✨Happy Book Birthday!!!✨
I’m excited to share another moment of little known history. This time I get to do it with an amazing writer, editor, mentor, and most importantly, friend!!! Patti, I appreciate you and it’s an honor to create with you. 💕
#sarahelizabethray #picturebook
✨ COVER REVEAL ✨ Take a look at the beautiful cover for I AM THE RIVER: SARAH E. RAY AND THE BOB-LO BOAT by @leahs_mark , Patricia Lee Gauch, and @kristhecreative , a biographical picture book forthcoming from @levinequerido on January 6th, 2026!
🎨 Cover illustration by Kristle Marshall
📖 About the Book: 📖
The Detroit River has long had a story to tell. It has seen a time before people. And it has seen many faces cross its waters, from Indigenous people guiding canoes to settlers on its banks and freedom seekers riding the underground railroad north toward liberty, with Bob-Lo Island at the river’s end, so close to Canada.
At one time, a giant steamboat carried hundreds of excited children and adults to the amusement park that was built on Bob-Lo.
But Sarah E. Ray discovered in 1945 that not all people were invited on this boat, to this island, once a symbol of the journey to freedom. It depended, she discovered, on the color of your skin.
This is the dramatic story of how one young woman’s courage could create a dramatic turning point that would stand out proudly, and forevermore, in the history of a river older than the country called America.
🌊 I AM THE RIVER is available to pre-order today!
Tags: #CoverReveal #BookCover #PictureBookCover #PictureBooks #2026Books #2026BookRelease #2026PictureBooks #BiographicalPictureBook #KidLit #ChildrensBooks #LevineQuerido #IndependentPublishers #IAmTheRiver #IAmTheRiverSarahERayAndTheBobLoBoat #SarahERay #DetroitStories #DetroitHistory #DetroitHistoricalFigures #DiverseBooks #WNDB #WeNeedDiverseBooks
So many amazing days & nights in Zululand filled with animals, laughter, paint, people, food and conservation!! Thank you @wildtomorrow & @cbcc_wild for an incredible adventure in South Africa full of learning, fun, community (and shopping)!!! 🇿🇦🐘🦓🌿🇿🇦 #seeingtheworld #conservationthroughcreativity #communityandconservation #wildtomorrow #childrensbookcreatorsforconservation
Canceled flights, rerouted planes, dugout canoes, 5-car ferries, forest hikes, rock climbs, and crazy seven/eight hour drives were all worth it for the beauty I got to witness (including the Avenue des Baobab a bucket list dream). #wanderlust #seeingtheworld #madagascar
✨Workshop Alert✨ Interested in walking through your story from start to finish? Join me next week (4.16.25) for a 4-week Whale Rock Workshop. #amwriting #whalerockworkshops #writingworkshop
Join us at Scrawl Books TONIGHT at 7PM as we welcome Meera Trehan! Meera and fellow middle grade author Leah Henderson will be discussing Meera's new middle grade novel, Snow.
🏷️ #kidlit #booksigning #booklaunch #restonva #ILoveVA #ThingsToDoInNOVA
Join us at Scrawl Books on Thursday, February 6 at 7PM as we welcome Meera Trehan! Meera and fellow middle grade author Leah Henderson will be discussing Meera's new middle grade novel, Snow.
🏷️ #kidlit #booksigning #booklaunch #restonva #ILoveVA #ThingsToDoInNOVA
@free_expressions_lit has a wonderful writing series twice a year and I’ll be talking all about revision this Thursday. Link in bio. #amwriting #amrevising
There is so much history that isn’t widely known, but should be. And it’s kind of amazing that I get to work with some pretty dynamic people to share a little of that history! 📚#picturebooks #littleknownhistory #detroit #blackhistory📚
