“Charlton-Trujillo offers a hard-hitting third novel that swings between incredibly painful low moments and hard-won victories.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Described as a “force of nature” by Kirkus Reviews, e.E. Charlton-Trujillo is unquestionably one of the most dynamic and inspiring speakers for youth today. The one-time, small-town Texas native is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and youth literacy activist. They have written several books for teens and children such as the ALA winning Fat Angie series and Prizefighter en Mi Casa, a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor book. Their debut picture book, co-authored with NYT Bestseller Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Joe Cepeda, Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules was a Bank Street Best Book of the Year among other lists. Their short fiction appeared in the Read Across America pick Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America.

e.E.’s activism with youth featured in the documentary At-Risk Summer inspired them to cofound the literacy and storytelling non-profit Never Counted Out. Much of e.E.’s time off the page is dedicated to speaking or facilitating creative workshops. It’s part of their Your Story Is A Revolution campaign focused on empowering young people to be heard through storytelling.

Trujillo’s forthcoming work includes picture books A Girl Can Build Anything, also written with Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Keisha Morris, Lupe Lopez: Reading Rock Star, and short fiction in The Collectors anthology edited by Michael A. Printz and LA Times Book Prize winner A.S. King. e.E. is co-host of the Instagram Live series Off The Cuff and is a proud member of the Las Musas collective.

e.E.'s Featured Titles

Lupe Lopez: ¡Estrella De Lectura!

Candlewick |
Children’s

Learning to read is kind of a big deal, and Lupe Lopez has a lot to learn—in her own feisty way—to reach her goal of becoming a Reading Rock Star.

En kinder, Lupe Lopez inició una banda y le demostró a todos que era una estrella de rock. Este año, como estudiante de primer grado, Lupe tiene una nueva meta: ganarse una estrella en el Muro de la Fama de Lectura del salón de clase de la maestra Moreno.

Lupe puede roquear con las palabras en su lista de lectura, pero cuando aparecen juntas en una frase, ella no puede darles la vuelta. Y lo peor es que Victor, el brabucón de la clase, se burla de su esfuerzo, y sus compañeras de banda, Ruby y Ana están en el otro grupo de lectura. ¿Es verdad que el grupo en que está Lupe es el de los niños que todavía no saben leer?

Tal vez Lupe necesita pensar en la lectura de una manera completamente nueve, de la forma en que una estrella de rock lo haría. Tal vez lo que necesita es encontrar el ritmo…

Famous at Hector P. Garcia Elementary for being the first kid in kindergarten to ever start a band, Lupe Lopez enters first grade seeking a new sort of fame. She’s ready to rock and roll straight into the role of Reading Rock Star! But despite her best efforts, the words she thought she knew—now grouped in sentences—only glare back at her. Stuck in Group A with the kids who can’t read, she becomes the object of a rival’s mockery. Will her beloved band, and her confidence, survive the sting of defeat? Leave it to Lupe to prove that the beat she feels when she taps her pencil isn’t so very different from words and sentences—and that a real rock star is someone who doesn’t give up. Featuring simple text laced with Spanish words, dynamic illustrations, and a reassuring theme, this sequel to Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules! will encourage fledgling readers to keep trying, even if they miss a beat or two.

Lupe Lopez: Reading Rock Star!

Candlewick |
Children’s

Learning to read is kind of a big deal, and Lupe Lopez has a lot to learn—in her own feisty way—to reach her goal of becoming a Reading Rock Star.

Famous at Hector P. Garcia Elementary for being the first kid in kindergarten to ever start a band, Lupe Lopez enters first grade seeking a new sort of fame. She’s ready to rock and roll straight into the role of Reading Rock Star! But despite her best efforts, the words she thought she knew—now grouped in sentences—only glare back at her. Stuck in Group A with the kids who can’t read, she becomes the object of a rival’s mockery. Will her beloved band, and her confidence, survive the sting of defeat? Leave it to Lupe to prove that the beat she feels when she taps her pencil isn’t so very different from words and sentences—and that a real rock star is someone who doesn’t give up. Featuring simple text laced with Spanish words, dynamic illustrations, and a reassuring theme, this sequel to Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules! will encourage fledgling readers to keep trying, even if they miss a beat or two.

A Girl Can Build Anything

Viking Books for Young Readers |
Children’s/Middle Grade

A brilliant, inclusive ode to self-expression, girl power, and the many things readers can create.

Have you ever dreamed of building something? Maybe something little—like a birdhouse? Or something big—like a skyscraper? If you can envision it, you can build it! A Girl Can Build Anything is a playful celebration of all the different ways girls can make things—from tinkering to tool wielding, from ideas on paper to big, lived-out dreams that require brick and mortar. This fun and empowering ode to self expression will inspire readers to jump up and immediately start to build. Because they can. They can do anything!

Lupe Lopez: ¡Reglas de una estrella de rock!

Candlewick |
Children’s

When a sassy drummer starts kindergarten, the rules of school cramp her style. What’s a young rock star to do?

Con sus relucientes gafas de sol, su lonchera clásica y sus lápices tamborileros, Lupe Lopez llega el primer día a kínder lista para el rock.

“¡Soy famosa!” anuncia Lupe mientras tamborilea sobre cualquier cosa—pupitres, sillas y mesas—, mientras más ruidoso, mejor. En la escuela hay muchas reglas, pero las estrellas de rock no obedecen las reglas, así que Lupe tampoco. Antes de que acabe el día, la maestra le ha quitado todas sus preciadas pertenencias, que le serán devueltas después de clase. ¡Lo peor es que nadie se ha inscrito en su club
de admiradores! ¿Qué puede hacer una estrella de rock?

When Lupe Lopez struts through the doors of Hector P. Garcia Elementary in sunglasses with two taped-up No. 2 pencils—drumsticks, of course—poking from her pocket, her confidence is off the charts. All day, Lupe drums on desks, tables, and chairs while Ms. Quintanilla spouts rules. Lupe has her own rules: 1) Don’t listen to anyone. 2) Make lots of noise. ¡Rataplán! 3) Have fans, not friends. But with her new teacher less than starstruck, and fans hard to come by, Lupe wonders if having friends is such a bad idea after all. Can it be that true star power means knowing when to share the spotlight? With its spirited illustrations and a simple text threaded through with Spanish words, this picture book is proof positive that being a strong girl with a song in her heart doesn’t have to mean pushing others away.

Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules!

Candlewick |
Children’s

When a sassy drummer starts kindergarten, the rules of school cramp her style. What’s a young rock star to do?

When Lupe Lopez struts through the doors of Hector P. Garcia Elementary in sunglasses with two taped-up Number 2 pencils—drumsticks, of course—poking from her pocket, her confidence is off the charts. All day, Lupe drums on desks, tables, and chairs while Ms. Quintanilla reminds her of school rules. Lupe has her own rules: 1) Don’t listen to anyone. 2) Make lots of noise. ¡Rataplán! 3) Have fans, not friends. But with her new teacher less than starstruck, and fans hard to come by, Lupe wonders if having friends is such a bad idea after all. Can it be that true star power means knowing when to share the spotlight? With its spirited illustrations and a simple text threaded through with Spanish words, this picture book is proof positive that being a strong girl moving to her own beat doesn’t have to mean pushing others away.

Fat Angie: Homecoming

Candlewick |
Middle Grade/Young Adult

With unexpected internet fame, two people vying for her heart, an all-girl band, and coming to terms with her parents’ failures, Angie comes home to herself in a rewarding finale.

After hitting the road with her friends last summer and taking the stage to sing her heart out in Columbus, Angie finally feels like she’s figuring things out. And her next move? Finally asking Jamboree Memphis Jordan to be her girlfriend. Angie’s got her speech ready on a set of flash cards, but her plans are complicated when her first love, KC Romance, comes cruising back into town. And when a video of Angie’s Columbus performance goes viral, everything gets even more confusing. Kids at school are treating her with respect, she’s being recognized in public, and her couldn’t-be-bothered mother is . . . well, bothered is an understatement.

When she learns of an online music competition, Angie decides to start a band. With the help of her brother, Jamboree, and her town’s resident washed-up rock star, Angie puts together a group and gets busy writing songs, because the competition deadline is only two weeks away. Between sorting out her feelings for Jamboree and KC, dealing with her newfound fame, and dodging an increasingly violent and volatile mother, singing seems like the only thing that Angie’s really good at. Can her band of girl rockers actually win? More importantly, can Angie get it together before she loses all sense of herself yet again?

Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution

Candlewick |
Middle Grade/Young Adult

More trouble at school and at home — and the discovery of a missive from her late soldier sister — send Angie and a long-ago friend on an RV road trip across Ohio.

Sophomore year has just begun, and Angie is miserable. Her girlfriend, KC, has moved away; her good friend, Jake, is keeping his distance; and the resident bully has ramped up an increasingly vicious and targeted campaign to humiliate her. An over-the-top statue dedication planned for her sister, who died in Iraq, is almost too much to bear, and it doesn’t help that her mother has placed a symbolic empty urn on their mantel. At the ceremony, a soldier hands Angie a final letter from her sister, including a list of places she wanted the two of them to visit when she got home from the war. With her mother threatening to send Angie to a “treatment center” and the situation at school becoming violent, Angie enlists the help of her estranged childhood friend, Jamboree. Along with a few other outsiders, they pack into an RV and head across the state on the road trip Angie’s sister did not live to take. It might be just what Angie needs to find a way to let her sister go, and find herself in the process.

Fat Angie

Candlewick |
Young Adult

Angie is broken—by her can’t-be-bothered mother, by her high-school tormenters, and by being the only one who thinks her varsity-athlete-turned-war-hero sister is still alive. Having failed to kill herself—in front of a gym full of kids—Angie’s back at high school just trying to make it through each day. That is, until the arrival of KC Romance, a girl who knows too well that the package doesn’t always match what’s inside. With an offbeat sensibility and mean girls to rival a horror classic, this darkly comic anti-romantic romance will appeal to anyone who likes entertaining and meaningful fiction.

Feels Like Home

Laurel Leaf |
Young Adult

Growing up in a dead-end South Texas town, Mickey had two things she could count on: her big brother, Danny—the football hero everyone loved—and a beat-up copy of The Outsiders. But after the accident—after Danny abandoned her to a town full of rumors and a drunken father—all Mickey had left was a smoky memory, her anger, and the resolution to get out of town for good.But Danny is back—and he’s not the golden boy who left six years ago. He’s altogether a different person, and the life Mickey has worked so hard to rebuild seems to be falling apart. Danny’s anger is something Mickey just can’t forgive, and his best friend’s mysterious death six years ago keeps coming back to haunt the edges of her mind. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t remember what happened that night—and she’s starting to realize that remembering is the only way she can move on. She’ll have to face the brother who broke her heart, and that beat-up book that will never again feel like home.

Prizefighter en Mi Casa

Yearling |
Middle Grade/Young Adult

Twelve-year-old Chula Sanchez isn’t thin, isn’t beautiful, and because she’s Mexican, isn’t popular in her south Texas town. And now that a car accident has left her father paralyzed and her plagued with seizures, she is poor. But Chula’s father is determined to pull his family out of debt. He sends for El Jefe—the most revered prizefighter in Mexico. Chula’s father hopes that with steel-pipe arms and fists like pit bulls, El Jefe will win the local illegal boxing matches and bring home much-needed money. But El Jefe—a man who many see as a monster—only brings confusion to a home that is already filled with problems. And now Chula must decide for herself whether good and bad can reside in one person and whether you can have strength in your heart when your fists have none.

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What Will You Build?! - Elementary

Trujillo reads and reveals the inspiration their picture book A Girl Can Build Anything. Students get to share and interact in how all of us can build anything our imagination dreams of.
Audience Size: Assembly or Classroom
Grades: K – 4th, STEAM (45 – 60 min)

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How To Be A Rock Star! - Elementary

Trujillo will read one or both Lupe Lopez picture books and share the real-life inspiration for each. This interactive presentation will give kids the chance to shine their own rock star light!
Audience Size: Assembly or Classroom
Grades: K – 4th, STEAM (45 – 60 min)

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Where do stories come from? (2nd-5th)

Trujillo’s interactive and energetic presentation takes kids from concept to creation. Allowing students to peek behind the creative curtain and imagine themselves as storytellers.
Audience Size: Assembly or Classroom
Grades: K – 4th, STEAM (45 – 60 min)

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Rock the Word - Teens

Part rock concert, part literary pep rally, this electrifying workshop ignites imagination and excites young people to craft on-the-spot stories as well as small-group collaborations and independent narratives. 
Audience Size: Classroom
Grades: 6th – 12th, STEAM (Workshop)

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The Playlist of Your Life - Teens

Music becomes a fulcrum in the Fat Angie series. In this presentation, we see how music informs the internal and external transformation of Angie and other characters. Then together we’ll help create a playlist that explores the story of student’s lives. One title track at a time. 
Audience Size: Classroom
Grades: 6th – 12th, STEAM (Workshop)

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What's Your Story Gonna Be? - Teens

Trujillo’s high-octane, immersive workshop guides students to explore story telling from prose, poetry, slam and beyond. By the end of the workshop, young writers will produce a final collaborative project, with a contribution from each student in the medium of their choosing.
Audience Size: Classroom
Grades: 6th – 12th, STEAM (In-Person, Day-Long or Multi-Day Workshop)

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From Homeless to Published - Keynote

Converting grief into story and story into hope, Trujillo shares their harrowing journey from loss to lost to new beginnings. In this keynote Trujillo shows how, through the power story, there can be something amazing on the other side of struggle.

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How An At-Risk Summer Became a Worthwhile Life - Keynote

Trujillo’s trek across America to mentor at-promise youth is the focus of the documentary At-Risk Summer, but that’s only the beginning. This keynote shares stories beyond the film. The challenges, hopes, and new beginnings found in the most unlikely places. A testament to the power of showing up, standing up, and being heard.

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All The Way To The Back: Engaging Every Kid In The Room - Professional Development

Award-winning author, filmmaker, and youth literacy activist e.E. Charlton-Trujillo shares their rationale and methods for motivating creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking in every kind of student — by meeting them exactly where they are. 

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Story In The Digital Age: Professional Development

TikTok, YouTube, IG, Snapchat can distract students from the lesson you’ve planned. Rather than fight the technology, what are ways to incorporate it into the work you’re doing? How can students’ knowledge of technology become an asset to their creative learning? Trujillo will share insights and methods of digital interest to your classroom.

At Risk Summer (Full Movie)

e.E’s News and Events

e.E’s Films

e.E’s Media Kit Link

Las Musas Link

e.E’s TikTok

Off The Cuff

600 Books of Hope

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Michael L. Printz Award Winner
National Science STEM Winner
ALA Stonewall Book Award Winner
Bronze Award International Latino Book Awards Winner
Bronze Award FORWARD Indies Winner
Delacorte Dell Yearling Award Winner
Westchester Book Award Winner
Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Winner
FORWARD Indies Finalist
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Writer’s League of Texas Finalist
Selected for Choose to Read Ohio
ALA Rainbow List
EBSCO Core Collection List
National Council for the Social Studies Notable Book List
New York Public Library List for the Teenager List

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

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