Bilingual

F Is For Fiesta

From adornos (decorations) going up all over the house, biscochitos (cupcakes) baking in the oven, and a special treat of churros (doughnut sticks) for breakfast, this can only be the beginning of a fabulous cumpleaños (birthday)! As the alphabet continues, the story highlights fun elements of a boy’s never-ending birthday celebration, including entries for ch, ll, ñ, and rr that make this a truly Latino ABC fiesta.

Clever verse and exuberant illustrations make the meaning of each Spanish word clear, and an author’s note explains the difference between the English and Spanish alphabets.

Laughing Tomatoes And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos Y Otros Poemas De Primavera

Tomatoes laugh, chiles explode, and tortillas applaud the sun in this playful and moving collection of twenty English and Spanish poems written in honor of the wonders of life and nature.

Three Little Tamales

While three little tamales cool off on a windowsill, a tortilla rolls by. “You’ll be eaten. You’d better run,” he tells them. And so the tamales jump out the window. The first runs to the prairie and builds a house of sagebrush. The second runs to a cornfield and builds a house of cornstalks. The third runs to the desert and builds a house of cactus. Then who should come along but Senior Lobo, the Big Bad Wolf, with plans to blow their houses down. Valeria Docampo’s oil-and-pencil illustrations add zest and humor to this rollicking southwestern version of a popular tale.

Ruiz Street Kids / Los Muchachos De La Calle Ruiz

On a hot summer day, a new kid named David rides into the neighborhood. Gossip about the mysterious boy stretches longer than a wad of gum. The kids wonder why he rides a different bike everyday. Is he stealing them? He gets rough at the swimming pool, he scares the younger kids, and he spies over the fence. Why is he always so mean? Is it true that he eats a bee’s nest for breakfast and sleeps on a bed of nails? What does he want from the kids who live on Ruiz Street and why in the world would they ever want to be friends with somebody like David? The young narrator, Joe Silva, introduces intermediate readers to both his friends and their common enemy on Ruiz Street. David doesn’t have good people skills and doesn’t know quite how to improve them.

The Rowdy, Rowdy Ranch / Alla En El Rancho Grande

On El Rancho Grande, the grandchildren are not so interested in how Grandpa bought the ranch, but in what can be done on the ranch. The children play hide and seek in cornfields, under “the canopy of green leaves, golden threads and giant ears of corn.” They feed the family horses, ride the rambunctious pigs, and take frolicking dips in the duck pond. But through all of the outdoor escapades, their family stories are circling in the air, like the “sunflower wind” blooming around them. While drinking ice-cold lemonade in the sunshine, they hear about how Grandpa’s song of sorrow won him El Rancho. They hear about chickens that have abandoned their coops to live in Abuela’s chicken tree, and they even discover a story about a boy who cried chocolate tears. In those days of running and jumping, the narrator, Tito, did not realize that he was hearing the stories that would wrap him up “like an enchanted sarape to keep me warm for the rest of [his] life.”

The Storyteller’s Candle/La Velita De Los Cuentos

It is the winter of 1929, and cousins Hildamar and Santiago have just moved to enormous, chilly New York from their native Puerto Rico. As Three Kings’ Day approaches, Hildamar and Santiago mourn the loss of their sunny home and wonder about their future in their adopted city. But when a storyteller and librarian named Pura Belpré arrives in their classroom, the children begin to understand just what a library can mean to a community. In this fitting tribute to a remarkable woman, Lucía González and Lulu Delacre have captured the truly astounding effect that Belpré had on the city of New York.

Lupe Vargas And Her Super Best Friend / Lupe Vargas Y Su Super Mejor Amiga

Lupe and Maritza are super best friends. When they’re together, they can be anything they want—pirates, scientists, or heroes. When they’re apart, well, life just isn’t as fun. This is the story of two girls who make each day a new adventure. And when they get into a spat—which is inevitable even among the most super, best of friends—they have to find a way to make it right. And luckily, with a little bit of this and a little bit of that, they do.

Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico!: America’s Sproutings

Peanuts, blueberries, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and more-here is a luscious collection of haiku celebrating foods native to the Americas. Brimming with imagination and fun, these poems capture the tasty essence of foods that have delighted, united, and enriched our lives for centuries.