Bertie: Just Like Daddy

Bertie, a young hippopotamus, wants to drink coffee, read the newspaper, use a credit card, and more, just like Daddy, who appeases the eager hippo with age-appropriate options such as making a newspaper hat. At story’s end, the tables turn when Daddy wants to play like Bertie.

Bertie at Bedtime

The acclaimed creator of THE RAINBOW FISH series returns with Bertie, an irrepressible hippo who’s not quite ready for bed. Bertie might wear his daddy out before he’s actually ready for sleep.

When Mama Can’t Sleep

What happens late at night when mama can’t sleep? Take these rough and tumble tiny books where ever you go! Tuff Books are tear-resistant, easy to clean, and completely safety tested and approved for tiny tuff readers!

Digging for Troy

It started as a legend told to each new generation about a war between the Greeks and the Trojans, with heroes battling over a beauty named Helen. While some question if this war and even the city of Troy itself existed, the tales have enticed people to look for clues in order to elicit fact from fiction and in some cases, to gain their own glory. Jill Rubalcaba and Eric H. Cline dig into many archeological expeditions at Hisarlik, the modern-day site believed to have been ancient Troy. The recount Heinrich Schliemann’s quest for renown, Wilhelm Drpfeld’s meticulous digs, Carl Blegen’s timeline of Troy’s layers from 2900 BCE to 550 CE, and Manfred Korfmann’s controversial picture of Troy as a political entity with Anatolian-not Aegean-ties.

My Name is Celia/Me Llamo Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz/La Vida de Celia Cruz

An exuberant picture-book biography of the Cuban-born salsa singer. From its rhythmic opening, the first-person narrative dances readers through Cruz’s youth in Havana, a childhood bounded by scents of nature and home, the sweet taste of sugar, and the sound of music. A singer from an early age, Cruz sang so continually that one of her teachers finally urged her to share her voice with the world. Thus encouraged, she entered competitions, undeterred when her racial heritage prevented her from competing – undeterred, even, when the advent of Castro’s communist regime forced her to leave Cuba as a refugee. Positive even in exile, Cruz made New York City her own and took Miami by storm. The salsa-influenced prose presented in English and in Spanish is followed by a straightforward vita of the singer, noting her death in July 2003. Lopez’s distinguished, luminous acrylic paintings are alive with motion, lush with brilliantly layered colors, and informed with verve and symbolism. This is a brilliant introduction to a significant woman and her music. The only enhancement required is the music itself.

A Good Long Way

“Stop it. The two of you, stop it!” Roelito howls at his father and older brother as their heated argument turns into a shoving match. Beto has again come home way past curfew, smelling like a cantina.When Beto Sr. tells his son that he either needs to follow the rules or leave, the boyza senior in high schoolzdecides to leave, right then, in the middle of the night. Once he has walked away, though, he realizes he has nowhere to go. Maybe his best friend Jessy can help.The story of Betozs decision to run away and drop out of school is told from shifting perspectives in which the conflicted lives of Roel, Beto, and Jessy are revealed in short scenes that reflect teen-age life along the Texas-Mexico border. Each one has a good long way to go in growing up. Roel fights the teachersz assumptions that hezs like Beto. Unlike his brother, Roel actually enjoys school. Jessy is smart too, but most of her teachers canzt see beyond her tough-girl façade. Her parents are so busy fighting with each other that they donzt notice her, even if shezs packing a suitcase to leave. And Beto z somewhere along the way he quit caring about school. And his teachers have noticed and given up too.René Saldana, Jr. once again writes a fast-paced, thought-provoking novel that will engage young adults in questions about their own lives and responsibilities to family, friends, and most of all, to themselves.