“I swear I’m never going to write anything this personal ever again.” Jose Pimienta Discusses Halfway to Somewhere

Last week the staff in my library received instructions on what to do if ICE suddenly shows up on library property. This is the world that we live in right now. And with all that in mind, those of us that work with children’s books know deep in our heart of hearts that in a country where children’s literature is banned at an excruciatingly consistent rate, we need to get more stories into the hands of the kids. Stories, in this case, of immigration from Mexico to America. Now in 2025 we’re already seeing some incredible titles (have you seen Pilgrim Codex by Vivian Mansour, ill. Emmanuel Valtierra?!?) but the one I want to focus on today is a graphic novel. Halfway to Somewhere by Jose Pimienta comes out February 18th and is best described by its publisher this way:

New school, new country, but only half a family?! Embark on a coming of age journey with a middle school teen navigating their parent’s divorce while moving to a new country in this stunning graphic novel.

Ave thought moving to Kansas would be boring and flat after enjoying the mountains and trails in Mexico, but at least they would have their family with them. Unfortunately, while Ave, their mom, and their younger brother are relocating to the US, Ave’s father and older sister will be staying in Mexico…permanently. Their parents are getting a divorce.

As if learning a whole new language wasn’t hard enough, and now a Middle-Schooler has to figure out a new family dynamic…and what this means for them as they start middle school with no friends.

Jose Pimienta’s stunningly illustrated and thought provoking middle graphic novel is about exploring identity, understanding family, making friends with a language barrier, and above all else, learning what truly makes a place a home.

I had the chance to ask author/illustrator Jose Pimienta about their latest title and all that it entails:

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Betsy Bird: Jose! Thank you so much for joining me today. HALFWAY TO SOMEWHERE is your third graphic novel in what you yourself call your Mexicali trilogy (following SUN CATCHER and TWIN CITIES, I presume). But the path to writing this book seems like it had an interesting and indirect route. Can you tell us a bit about its origins?

Jose Pimienta: Hello! Thank you for having me here. Yes – Halfway to Somewhere is the third installment in the thematic trilogy. I’d feel comfortable saying it was assembled from multiple ideas. I wasn’t sure what the core idea was, but at the time I wanted to tell a story about a family pilgrimage, moving to a new place and I knew I wanted to explore language. Elizabeth (My agent) made suggestions and I put everything in an incomprehensible rant until I found a character I wanted to travel with and get to know. From there, I explored what their story could be and I had to figure out how to incorporate as many of the ideas Whitney (My editor), Elizabeth and I thought would support the character’s journey. After that, it was a lot of rewriting and course correction. But eventually we made the best version of the story we could. That’s the short version of the origins. Finding the concept took a lot of play with different ideas and figuring out how they could fit cohesively.

BB: The topics you hit on with this book would be difficult for a comic for adults to grapple with, let alone one for kids. Linguistic discrimination, assimilation, code-switching, schisms within and between communities, etc. When you have to get your arms around subject matter this difficult, what do you do to make it comprehensible to kids?

Jose: I’m fortunate to have a wonderful and supportive editor (Whitney Leopard.) She gives me the space to explore and figure out how I want to talk about these topics. She also does a great job at reigning me in and keeping the focus of the story and the characters. I do go through multiple iterations of the dialogues in order to find the most natural, yet simple words for the characters to speak.

I include myself in the group of authors who say “I want to write the books I wish I had when I was younger.” With that as a guiding star, I often ask “How would these topics be understandable to me when I was younger?” These are big topics, and at a distant glance, not the most exciting one. But they are the ones I can’t stop thinking about on a regular basis. So, in a way, I’m processing things I wish I had figured out sooner. I think these topics are important and prominent in a lot of kids’ lives. I just hope the conversations continue. Does this make sense?

BB: Tell us a little bit about drawing Mexicali. You shifted a little with this latest book into zeroing in on a single location. How did you select it and why for this book?

Jose: For anyone who hasn’t visited La Rumorosa, you’re missing out. It’s a beautiful sight. I think I’ve mentioned before that in Suncatcher, Mexicali is a bit of a background character. In Twin Cities, it’s very much the third main character. But for this one, I didn’t want to repeat myself and I didn’t know how else to draw what I had already drawn. While wanting to stay in the region, I also wanted to widen the landscape. La Rumorosa is a natural treasure right outside the city And I’ve never seen it in a comic. So this book was an opportunity and a challenge.

BB: This book isn’t a memoir, yet in your Author’s Note you say that, “This book is the most personal story I’ve ever written as fiction.” In what way?

Jose: Yeah, when I finished Twin Cities I swore I was never going to write anything that personal again. And then I wrote this book and I swear I’m never going to write anything this personal ever again. 

It is correct, this book is not a memoir but it’s very personal. My family and I did use to go on road trips and my dad did put a lot of effort in showing us the beauties of the natural world that were accessible to us. Also when I first visited Lawrence, Kansas I fell in love with its charm and learning how much my wife loves her hometown made me embrace it as another place to call home. 

More than anything, the book is also about being homesick while trying to make a new city a home. And that’s something I still grapple with. I don’t have anything conclusive to say since I’m still navigating that. But I found myself putting a lot of my worries about identity into Ave’s journey and a lot of my learned lessons into the people around them. Also, a lot of the characters are ensembles of different people in my life. A lot of the dialogues are taken from conversations I’ve had with friends and family. And yes, I do have a brother and a sister, so being a middle non-binary sibling is an explicit personal detail.

BB: Tell us a little bit about the care and attention you place on naming your characters. What’s your process and how did it differ for this particular book?

Jose: Names to me are very important. I don’t think it should be that important, but to me it is. I spent too much time thinking who I was naming a character after, renaming them later and then changing my mind and thinking of something else. When I finally land on a name I’m comfortable with it’s a good day. Most characters are named after someone in my life, so I try to do right by them. And some names I just want to be sure they fit the character. 

For this book, the family took a lot of time. If you look at their names, both women in the family have unisex names (Joss and Cruz) event though they are emphatically women. And the men have more conventionally masculine names. I named the father Rodolfo because of the strong R in the beginning but also because it’s a name where the only vowels it has is Os. And in Spanish that’s usually an indicator for “masculine.” I named Ray and Joss after two of my best friends from Mexicali. And I named the main character “Ave” because I wanted a nonbinary name that despite its simplicity in spelling, it may be somewhat unclear on its pronunciation. I also loved its etymological meaning as well as the colloquial use of the word (Ave is another word for bird) 

The rest of the characters are named after close friends and family members. As much as I’d love to go into full detail of each one, I’ll focus on the neighbors as an example, especially the young boy Tom. They’re both named after Tom Stanford Lyle. He was a comic artist/writer/professor/mentor/friend I met in college. I chose his name for the boy who embraces a newcomer and is eager to help who also has a well mannered father. I wanted to honor his memory. 

BB: You say that this book is part of a trilogy, but is there a chance that a fourth book might come along as well? And what are you working on next?

Jose: As much as I love Mexicali, I think that if I try to write anything else set there, at this moment it would feel a bit forced. Mexicali has changed so much since I lived there and unless I had more experiences there, I don’t see setting a story there as naturally as I did for the past three books. I know I should never say never (see my answer about writing so personal) but for now or at a foreseeable future, it’s just not in my cards. But who knows? Stories finds us when we least expect them and despite our protests.  Currently I’m writing a new Middle Grade book I can’t talk about much about, since I’m still in the script stage. But earlier this year I finished “The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur” written by Allan Wolf, which comes out later in 2025. And we’re in the last stages of a picture book I illustrated for Rachel G. Payne which I believe is also set for publication later in 2025. Other than that, I’m just sketching ideas and hoping to collaborate with more writers and artists. As soon as I have something more substantial to share, I’d love to tell everyone about it. 

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Great thanks to Jose for taking the time to answer all my questions today, and with such thought and attention too! As I mentioned before, Halfway to Somewhere is out February 18th. Thanks too to Joey Ho and the team at Random House Children’s Books for helping to put this talk together.

Filed under: Interviews