Rabbit hOle Hosts Book Launch for Pedro Martin’s Mexikid Dreams
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Pedro Martín used to hate strawberries.
Growing up he spent every weekend and summer handpicking them alongside his parents and eight siblings in southern California.
His new graphic novel, Mexikid Dreams, hit bookshelves this week. In it he shares his experience as a Mexican-American kid in the 1970s hoping to escape the back-breaking labor of the strawberry fields and become a cartoonist or a musician.
This book is billed as a companion to his first book, Mexikid, which was published in 2023 and received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, Eisner Award, Harvey Award, and the Pura Belpré Award for both author and illustrator.
“I'm hoping that this one will be another stepping stone to more stories that I can tell and more acceptance,” Martín said. “And more audiences liking the storytelling that I've kind of honed and figured out for myself.”
Like many graphic novelists, Martín’s gateway to reading was comic books. Because of financial and other limitations, there were not a lot of books in his childhood home.
“It wasn't until my older brothers and sisters started bringing in MAD Magazine and comic books that I started getting excited about reading, because I was fascinated by the artwork,” Martín said. “And so I had to ask, like, what are they saying? And then once I kind of figured out what they were saying, I started to pick up reading and my excitement for reading. But to me, art and words were always the same thing.”
On Friday, August 28, 2026, four days before Mexikid Dreams was released, The Rabbit hOle hosted two special events with Martín.
In the morning 5th-8th grade students from Carver Dual Language Academy and Guadalupe Centers Middle School attended a special presentation with Martín, and each received a signed copy of Mexikid Dreams.
Martín shared stories from his childhood, how he came to create books, and his creative process, which at times has included editorial support from a possum living in the ceiling of his basement studio.
Students were especially engaged during a live-drawing demonstration, and when Martín asked students to raise their hand if their mom makes the best rice. Martín promptly told them they were all wrong and that his mother makes the best rice, which led to some good-natured smack talk.
“We are so grateful for opportunities like this that encourage our students to connect with authors, celebrate diverse stories, and see themselves as readers and creators,” Guadalupe Centers Middle School shared in a post-event Facebook post.
That evening at an adults-only launch celebration, guests enjoyed delicious bites generously provided by Yoli Totilleria followed by a conversation between Martín and fellow award-winning children’s book creator Daniel Miyares.
The two creators first met when they both were working at Hallmark, and in recent years have published acclaimed graphic memoirs centered around their fathers’ immigration experiences and dreams for a better life.
“The idea that our parents and grandparents made choices with something very specific years down the line, but as a kid, it's hard to grasp that and I think you captured that beautifully,” Miyares said.
“When I did want to break away and do my own thing, I had this real visceral guilt because I didn’t feel like I should be able to do this work by itself,” Martín responded. “I mean everything kind of hinges on all of us being there in the field picking strawberries. At the same time I am still yearning for this other thing, but I think that's kind of universal, especially for first generation kids coming here.”
Martín’s personal growth and artistic journey aligned seamlessly with The Rabbit hOle’s current collaborative series, Reading is Reinvention, for which he designed a limited edition print. Initially he wanted to depict how he read comics in the shade under their truck while out in the strawberry fields but was struggling with the design.
Then, like most of the solutions to Martín’s problems, his wife, Gina, made a suggestion.
“She goes, ‘Didn't you tell me that you used to read your comic books hanging off the bed?’ And I said, yeah, I would just put my stomach on the bed, hang my head over, and I would read comics until my head hurt. That's when I knew I should stop,” said Martín.
“So then I started drawing that character of myself…. And I started kind of drawing the things that I read. It was Flash Gordon, Mexican cowboy guys, sword and sorcery things, pirates, all that stuff was super exciting.”
Martín’s print is available for purchase at Lucky Rabbit Books and in The Rabbit hOle’s online shop.
