Ryan Estrada – författare

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"Highly recommended for readers passionate about activism." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, Starred Review

"Sure to inspire today’s youthful generation of tenacious changemakers." — BOOKLIST, Starred Review

"The messages of hope are universal." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred Review

"A timely read about friendship amid chaos." — NPR

"It’s hard to imagine a world where Banned Book Club could be more relevant than it is right now." — A.V. CLUB

When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family’s restaurant. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined.

This was during South Korea''s Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protestors. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invited her to his reading group, she expected to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Scarlet Letter. Instead she found herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. And as Hyun Sook soon discovered, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence as the walls close in.

In BANNED BOOK CLUB, Hyun Sook shares a dramatic true story of political division, fear-mongering, anti-intellectualism, the death of democratic institutions, and the relentless rebellion of reading.

"Madcap antics and adventures." — KIRKUS

"A fun adventure tale with a lot of personality." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

“I want to tell you a story about being a student ambassador, but that will be boring. So instead, I’ll tell you about the time I almost got eaten by a crocodile.”

When eight-year-old student ambassador Joseph Bazan wins a photo op with the President of the United States, he doesn’t quite know what to expect, but it certainly isn’t hanging out with the leader of the free world in a secret compartment inside the resolute desk! Joseph’s pluck and kid logic not only charm the president, but they soon help resolve a thorny trade dispute. This gives POTUS an idea. Across the ocean, eight-year-old boy king Nang Nukatau III has taken his father''s crown and clumsily stumbled into an international incident, and now Joseph’s got a pressing mission: talk the tiny dictator back from the brink of war!

The diplomatic slumber party soon goes from awkward to scary as the castle is stormed and the boys are lost across South Korea and Japan where they have to outrun bad guys, learn to read Hangul, unravel the riddle of Gyeongbok Palace, break out of an abandoned bathhouse, befriend an army of snow monkeys, and crack the Case of the Missing Dragon, all while showing Nang how to live in a world where everyone doesn’t always bow to you. Can a kid with a C+ in social studies solve the mystery and teach a king to be a kid?

Student Ambassador is a globe-trotting action-adventure set in the real world where dangers mount, the stakes are high, and smarts save the day!