The True Story of a Mouse who Never Asked for It

★ A New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2021 ★

“With spare prose and evocative illustrations, a traditional Spanish folk tale about the marriage of a mouse to a kitten who becomes a monstrous cat is transformed into a powerful parable of domestic abuse.” —New York Times

★ Selected for the Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18 Booklist ★

“With many layers of meaning in the text and illustrations, this is both a work of art as well as a thought-provoking story that is unfortunately relevant to so many women’s lives. We are grateful that it is now available in English and feel sure that it will be appreciated by many. Thank you for sharing this reimagined folktale in such a beautiful format and with such powerful and devastating impact!” —Rise: A Feminist Book Project (Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association)

Ana Cristina Herreros is a philologist and folklore specialist who combines her work as an editor with her day job as a professional storyteller (under the name Ana Griott) and has performed in libraries, theaters, prisons, cafés, schools, and parks since 1992. With Ediciones Siruela, she has also published Cuentos populares del Mediterráneo, Libro de Monstruos españoles, Libro de Brujas españolas, Geografía mágica y Cuentos populares de la Madre Muerte.

Violeta Lópiz is a Spanish illustrator currently living in Peru. She has illustrated numerous books including The Forest (Enchanted Lion Books, 2018), which was selected as a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2018, Amigos do Peito (Bruaa, 2014), and Les poings sur les îles (Editions du Rouergue, 2011), which received the CJ Picture Book Award 2011 in the New Books category. She has participated in exhibitions in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, USA, Japan, Korea, and more. El Cultural, the supplement of El Mundo, considers her one of the top ten names of contemporary Spanish illustration. Her work can be found in bookstores, streets, fairs, newspapers, and the thousands of notebooks that she leaves scattered around.

Chloe Garcia Roberts is a poet and translator from the Spanish and Chinese. She is the author of a book of poetry, The Reveal, which was published as part of Noemi Press’s Akrilika Series for innovative Latino writing. Her translations include Li Shangyin’s Derangements of My Contemporaries: Miscellaneous Notes (New Directions), which was awarded a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, and a collected poems of Li Shangyin published in the New York Review Books / Poets series. Her translations of children’s literature include Cao Wenxuan’s Feather (Archipelago Books/Elsewhere Editions) which was an USBBY Outstanding International Book for 2019, and Decur’s When You Look Up (Enchanted Lion) which was named a Best Children’s Book of 2020 by the New York Times. Her essays, poems, and translations have appeared in the publications BOMB, Boston Review, A Public Space, Kenyon Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Gulf Coast among others. She lives outside Boston and works as managing editor of Harvard Review.