In a world whose seasons are defined by Christmas sales and Spring Fashions, hundreds of tiny nomes live in the corners and crannies of a human-run department store. They have made their homes beneath the floorboards for generations and no longer remember, or even believe in, life beyond the Store walls. Until the day a small band of nomes arrives at the Store from the Outside.
A fearless fur and feather escape. Viva la revolution! Mr. Walnut just might be the world’s meanest pet shop owner! His pet shop is cold and dark, and the animals all live in very small cages. When a little girl named Mina can’t find her pet bunny, she’s sure that she must have gotten scooped up by Mr. Walnut. Can Mina save her beloved pet and lead the other animals to freedom?
In this evocative picture book, Mama, Papa, and six brothers and sisters live behind a fabric and thread store in downtown Guatemala City in the late 1950s. The narrator’s parents fled China during the Japanese invasion and, with a few neighbors, found refuge in Central America and opened their business. People come from all over to buy their bright fabrics and brilliant thread for weaving and making clothes. Author and artist Amelia Lau Carling depicts an almost magical kingdom where Chinese, Guatemalan, and Native cultures meet in harmony, where children can play and learn about all the different peoples who bring the city to vibrant life.
Learning a foreign language has never been this much fun! Just pull the sturdy tabs and change the words under the pictures from English to French and back again to English.
A young girl tells about a day in her family’s store and home in Guatemala City. Every day customers of many heritages—speaking Spanish, Chinese, and Mayan—come to buy cloth, buttons, and thread in colors like parrot green and mango yellow, and dozens of other items. While the girl’s parents and their friends talk about their hometown in China from where they emigrated many years ago, she and her siblings play games on the rooftop terrace, float paper boats, and make shadow puppets under the glow of flashlights. When the store closes, the girl dances to celebrate her day. Amelia Lau Carling’s thoroughly American children loved her childhood stories about Guatemala so much that she wrote them down for others.