How the Sun Got to Coco’s House

While Coco sleeps far away, the sun creeps over a hill and skids across the water, touching a fisherman’s cap. It heads out over frozen forests, making shadows in a child’s footprints, and balances on an airplane’s wing for a little boy to see. The sun crosses cities and countrysides, wakes furry creatures, makes a desert rainbow, and barges into Coco’s room to follow her through a day of play.

What There Is Before There Is Anything There

Every night when his parents turn off the light, strange creatures descend from the black space where the ceiling used to be . . . First comes one, then another, and then more and more. They stand all around him, staring, not saying a word. And then, worst of all, comes the dark, shapeless one that tells him, “I am what’s there before there is anything there . . .”

Salsa: Un poema para cocinar/A Cooking Poem (Bilingual Cooking Poems)

A young boy and his sister gather the ingredients and grind them up in a molcajete, just like their ancestors used to do, singing and dancing all the while. The children imagine that their ingredients are different parts of an orchestra, the tomatoes are bongos and kettledrums, the onion, a maraca, the cloves of garlic, trumpets and the cilantro, the conductor. They chop and then grind these ingredients in the molcajete, along with red chili peppers for the “hotness” that is so delicious, finally adding a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of salt. When they are finished, their mother warms tortillas and their father lays out plates, as the whole family, including the cat and dog, dance salsa in mouth-watering anticipation.

The White Book

Roller in hand, a boy starts to paint a blank wall. First it’s a plain coat of pink. Then six birds emerge, perched on a branch. Wait, they were there a minute ago! Then he tries the blue paint, and it happens again: fourteen fish swimming in formation, until green paint reveals a giant dinosaur with big teeth and a mind of its own.

Black Cat, White Cat

Black Cat—black from the tips of his ears to the tip of his tail—only ever goes out in the day. But White Cat—white from her whiskers to her four furry paws—only ever goes out at night. He picks daisies, while she gazes at the stars. When they both feel the urge to explore a world beyond their own, Black Cat and White Cat go on a journey of discovery and meet for the very first time.

Brave Chicken Little

A retelling of the classic story of Chicken Licken, who has an acorn fall on his head and runs in a panic to his friends Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, and others, to tell them the sky is falling.

Kyle Goes Alone

Kyle has to go. There’s just one problem: as a young three-toed sloth, he lives high in the rain forest canopy with his mom, and it’s a LONG way down to the forest floor. Like other sloths, Kyle only goes down to the ground once a week when he has to do his “business.” And he’s never made the journey by himself before.