I’m thrilled to announce that my Barbara Jordan picture book biography, What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? — beautifully illustrated by Ekua Holmes — is now available in Spanish in both hardcover and paperback from Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster.

My fellow Texan Carmen Tafolla did the translation for ¿Qué haces con una voz así? La historia de la extraordinaria congresista Barbara Jordan. For the past few years, I’ve been relearning (and, I’m glad to say, surpassing) the Spanish that I learned in high school, and last week I had the pleasure of reading Carmen’s translation out loud.

Hearing this story — feeling myself telling this story — in Spanish was quite moving for me, especially considering that protecting the voting rights of Spanish speakers in Texas was at the heart of the 1975 expansion of the Voting Rights Act that was led by Barbara Jordan herself.

I’m excited that more people will be able to enjoy and appreciate and share her story now. It couldn’t happen at a better time.