Visiting Author: Robert Liu-Trujillo
This week, we had the wonderful opportunity of getting to know a local, visiting author and illustrator, Robert Liu-Trujillo.
Robert is the author-illustrator of Fresh Juice, Furqan's First Flat Top and the illustrator of many picture books, including Alejandria Fights Back. His work is gorgeous.
When he was a kid, his dad made fresh wheatgrass juice and his stepfather juiced fruits and vegetables. Now as a husband and father, Robert makes fresh juice for his family. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and two kids.
On his visit, Robert met with the Garnet & Aquamarine bands and then with Lapis & Quartz.
Karin sat in on the Youngest Gems session recounted a sweet conversation. He shared that he was from Oakland.
The conversation went as follows:
Garnet (Kindergartener): What’s Oakland?
Robert: It’s a city that was covered in oak trees which is how it got its name.
Another Garnet: That sounds beautiful. I like the name, Oakland.
During our session, he fielded questions about his life as an author+illustrator, shared his drawing notebook, and read his latest book Fresh Juice.
The storyline follows a boy and his dad, who is catching a cold. They visited the farmers market in their community, saw friends who grew fruits and vegetables and made juice to fend off the cold.
It’s a story about community care, food as medicine, and taking care of our loved ones. The following day, the Lapis band made carrot, apple, ginger, and lemon juice with a juicer.
Read more:
Visit Robert online at work.robdontstop.com.
Robert shares that we can check out other books featuring “Dope Black Dad’s” here at this link.
You can also check out that time he got featured in Mother Magazine.