This Is My Bag: A Story of the Unhoused (Paperback)
An unhoused person carries a bag through the streets, to a shelter, to a house, to the subway, and the park. With each changing location, the protagonist and their bag also changes, reflecting the various faces and reasons for homelessness and asking the reader to contemplate themes of community, self-reliance, and the meaning of "home.
Roxanne Chester is a graduate of Berkeley Law School with a career background in advocacy. She has spent many years working for organizations that support the unhoused. She identifies as a person of African American and Mexican American decent. She creates children's books that address empathy and humanity. This is her first picture book. Abe Matias is an illustrator and puppet artist based in Los Angeles, CA. He spent his childhood in Mexico making his own toys and drawing lots of stories. After getting a degree in graphic design in Chicago, he moved to LA to work as a designer, illustrator in the entertainment and gaming industry. He's done work for HarperCollins, Macmillan, Nickelodeon, Disney, HBO, and Blizzard.