Kevin Maillard will be visiting
Penn Wynne Elementary on October 23, 2026 with
The Ones Who Came Before
This offer is only available to students of Penn Wynne Elementary.
Please order by October 9, 2026 to ensure personalization and event-day availability.
Books will be delivered to your school for distribution, so please be sure to fill out the student name, grade, and teacher fields.
About Kevin Maillard
Kevin Maillard is a contributor to the New York Times and a professor of law at Syracuse University. He is the author of Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, a picture book illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, which won the Sibert Medal and the American Indian Youth Literature Honor. An enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, he lives with his family in Manhattan and Vermont.
Visit him at https://www.kevinmaillard.com
About The Ones Who Came Before
Every year, Aabanya visits her grandfather Big Jimmy at his cottage on Early Mountain.
During the day, they gather corn, beans, and squash to make stew. In the evenings, Aabanya listens to her grandfather’s tales of the mountain and of Turtle Island.
When they venture into town, Aabanya feels out of place. The Earlies, a family who named Early Mountain generations ago, seem to look at her with questions in their eyes.
Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here?
Her grandfather tells Aabanya that these are the very same questions her family and their people asked when the Earlies first came.
One night, Aabanya wakes to a scratch at her window and discovers… a bear! Fearful, she runs to her grandfather, who helps her remember that the bears… are the ones who came before.
Interwoven with indigenous concepts about land and the natural world, Fry Bread author Kevin Maillard’s thought-provoking story and artist Sibu T. P.’s rich, vibrant illustrations come together in this contemplation of heritage, ancestry, sharing space, and belonging.