Michael de Guzman

After writing five novels for middle readers that were published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, I am publishing my new book on my own. GROWING UP RITA is the story of twelve-year-old Rita Martinez, who was born in the United States to Alicia, who came here illegally from Mexico. It's about what happens when Alicia is picked up in an immigration raid and Rita is left alone. She must find the courage and resourcefulness to survive, while she tries to find her mother and get her back. Like my other books, this one is about a kid who populates the margins of conventional society, who has something big to face, who takes action on her own behalf, and who is aided by adults who live on the margins themselves. A coming together of the world we live in and the world inside my head.

When I was growing up I saw injustice and hypocrisy everywhere I looked. I still do. The battle against them goes on. Windmills must be tilted at, or the power of romance will disappear, and we will be the poorer for it. I believe in the power of imagination and laughter and love. And, as a character in FINDING STINKO says, "Hope is the soap that floats in the bathtub of life."


I went to Trinity School in Manhattan and the University of Rhode Island, where I met my wife, to whom, much to my good fortune, I am still married. We live in Seattle.