Additional information
by Jamie Mustard (Author), Francesca Filomena (Artist)
Set in a future-adjacent, alternative Los Angeles, this is a story of staggering poverty, drugs, and violence and of an artistic child who finds beauty in the ugly and sublime hope in our conflicts.
HYBRED shows us how in our most marginalized communities lies an astonishing amount of genius which goes unnoticed and is so often tragically wasted. Nine-year-old Johnny James lives in The Casque, the poorest neighborhood in Greater Angeles, where he shares a one-room apartment with his mother, stepfather, two brothers, and an army of cockroaches. He spends his days in the sweltering heat of the neighborhood, at the movie theaters, playing tackleball, or drawing - but there's no money for him to go to school.As death, addiction, and violence swirl through the neighborhood, Johnny grows up with friends, adventures, and magic around him. And he discovers how to use art, beauty, and personal strength to transcend the forces destined to hold him back.
Author Biography
Jamie Mustard is an artist, a futurist, and a writer with a focus on perception in the physical world. Growing up in severe poverty and illiteracy in inner city Los Angeles, Jamie overcame obstacles to graduate from the London School of Economics. He currently works as a strategic multi-media consultant, teacher, interdisciplinary art, design, and product futurist. He is the winner of The National Indie Excellence Award as well as the OWL Outstanding Works in Literature Award for his book, The Iconist. And his memoir Child X is being published in July 2025 by BenBella Books.
Francesca Filomena is an Italian artist working internationally in design and print. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leece, Italy and won first prize at the International Red Paper Kite Illustration competition in 2020. Francesca is the illustrator of the picture books Hoping for You, Aster, The Wire, and The Girl Who Was Nearly a Flower.
