What’s concealed in the unknowable depths of the sea? Could this watery realm truly be a bit otherworldly? In her forthcoming novel Graciela in the Abyss, Newbery Medalist and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Meg Medina explores an eerie underwater world with an evocative ghost story for middle grade readers. The cover is shown here for the first time.
Designed by Pam Consolazio and illustrated by Anna and Elena Balbusso (who also contributed interior art), the cover is “age-appropriately spooky,” said Medina, adding that the illustrators “hit it exactly right” for this haunting story; “kids like to be scared.” While Graciela delivers on the chills with phantasmal characters and a mysterious setting, at its core, she said, it’s essentially about the hidden depths within each of us and the unseen forces that bind us.
In 2010, Medina started a story about two girls who are sea spirits, initially completing a chapter or two. “Every year, I’d come back to the book and try it again. But nothing was really coalescing. I found the characters, but I couldn’t quite find the story and kept abandoning it.” It was relegated to a folder Medina stores on her desktop labeled “The Graveyard”—the place she keeps false-start stories that may still hold some promise for future work. She revisits the folder regularly, sometimes retrieving a character name, scene, setting, or even a sentence. “You never know what’s in there. It’s like being a treasure hunter.”
A few factors came into play to change the fate of the story. Medina’s mother died and the author became a long-time caretaker to her aunt. When the pandemic hit, it was impossible for caregivers to see loved ones who were in care facilities. Then, her aunt died as well. “I felt like I was in the abyss,” she said. “Loss was everywhere.” Her grief was compounded by the rancor that engulfed the country during the time of Covid restrictions. “I went back to the Graveyard,” she said, adding that she was “really wrestling with big questions. What do we all owe each other as a community? Do ideas such as valor still exist? I started to write this very spooky story.”
Graciela in the Abyss is told through two perspectives. While playing with her sister on a cliff a century ago, Graciela has an accident and is plunged into the sea, where she sleeps for 100 years. When she awakens, “her journey begins,” Medina said. Her job is to make sea glass and assist her friend, Amina, who is charged with welcoming newly awakened sea ghosts from their death sleep. Twelve-old Jorge is a living boy, who helps his parents with blacksmithing at his family’s forge. One day, he discovers a hand-wrought harpoon with a terrible power. When the harpoon is accidentally reunited with its vengeful creator, Graciela and Jorge join forces to prevent it from unleashing dark magic on the world.
Because of its spooky nature, Graciela in the Abyss is a bit of a departure for Medina, whose other works span realistic picture books to YA to anthologies. But at its heart, the novel confronts many familiar themes such as courage and being true to oneself. Now, as the world is collectively moving on from the pandemic, Medina said, it was important to explore how we can rise up out of such difficulty through story. “It wasn’t a book about Covid, and yet that shift that happened under all of us is really part of the book.” The story allowed her to help children consider how such events can “build us and not leave us in tatters.”
While researching what the abyss of the ocean is really like, Medina says she read the work of many scientists, especially women. While there’s an assumption that the depths of the ocean are barren, she discovered that this is far from the truth. She recalls being struck by what she learned about bioluminescent creatures, which are able to create their own light. “Ultimately, I think that’s what growing up is about,” she said. “Making your own light.”
While Graciela tackles difficult truths for middle grade readers, Medina also has a new picture book centering on a universal and central experience for younger readers—relationships with caregivers. No More Señora Mimí, illustrated by Brittany Cicchese, was inspired by Medina’s own childhood experience with her caregiver Mimí, a Cuban woman who lived in her neighborhood and babysat her while her mother was at work.
When Medina was six, her mother announced that the family would no longer need Mimí as a sitter because her grandparents were arriving from Cuba and would take over her care. Medina “fired” Mimí, telling her that her real grandmother was on the way. Mimí responded with a big-hearted laugh. When Medina’s abuela arrived, she and Mimí became close friends.
No More Señora Mimí is “a celebration of caregivers,” Medina said. “A lot of kids spend a lot of time with caregivers. Some of these relationships are very close and loving.” But there aren’t many picture books that explore these relationships that exist outside the bounds of family. She imagined this story filling that gap, picturing a caregiver and child reading it together. Caregivers are part of a child’s life, but they can also become part of a child’s “literary life,” she says. In the U.S., studies show that much of the caregiving to both children and the elderly is done by women of color. This book honors and acknowledges their importance in the lives of children. No More Señora Mimí is available in both English and Spanish.
This fall, Medina’s term as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature comes to an end, but her work advocating for children’s literature will continue in part through her “Let’s Talk Books!” video series. The 18-part series, featuring Medina’s chats with authors writing in a range of genres, is available on YouTube.
Graciela in the Abyss by Meg Medina, cover and interior illustrations by Anna and Elena Balbusso. Candlewick, $18.99 July 2025 ISBN 978-1-5362-4496-0
No More Señora Mimí by Meg Medina, illus. by Brittany Cicchese. Candlewick, $17.99 Sept. 3 ISBN 978-1-5362-1944-9
