Early Years (ages 2-6)

Loula Is Leaving For Africa

Loula has had ENOUGH of her TERRIBLE triplet brothers. She’s leaving home and going to Africa! Though her quirky parents are too distracted to pay much attention to her plans, Loula has a good friend in the family chauffeur, Gilbert, who gently inquires, “Mademoiselle, may I ask, why Africa?” “Because!” Loula explains. “Africa is far away, very far away, the farthest away I can get from my MEAN, HORRIBLE, STINKY brothers. Plus they are scared of snakes. And if they come, piranhas will eat them.” “Well then,” says Gilbert, “I think Africa is the best destination.” So together, with the help of their imaginations, Loula and Gilbert travel over the sand, through the air and across the water to reach their own special island of Africa. Which, Loula happily discovers at the end of the day, is not so far away from home.

Mr. King’s Castle

After using materials from the hill where he and his forest friends live to turn his house into a castle, Mr. King realizes that he has lost his beautiful view and has destroyed his friends’ living spaces.

Arroz Con Leche/Rice Pudding

Award-winning author Jorge Argueta treats young readers to a bilingual recipe/poem for the classic Latin American version of rice pudding with cinnamon. From sprinkling the rice into the pot to adding a waterfall of white milk followed by cinnamon sticks, salt stars, and sugar snow, Argueta’s recipe is both easy to follow and poetic. Lively illustrations by highly acclaimed Brazilian artist Fernando Vilela feature an enthusiastic young cook who finds no end of joy in making and then slurping up the rice pudding with his family. In Argueta’s world, cooking not only satisfies hunger with delicious food but also provides an opportunity for all the senses — and the imagination — to experience joy and fulfillment. This book is wonderful family fun for those who already love rice pudding as well as for those tasting it for the first time.

What A Party!

If it is just a few days until your birthday, and your mother says you can invite anyone you like to come over to play, be careful! If you don’t watch out, you might soon be having the craziest party ever. Before you know it, night could come and go and a new day could begin, and the dancing might still be going strong. In a celebration of neighbors and diversity, an open-ended party invitation results in a raucous gathering of children, pets, and parents (plus salsa dancers and a reggae band!), all feasting on food from all over the world.

What Should I Make?

Neeraj loves to help out when his mom is making his favorite snack–hot, light, puffy chapati–and today she has given him a bit of dough with which to make all kinds of animal shapes and wonder if they will come to life, in a playful story about imagination.

No

It’s winter and little bear doesn’t want to go to sleep. He’d rather play, and he’s sure he won’t get cold outside, no matter how long the winter is, how deep the snow might get, or how hard the storm might blow. Until, that is, little bear finds himself all alone in a snowstorm. Claudia Rueda’s classic picture-book illustrations, with their simple, strong lines, shapes, and colors, show a very determined little bear and his mother in a striking, increasingly snowy landscape. Children everywhere identify with little bear as mama figures out how to tell him no.

Tamalitos: Un Poema Para Cocinar/A Cooking Poem

In his fourth cooking poem for young children, Jorge Argueta encourages more creativity and fun in the kitchen as he describes how to make tamalitos from corn masa and cheese, wrapped in cornhusks. In simple, poetic language, Argueta shows young cooks how to mix and knead the dough before dropping a spoonful into a cornhusk, wrapping it up and then steaming the little package. He once again makes cooking a full sensory experience, beating on a pot like a drum, dancing the corn dance, delighting in the smell of corn . . . And at the end, he suggests inviting the whole family to come and enjoy the delicious tamalitos “made of corn with love.”

Doggy Slippers

Children everywhere love pets, and some are even lucky enough to get their own. In Doggy Slippers Jorge Luján offers a collection of poems about pets inspired by children. Luján turned funny and touching anecdotes his young readers sent him about the role of pets in their lives into fresh poems, selecting the 12 best for this book. His status as one of the most important poets writing for children today, combined with Isol’s unique, childlike take on the world, makes this the perfect poetry collection for young readers.