A prolific and honored author of books for young readers, Mitali Perkins has signed a contract with IVP Kids for the Spring 2026 release of her book tentatively titled Big Changes, Fresh Starts: Praying the Beatitudes with Jesus.

Perkins is known for a long list of titles written for young readers, including You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for a National Book Award) and Rickshaw Girl (adapted into a film by Sleeperwave Productions), all of which explore crossing different kinds of borders. Her goal is to make readers laugh or cry, preferably both, as long as their hearts are widening.

Perkins says, “By the time I was 11, I’d lived in Ghana, Cameroon, London, New York and Mexico before settling in California just in time for middle school. Yep, I was the new kid again, in seventh grade, the year everybody barely makes it through.

”My biggest lifeline during those early years was story. Books were my rock, my stability, my safe place as I navigated the border between California suburbia and the Bengali culture of my traditional home.”

After studying political science at Stanford and public policy at U.C. Berkeley, Perkins taught in middle school, high school, and college. When she began to write fiction, she says, “my protagonists were often—not surprisingly—strong characters crossing all kinds of borders, seeking community, and promoting justice.”

In this first book with IVP Kids, Perkins helps children to pray the Beatitudes in times of change or stress.

Elissa Schauer, IVP Executive Editor and acquisitions editor for Perkins’s project, said, “We’re thrilled to have Mitali Perkins join the IVP Kids family! She’s brought a wonderful message for any child in the midst of the changes and challenges of life, be it a new school or new school year, or simply a new day: God is with us in these moments.”

Perkins was represented by Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Literary, and this title includes world rights.