Lerner Publishing Group and Milkweed Editions Collaborate to Create a Young Adult Adaption of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Acclaimed Bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Lerner Publishing Group™ and Milkweed Editions today announced a new partnership to create a young reader’s adaptation of botanist and Citizen Potawatomi Nation member Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Planned for publication in fall 2022 in Lerner’s Zest Books™ imprint, the new edition of the bestseller will add illustrations and will be adapted for a young adult audience by Monique Gray Smith (Cree), with editing by Shaina Olmanson, Editorial Director for Young Adult Nonfiction at Lerner Publishing Group.
In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer weaves together the science of botany and ancient Indigenous wisdom, exploring the importance of our relationship with and respect for the plants that exist around us. Drawing on her life as an Indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.
“Braiding Sweetgrass leaves a lasting impact and opens readers’ senses to how they treat our natural environment,” said Adam Lerner, Publisher & CEO of Lerner Publishing Group. “Lerner is honored to work with Milkweed Editions, another independent Minnesota publisher, to add beautiful illustrations and further descriptions to make this bestselling book accessible for a younger audience.”“Braiding Sweetgrass has become a phenomenon, reaching national bestseller lists and more than a dozen foreign countries,” said Daniel Slager, Publisher & CEO of Milkweed Editions. “Robin Wall Kimmerer and all of us at Milkweed are delighted to be working with Monique Gray Smith and the outstanding team at the Lerner Publishing Group to expand its audience to young readers.”
“I am honored to have the opportunity to bring Robin’s important work to young readers with Monique,” said Shaina Olmanson, Editorial Director for Young Adult Nonfiction at Lerner Publishing Group. “The themes that are interwoven throughout Braiding Sweetgrass align beautifully with both middle school and high school curriculum around social and emotional learning and environmental science. This new edition will help affirm the identities and beliefs of Indigenous teens while also introducing non-Indigenous teens to Indigenous teachings and ways of understanding the natural world.”
About Lerner Publishing Group
Lerner Publishing Group creates high-quality fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults. Founded in 1959, Lerner Publishing Group is one of the nation’s largest independent children’s book publishers with fifteen imprints and divisions: Lerner Publications, Millbrook Press™, Carolrhoda Books®, Twenty-First Century Books™, Graphic Universe™, Darby Creek™, Kar-Ben Publishing™, Carolrhoda Lab®, LernerClassroom™, Hungry Tomato®, ediciones Lerner, First Avenue Editions™, Lerner Digital™, Zest Books™, and Lerner Publisher Services™. For more information, visit lernerbooks.com or call 800-328-4929. Follow us online at the Lerner Blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
About Milkweed Editions
Milkweed Editions is one of the nation’s leading independent publishers. A 501©3 nonprofit organization, our mission is to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it. We believe that literature has the potential to change the way we see the world, and that bringing new voices to essential conversations is the clearest path to ensuring a vibrant, diverse, and empowered future.
Media contact:
Lindsay Matvick
Publicity Manager
800-328-4929, x385
lmatvick@lernerbooks.com