A Picture Book · New Edition
by Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Illustrated by Leslie Lumeh
The river behind Cheede’s house in Monrovia, Liberia, is long and wide and beautiful. Some days it rushes, swish, swish, swish, and some days it moves slow, slow, slow. Some afternoons it’s up to her knees and all over the swamp behind her home, and on other days she can walk across the backyard on hard ground.
Where does the river go? Her big brother Klon says he can make it come and go. Daddy says it’s the high and low tide. And Klon has another answer: the river visits the sea.
Told by seven-year-old Cheede, this lyrical picture book introduces young readers to the Mesurado River and to a Liberian childhood shaped by the rhythm of the tides. It’s a story about curiosity, family, and loving the place you call home.
First published in 2012, In Monrovia, the River Visits the Sea returns in a new edition with all-new full-color illustrations by acclaimed Liberian artist Leslie Lumeh.
Pre-orders coming soon! · Publishing Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Meet the Author
Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley is a poet, memoirist, fiction writer, anti-war and human rights activist, and a war survivor who immigrated with her family to the United States during Liberia’s 14-year civil war. Her many books of poetry include Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 2022 Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, and Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: Collected Poems, 1998–2020 (University of Nebraska Press, 2026), which Publishers Weekly named one of its Spring 2026 Top 10 poetry books.
She also received the 2022 Levinson Prize from the Poetry Foundation.
She edited Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Poetry, the most comprehensive volume of Liberian literature since 1847. She is Professor of English, Creative Writing, and African Literature at Penn State Altoona.
Learn more about Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Leslie Lumeh is a Liberian artist based in France. CNN has called him “Liberia’s most celebrated artist,” and his paintings are held in collections from the European Union to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and American embassies. In 2010 he founded the Liberian Visual Arts Academy (LivArts), the first postwar art school offering free art education to Liberian children. His illustrations appear in more than ten CODE Reading books read by children in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and beyond.
Book Details
Title: In Monrovia, the River Visits the Sea
Author: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Illustrator: Leslie Lumeh
Publisher: Ardea Herodias Books, an imprint of Panhandle Creek Press
Publication Date: November 10, 2026
Ages: 4–8
Format: 8.5 × 11 in, 32 pages, full color
Hardcover: $24.99 · ISBN 979-8-952110-01-4
Paperback: $14.99 · ISBN 979-8-952110-03-8
Pre-orders coming soon. Ask your local bookstore or library.
The book is “Dedicated to the Lost Children of Liberia.”