately as a Cubalachian—a combination of Cuban and Appalachian.
She has over forty years of experience in organizational and clinical social work practice, during which she has held multiple roles, including professor, social researcher, author, psychotherapist, executive leader, fundraising professional, community organizer, advocate/activist, executive coach, facilitator, trainer, and public speaker. She is the founder and principal of Catapult Now LLC, which provides organizational and leadership development, board development, executive coaching, coalition building, facilitation and training services to nonprofit and for profit organizations.
She was inducted into the Affrilachian Poets by Frank X Walker in 2009. Marta has read and performed poetry and stories nationally at universities, literary venues, conferences, marches, and rallies. This is her debut children's book.
Courtney Kimes is an artist, illustrator, and teacher originally from Louisville, Kentucky. She is interested in capturing the human experience using a variety of art media. She currently resides in the Cayman Islands and teaches elementary art at Cayman International School. This is her debut children's book.
Praise For…
Cradled by Skeletons
"The poetry and essays in Cradled by Skeletons“embrace immigrants, broken people, and people otherwise disillusioned and dispossessed. Their heartfelt beauty and hunger for justice impart a sense that all be welcomes, as all are worthy.…
Miranda-Straub relates that her boundary crossing began early. Her poem “The Cradle” shares a message received from her twin sister who died in the womb: “Always remember that your big sister is watching out for you. / Breathe, beat, swim, stretch, grasp, swallow. Your time is now.” Elsewhere, “The Feast” pays homage to her Cuban grandmother’s abiding love.
Striking and multisensory, lines evoke the smells of orange peel and melted brown sugar; the flame of red tiles lining the stove; the cracked porcelain of the sink; and the sight of her grandmother’s hands as she prepares the special treat to carry on the trip to America. “I carry Abuelita’s warmth and sweetness close to my sprouting chest,” she writes.…
Presented in both English and Spanish, the book is an expression of vitality and of being open to all that life has to offer."
Foreword Clarion Reviews (4-star review)