People are weird

From renowned and beloved Portuguese illustrator Catarina Sobral (nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2024, 2025, and 2026) and from Brazilian American author Victor D.O. Santos (author of the acclaimed picture book What Makes Us Human, a 2023 White Ravens book), comes a fun, funny, and possibly beautifully weird book about people’s quirks. Winner of Portugal’s National Illustration Prize (2025 edition).

Have you noticed the world is full of weird people? In this book you will meet several of them. Could it be normal to be weird? If so, would it be weird to be normal? Huh . . . weird.

Author’s project

Grant from the Portuguese government available for international publishers (5 grants already received for People are weird). Contact us for more details.

Rights sold: English (world), Italian, French (world), Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America Excluding Argentina), Catalan, Korean, Greek, Farsi, Croatian, Estonian and Danish languages

Awards and selections:

⭐ Selected for the dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picturebooks (2025 and 2026 editions)

⭐ Finalist for the Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition (2025 edition)

⭐  Portuguese edition selected for White Ravens List 2025

⭐ Winner of the Nami Concours (2026 edition, Purple Island)

⭐Winner of Portugal’s National Illustration Prize” (2025 edition)

Select reviews:

“Young readers will be amused […]  and delighted to be able to see beyond the protagonist’s literal-mindedness. A different kind of dare-to-be-different book […] with a multigenerational, diverse cast.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“This charming picture book explores the diversity of human behavior. Victor D.O. Santos’s succinct text is vividly brought to life through Catarina Sobral’s dynamic illustrations, which add details and side stories.. A funny, empathetic, compassionate picture book.”

–  White Ravens jury member Jochen Weber

Author & Illustrator 

Victor D. O. Santos is an internationally acclaimed Brazilian American picture book author whose books – which include the White Ravens titles What Makes Us Human and People Are Weird – have been translated into over 50 languages. He has collaborated with such renowned illustrators as ALMA-winner ISOL (Insomnia), Iwona Chmielewska (Finito), Catarina Sobral (People Are Weird), Dena Seiferling (Things I Learned from my Dog), Mara Cerri (coming in Spring 2027), and Amanda Mijangos (coming in Fall 2027).

Visit his website at www.authorvictorsantos.com

Catarina Sobral is a multi-award-winning and internationally acclaimed illustrator. She won the 5th International Award for Illustration at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the 2023 and 2025 editions of the Portuguese National Illustration Prize (in 2025 for People Are Weird) and has been nominated several times to the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). Her books, translated into tens of languages, have been selected three times for the White Ravens catalog. www.catarinasobral.com