On a trip to visit her cousin in Poland, a child struggles with not feeling “Polish enough” until they bond over their love of fairy tales. On a trip to visit her cousin in Poland, a child initially struggles with not feeling “Polish enough.” She finds it hard to understand her aunt's quick Polish speech and feels embarrassed at her own attempts to speak Polish. When she and her cousin discover their shared love of fairy tales, though, they bond instantly and set off together on an adventure across the city of Warsaw to find Syrenka Warszawska (the Mermaid of Warsaw). Endnotes include Polish words and pronunciations, as well as information about Polish history, Polish fairy tales and Warsaw landmarks. AGES: 6 to 10 AUTHOR: Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was a Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives south of Boston, Massachusetts with her family and teaches courses on writing and children's literature. She is the author of over twenty books for young readers, including the novels Clique Here and The Wonder of Wildflowers; the picture books Dogosaurus Rex and Beast in Show; and the Once Upon a Fairy Tale chapter book series. annastan.com Ewa Poklewska-Koziello was born in Gdansk, but currently she lives in Sopot, Poland. She studied architecture at the Technical University of Gdansk, where she found she was much more attracted to the decorative details of her architectural plans than to the technical aspects of them. This realization led her to become an illustrator. Today, she has published several dozen books, coursebooks and children magazines, and has participated in many exhibitions of illustrations. She has been nominated for the IBBY prize several times. Her artwork combines traditional and digital techniques: she begins by hand painting using gouaches, acrylics and crayons on paper and then incorporates further details on the computer. ewapoklewskakoziello.com SELLING POINTS: . THE POWER OF STORIES: Demonstrates the transformative power of folktales and stories to connect people across great distances and cultural differences . GLOBAL: Set in modern-day Warsaw, the story incorporates Polish language and culture . DIVERSITY & IDENTITY: The protagonist finds a way to connect with her cultural heritage, overcoming the worry that she is “not Polish enough,” in this story that many second- or third-generation families and children will be able to relate to