• Starred review from Kirkus

• Starred review from Publishers Weekly

• Kirkus: The Most Anticipated Children's Books of Spring 2026
  

A powerful poem about two girls separated by barbed wire and 80 years of history

Barbed Wire Between Us is a powerful reverso poem that tells two deeply resonant stories across time. It begins with a Japanese American girl sent to an internment camp in Oklahoma during World War II. Read in reverse, it reveals the journey of a Latina girl detained in the very same camp decades later, during the U.S. policy of migrant family separation.

Harrowing and emotionally charged, this poetic narrative compels us to confront a haunting question: What have we truly learned in the past 80 years about how we treat the most vulnerable among us?

With haunting symmetry and striking parallels, Barbed Wire Between Us is a moving meditation on justice, memory, and the echoes of history that still shape our present.

About the Author
Mia Wenjen is an Asian American author who blogs about parenting, children's books, and education at pragmaticmom.com. She is the cocreator of Multicultural Children's Book Day/Read Your World. She is the author of several illustrated children's books, including We Sing from the Heart, The Traveling Taco, and Fortune Cookies for Everyone, also from Red Comet Press. Wenjen lives in Boston with her husband and three kids. Follow her at #PragmaticMom on X, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Violeta Encarnacion is an award-winning Cuban illustrator based in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City and enjoys telling stories through her work and creating art with traditional materials, digital media, and animation. Barbed Wire Between Us is her second picture book project. Visit her online at violetaencarnacion.com.

Reviews

"A haunting dual narrative of imprisonment and family separation." Starred Reveiw

* Publishers Weekly *

"A significant portrayal of ongoing U.S. civil rights violations, exposed through the experiences of young children." Starred Review

* Kirkus Reviews *

One of the most anticipated children's books of Spring 2026

* Kirkus Reviews *



Book Information
ISBN 9781636551920
Author Mia Wenjen
Format Hardback
Page Count 48
Imprint Red Comet Press LLC
Publisher Red Comet Press LLC