Silvergate Media announced that it has snapped up the rights of the award-winning, bilingual picture book series Vamos! and plans to develop it into an animated series for kids and families. Written and illustrated by award-winning Mexican-American author Raul (Gonzalez) the Third, Vamos! is a series of imaginatively drawn picture books for children, with colours by Elaine Bay, that are told in a combination of both English and Spanish. The series are published by Versify, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishers.
The first book in the series, Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market, follows the urban adventures of a Coyote, Little Lobo, and his dog Bernabe as the pair make a series of madcap deliveries at a market near the U.S. Mexican border. It quickly became a critical and commercial hit on its publication in April 2019 and was soon followed by Vamos! Let’s Go Eat the following year which tells the story of a group of luchadores, professional wrestlers, awaiting battle who are delivered their pre-match meals by Little Lobo and his dog.
The picture books have been greeted with so much enthusiasm that the publishers, Versify, have created a World of Vamos! publishing line with three early readers, two board books and a further picture book in the pipeline. Silvergate’s Kurt Mueller, who serves as executive producer for many of the company’s highly acclaimed series including Hilda, Octonauts and Chico Bon Bon, will produce the series in partnership with Raul the Third.
“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Raul, a true generational talent, and the fine folks at Versify, to bring Vamos! to TV audiences. The books offer a seemingly infinite cast of characters and situations that celebrate frontera culture through a singular artistic lens. Every densely illustrated page is a season’s worth of great TV,” said Silvergate Media EVP Creative Content Kurt Mueller.
Vamos! creator Raul the Third said, “The response to Vamos! in the past two years has been incredible. It’s such a personal project for me as the stories, locations and characters were based on my own childhood experiences, so I’m really thrilled that kids around the world will be able to enjoy these adventures on screen as much as I enjoyed bringing them to life in the books.”
Versify founding editor Kwame Alexander, who is producing for his Big Sea Entertainment, along with partner, Arielle Eckstut, added, “Vamos! struck a chord with young readers immediately and we have no doubt that an animated series will take the franchise to new heights. Silvergate Media has a strong reputation for producing high quality, original programming based on graphic novels and picture books so we can’t wait to see what the new series will bring.”
