sara lissa

A timid ten-year-old boy meets Johnny, a gruff islander who will change his life, in this heartwarming middle-grade novel about finding yourself and your place in the world

Pedro has always dreamed of going to the sea. So when his mom takes him on a special trip to a small island in the Caribbean, he’s so happy that he grows an extra inch! But the troubles at home--bullying from classmates and an absent father--find a way to follow Pedro, even on vacation... Overwhelmed, the boy takes to the beach and runs away, hoping to leave his worries far behind.

That’s when he meets Johnny, an islander descended from pirates. At first, Pedro is frightened by Johnny’s imposing appearance and brusque manners. But Johnny, along with his chatty parrot Victoria, takes young Pedro under his wing and shares his island and his stories with him, thereby changing Pedro’s life. Because sometimes, like Pedro, you have to lose yourself to find yourself.

Melba Escobar is a Colombian author and journalist. Her debut Spanish-language children’s book, Johnny, the Sea, and Me, was selected for the 2015 White Ravens catalog as an outstanding international book by the International Youth Library. Escobar lives in Barcelona with her husband and two children, and writes for El País and Colombia’s El Tiempo. Elizabeth Builes is a Colombian illustrator who won the Tragaluz Illustration Award in 2013 and went on to receive worldwide recognition for the original Colombian edition of Johnny, the Sea and Me in 2015. Sara Lissa Paulson is a translator of Spanish and Latin American poetry, picture books, and middle grade fiction. Her first translation, Book of Questions (Enchanted Lion, 2022), was selected as a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2022.