Armando and the Blue Tarp School

Armando and his father are trash-pickers in Tijuana, Mexico, but when Senor David brings his “school”–a blue tarp set down near the garbage dump–to their neighborhood, Armando’s father decides that he must attend classes and learn. Based on a true story.

Béisbol!

Presents profiles of fourteen Latino baseball players who, from 1900 through the 1960s, were pioneers of the sport in their home countries and the United States.

The Upside Down Boy / El Niño De Cabeza

The author recalls the year when his farm worker parents settled down in the city so that he could go to school for the first time.

Featured in WOW Review Volume X, Issue 1.

Calling The Doves/El Canto De Las Palomas: El Canto De Las Palomas

In this bilingual autobiography, the Mexican American poet Juan Felipe Herrera describes his childhood in California as the son of migrant workers. The author recalls his childhood in the mountains and valleys of California with his farmworker parents who inspired him with poetry and song. A rich, personal narrative about growing up as a migrant farmworker. Herrera relates how he learned to love the land from his father, and poetry from his mother. He uses lyrical passages to portray everyday life, e.g., the ritual of breakfast: The sky was my blue spoon – the wavy clay of the land was my plate. The colored-pencil and acrylic illustrations are bright and at times fanciful. Simmon’s artwork brings to life Herrera’s words, which are printed in both English and Spanish.

The Pilot and the Little Prince

This story is the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of Little Prince. He was born in France in 1900, when airplanes were just being invented. Antoine dreamed of flying and grew up to be a pilot—and that was when his adventures began. He found a job delivering mail by plane, which had never been done before. He and his fellow pilots traveled to faraway places and discovered new ways of getting from one place to the next. Antoine flew over mountains and deserts. He battled winds and storms. He tried to break aviation records, and sometimes he even crashed. From his plane, Antoine looked down on the earth and was inspired to write about his life and his pilot-hero friends in memoirs and in fiction. Peter Sís’s remarkable biography celebrates the author of The Little Prince, one of the most beloved books in the world.

All For The Better: A Story Of El Barrio

Some people live to make a difference. However they find the world around them, they try to make it better. For them, nothing is so perfect it can’t be improved, and no problem is so difficult it can’t be faced. This is the story of a young girl who in a small way made a difference to many people in her community. She had no special gift beyond caring, but you will see how, much you can do when you care enough to make a difference.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume VI, Issue 4

In My Own Time

A critically acclaimed children’s novelist reveals the origins of her stories in her own childhood experiences in England during World War II, her years at Oxford, her family life, and her role in numerous literary organizations.

Maria and the Stars of Nazca / Maria Y Las Estrellas De Nazca (Bilingual Edition)

Describes how Maria Reiche, a German scientist living in Peru in the 1930s, observed the lines on the Nazca desert and was one of the first to realize that they formed the outlines of animals only visible from the air.