It’s Saturday night! I’m excited to bring you tips for your evening from author Marissa Bañez. She’s the author of Hope and Fortune. It’s a book about a child who loses her way that seeks help from 12 multi-cultural and multi-generational fairies, who give her practical life advice to get on the right track. This is not a book you want to miss!
You can read more about the book at the end of the post, but first, take it away Marissa!
Book Recommendation: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher
Murray
The Personal Librarian is about the light-skinned Black woman responsible for the curation of the Morgan Pierpont Library who hides her heritage . . . out of necessity? Ambition? Both? Something else? Her powerful story reflects the problems in racial politics and relations that persist to this day.
In Hope and Fortune, I feature a Black fairy (the Fortune Fairy of Confidence), who celebrates and honors the resilience of Black women in the face of adversity. Interestingly, the fairy’s advice could well have been spoken by Ms. da Costa Greene, as she is depicted in The Personal Librarian:
“Always love yourself but don’t be selfish,
And be proud of everything that you accomplish.”
Movie Recommendation: The Hundred-Foot Journey
I really don’t want to spend my ever-shrinking time on this earth watching gratuitous sex and senseless violence. I want stories that uplift the spirit, feed the mind, and celebrate the best of humanity – without being Pollyana-ish – like The Hundred-Foot Journey.
It’s just plain, good storytelling about an Indian immigrant family introducing Indian food in their restaurant across the street from a Michelin-starred establishment. While a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step, a hundred-foot journey to cross a cultural divide can begin with a single taste.
Wild Card Recommendation – Crash Landing on You (“CLOY”)
You’ll laugh.
You’ll cry (a lot but in a good way).
You’ll fall in love.
You’ll crave Korean. Fried. Chicken!
Told with humor and compassion with a cast of characters that you will stay with you well after you’ve finished all 16 episodes, CLOY touches upon “big things” like cultural diversity, socioeconomic differences, geopolitical issues, intrigue, and family conflicts. But in the end, it’s a love story . . . and a story about love.
Beware: CLOY is the gateway to the wondrous but time-sucking black hole that is Korean drama.
What fun suggestions! Thank you Marissa!
About Hope and Fortune
Trying to possess its beauty, Esperanza chases after a butterfly, which inevitably leaves her behind, lost and scared. Then, she meets 12 Fortune Fairies. Among them is the Fortune Fairy of Beauty, who talks about the beautiful butterfly that flew away and comforts Esperanza by saying: “Beauty is not what you see with your eyes but with your heart.” The other Fortune Fairies likewise give Esperanza words to live by to discover her true path.
Hope and Fortune is a children’s book with positive and frank messages about empowerment and self-discovery, designed to stay with a child well beyond childhood.
Through her non-traditional Fortune Fairies, Marissa Bañez uses unvarnished words and vivid images to convey inspirational, aspirational, and optimistic perspectives on meeting some of life’s challenges. Hope and Fortune is an invaluable toolbox containing tools to help children cope in their personal life journeys. It is a MUST BUY not only for children but for everyone who has ever felt lost.
Purchase a copy for yourself on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. You should also add it to your GoodReads reading list.
Marissa Bañez is a Princeton University graduate, lawyer, and author of the children’s illustrated
book, Hope and Fortune. Her second book, Hues and Harmony (How the Rainbow Butterfly Got
Her Colors) will be published on July 20, 2023.
Thanks for sharing!