Joshy-Boy didn’t either. But the day the doctors told him, “You have cancer,” he became a member of the best club you never want to be a part of.
Told in bouncing rhyme, Joshy-Boy and the Best Club You Never Want to Be a Part Of is an honest and hopeful picture book. It’s about hospitals and hard days. It’s about the friends who help us and the friends we lose. And it’s about finding courage in the most ordinary moments.
Rafael J. Hernández joined the club at 23, when he was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a bone cancer that typically affects children and teenagers and is rare in adults. His doctor put the odds of an adult getting it at one in a million. Twenty years later, marking two decades since that diagnosis, he is self-publishing the book through Drexel Studios, illustrated by his cousin Josymar Arteaga in a family collaboration spanning the United States and Colombia. He has mentored cancer survivors since 2010, and he wrote the book he would have needed as the child this disease usually finds. The Spanish edition, Josuecito y el mejor club al que nadie quiere entrar, releases the same day.
A note on content. This book deals honestly with serious childhood illness, including the reality that not every child survives. A content note helps grown-ups decide when to share it.
Press kit
Everything you need to cover the book: the media kit, covers, interior art, the author’s photo and the publisher’s logo.
Author bios in three lengths, key messages and suggested interview questions, in English and Spanish.
Book at a glance
Title:
Joshy-Boy and the Best Club You Never Want to Be a Part Of
Author:
Rafael J. Hernández
Illustrator:
Josymar Arteaga
Publisher:
Drexel Studios, Miami Beach, Florida
Publication date:
November 22, 2026, all editions
Editions:
Joshy-Boy and the Best Club You Never Want to Be a Part Of (English); Josuecito y el mejor club al que nadie quiere entrar (Spanish, written natively in Venezuelan Spanish)
Formats:
Paperback $12.99 | Hardcover $23.99 | 40 pages, 8.5 x 8.5 in, full color
ISBNs:
English 979-8-9977862-0-5 (paperback), 979-8-9977862-2-9 (hardcover); Spanish 979-8-9977862-1-2 (paperback), 979-8-9977862-3-6 (hardcover)
Library of Congress Control Number:
2026927495 (paperback and hardcover)
Reading age:
7 and up on their own; younger children with a grown-up
Where to buy:
joshyboybook.com, josuecitolibro.com and Amazon (amazon.com/author/rafaeljhernandez); hardcovers available to bookstores through Ingram
Giving back:
A portion of the book’s net proceeds goes to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
