Darlene Campos (YA Historical)

Author: Darlene Campos (@DarleneCampos91)

Age Range: Young Adult

Genre: Historical

Agent: Allison Hellegers, Stimola Literary

The Query Letter:

Dear Allison Hellegers:

It’s 1938 in Berlin, Germany and 10-year-old Werner Rubenstein doesn’t understand why the Nazis hate him and his family just because they are Jewish, but two weeks before Kristallnacht, Werner meets Dahlia Avilés, the sassy, intelligent, and gorgeous daughter of an Ecuadorian diplomat. They quickly become close friends. As World War II advances, Dahlia and her parents need to return home and they offer Werner refuge in Ecuador. However, Werner must go alone. He doesn’t want to leave his family behind to the Nazis, especially his widowed father, Hans, but his family begs him to leave. In 1941, Werner flees to Ecuador under a false identity.

Once in Ecuador, Werner enjoys living with the Avilés family, but his new life means major adjustments. He struggles to learn Spanish, attends a rigorous private school, tries to stay faithful to Judaism while in a dominantly Catholic country, and then he falls in love with Dahlia despite the rage of her religious father. As the years fly by, Werner constantly wonders about his family in Berlin. Are they in hiding? Did they escape to another country? Are they dead? What Werner doesn’t know is that his father is writing a detailed log of what’s happening to the family in Berlin and later, in the Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz concentration camp.

Told mostly from Werner’s and partially Hans’ perspectives from 1938 to 1945, The Center of the Earth is a young adult historical novel at approximately 75,000 words. It’s a little-known fact that Ecuador aided the emigration of between 3,000-4,000 Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe. In the process of writing this novel, I interviewed seven of these refugees and their accounts shaped The Center of the Earth. Furthermore, I traveled to Washington D.C. to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s archives for additional resources. As an Ecuadorian-American, this piece of Ecuadorian and World War II history fascinates me.

I am the author of Behind Mount Rushmore, Summer Camp is Cancelled, and Heaven Isn’t Me, young adult novels traditionally published by Vital Narrative Press. I have been featured in Book Riot, School Library Journal, and the radio show Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say. From late 2017 to mid-2018, I was a remote editorial mentee for Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic, and Penguin Random House. Thank you for your consideration. I appreciate your time.

Sincerely,

Darlene P. Campos, MFA in Creative Writing