Maria Liatis

Ramon loved to draw. Anytime. Anything. Anywhere. Drawing is what Ramon does. It's what makes him happy. But in one split second, all that changes. A single reckless remark by Ramon's older brother, Leon, turns Ramon's carefree sketches into joyless struggles. Luckily for Ramon, though, his little sister, Marisol, sees the world differently. She opens his eyes to something a lot more valuable than getting things just "right." Combining the spareness...

When a girl is asked where she's from-where she'sï¿1/2reallyï¿1/2from-none of her answers seems to be the right one. Unsure about how to reply, she turns to her loving abuelo for help. He doesn't give her the response she expects. She gets an even better one. Where am I from? You're from hurricanes and dark storms, and a tiny singing frog that calls the island people home when the sun goes to sleep ... With themes of self-acceptance, identity,...

"Ruby does NOT like bugs! Until she's forced to spend some time looking more closely at one ... A funny story for kids with big feelings and curious minds. When Ruby discovers a bug on her window one morning she FREAKS OUT! She loves animals, just NOT bugs! But no amount of blowing or squirting or yelling will get this bug to go away. It will get Ruby stuck in a time out. With lots of time to study Mr.Yuck-bug, Ruby grudgingly decides he may have...

This Pura Belpré Award-winning picture book is a bilingual ride through the joyous history of Children's Day/El día de los niños.

Marisol McDonald has flaming red hair and nut-brown skin. Polka dots and stripes are her favorite combination. She prefers peanut butter and jelly burritos in her lunch box. To Marisol, these seemingly mismatched things make perfect sense together. Other people wrinkle their nose in confusion at Marisol -- can't she just choose one or the other? Try as she might, in a world where everyone tries to put this biracial, Peruvian-Scottish-American girl...

Little Maya has a special blanket that Grandma stitched with her own two hands. As Maya grows, her blanket becomes worn and frayed, so with Grandma's help, Maya makes it into a dress. Over time the dress is made into a skirt, a shawl, a scarf, a hair ribbon, and finally, a bookmark. Each item has special, magical, meaning for Maya; it animates her adventures, protects her, or helps her in some way. But when Maya loses her bookmark, she preserves her...

"Still, silent water / starts to run / dancing over rocks, turning into song." Acclaimed children's book author Alma Flor Ada and her daughter Rosalma Zubizarreta-Ada share short poems for children about rivers and the life found along them. There are odes to cicadas, dragonflies, butterflies, fish, frogs and birds. "Dragonfly, / lovely fan of lace / wings fluttering / unceasingly, / above the river's water." These poems brim with the beauty of the...

Young Lupe loves helping her mother with their salsa garden full of tomatoes, chile peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro. But one summer day, she sees that the biggest, juiciest tomatoes have disappeared! Who could have taken them?!? Two weeks later, she catches the culprit in the act! It's Antonio, the new boy at school. His family doesn't have much money and the tomatoes look so good. He offers his gold necklace from his grandmother in Mexico in...

Maya and Annie are friends who play together on Saturdays and Sundays. They make lemonade with lemons from the big tree in Annie's yard and play with Maya's two little dogs. Maya likes the different food Annie's dad cooks: noodles, rice, fish and dumplings. And Annie likes eating dinners Maya's mom makes: tacos, chicken, tamales and rice and beans. Weekends are special because the girls don't see each other on school days. Annie's dad takes them...

Juanito looked outside one dark night and discovered the moon was nowhere to be seen! Where could it have gone? Is it hiding under the bed or behind a great mountain? He wonders if the coyote took it to his lair, but the wily canine couldn't catch the slippery moon. "Aaah-ooooooh, aaaah-ooooooh, aaaah-ooooooh," he cries sadly. Maybe the cicada's deafening screeches made it disappear! Or did the owl bewitch the luminous moon? Perhaps the frog drowned...