¡Vamos! Picture Books Being Adapted for TV

Silvergate Media has acquired the rights to the bilingual picture book series ¡Vamos!, with plans to develop it into an animated series for kids and families.

Written and illustrated by Mexican-American author Raúl (González) the Third, ¡Vamos! is a series of drawn picture books for children, with colors by Elaine Bay. The stories are told in a combination of English and Spanish.

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 Bernabé as the pair make a series of madcap deliveries at a market near the U.S. Mexican border. It was followed up with ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat, 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.

“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Raúl, a true generational talent, and the fine folks at Versify, to bring ¡Vamos! to TV audiences,” said Kurt Mueller, executive VP of creative content at Silvergate Media. “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.”

Raúl the Third added, “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.”

Kwame Alexander, founding editor of Versify, which published the books, 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.”