Nonfiction

You're My Little Love Bug (Parent Love Letters)

This book is suitable for ages 4+. All children want the reassurance that their parents' love runs deep and wide. Through blinking lights, a 'music box' song, enchanting illustrations and whimsical rhyming descriptions, this book captures all the fun ways in which parents can describe their love and implant it into their children's heart. By inserting your child's picture in the back, this book becomes his or her personal love letter. When you sit down, cuddle and read this book together, it will become your child's most special moment.

In My Family/En mi familia

Following the best-selling Family Pictures, In My Family/En mi familia is Carmen Lomas Garza's continuing tribute to the family and community that shaped her childhood and her life. Lomas Garza's vibrant paintings and warm personal stories depict memories of growing up in the traditional Mexican-American community of her hometown of Kingsville, Texas.

40 Uses for a Grandpa

Grandpa is much more than just the patriarch of the family. Whether he's keeping time during a race, building the perfect toy, turning the pages while you play your music, or just warming your hands, there are many reasons why a grandfather is great. Breaking traditional stereotypes, this book encourages children to images their grandfather in a host of contemporary situations: grandpas as chefs, nurses, and cheerleaders.

Reaching Out

From the perspective of the young adult he was then, Francisco Jiménez
describes the challenges he faced in his efforts to continue his education.
During his college years, the very family solidarity that allowed Francisco to survive as a child is tested. Not only must he leave his family behind when he goes to Santa Clara University, but while Francisco is there, his father abandons the family and returns to Mexico. This is the story of how Francisco coped with poverty, with his guilt over leaving his family financially strapped, with his self-doubt about succeeding academically, and with separation. Once again his telling is honest, true, and inspiring.

In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers

"When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him." This simple, yet potentially double-edged Ashanti proverb begins Javaka Steptoe's picture-book debut, a powerful collection of poems celebrating African American fathers, by new and established African American writers. Breathtaking, evocative mixed-media spreads--bedecked with beads, burlap, and buttons--earned Steptoe's brilliant collection the 1998 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and the 1997 Reading Magic Award. A full-time artist and art teacher, Steptoe is the son of the late John Steptoe, also an acclaimed children's book artist. Regarding the process of creating the book, Steptoe says, "I was able to think about my father and how he affected me, and how I affected him, and give something to him by honoring his memory."

One selection, "Black Father Man" by Lenard D. Moore, begins, "Black Father Man, / the supreme earth dweller. / We are his ripe black crop / at the beginning-of-the-harvest. / We all bleed his blood / summer-hot and thick / summer-hot and thick / as unstrained milk. / Black Father Man, / the word-music messenger." Steptoe's accompanying artwork depicts men planting seeds and children growing, using actual dirt, leaves, seeds, paint, and cut paper to communicate the regenerative "we are his ripe black crop" spirit of the poem. In Folami Abiade's title poem, readers will soar high with the boy in his father's arms: "I am big and strong & proud like him / in daddy's arms / my daddy." Other contributors--including Carole Boston Weatherford, Michael Burgess, Davida Adedjouma (editor of The Palm of My Heart), and more--add humor and power to this extraordinary tribute to fatherhood. (All ages)

Fatherhood is celebrated with honor, humor, and grace in this intergenerational collection of poetry by new and established African-American writers. The book testifies to the powerful bond between father and child, with a profound message to people everywhere that family is the greatest gift and that fathers are among the most influential heroes. Twelve outstanding poems come to life through the spirited artwork of Javaka Steptoe.

41 Uses for a Grandma

Grandma is much more than just the matriarch of the family. Whether she's keeping time during a race, building the perfect toy, turning the pages while you play your music, or just warming your hands, there are many reasons why a grandmother is great. Breaking traditional stereotypes, this book encourages children to images their grandmother in a host of contemporary situations: grandmas as sports enthusiasts, yoga instructors, and e-pals.

Family Pictures, 15th Anniversary Edition / Cuadros de Familia, Edición Quinceañera

Family Pictures is the story of Carmen Lomas Garza's girlhood: celebrating birthdays, making tamales, finding a hammerhead shark on the beach, picking cactus, going to a fair in Mexico, and confiding to her sister her dreams of becoming an artist. These day-to-day experiences are told through fourteen vignettes of art and a descriptive narrative, each focusing on a different aspect of traditional Mexican American culture.

The English-Spanish text and vivid illustrations reflect the author's strong sense of family and community. For Mexican Americans, Carmen Lomas Garza offers a book that reflects their lives and traditions. For others, this work offers insights into a beautifully rich community.

Climbing Your Family Tree: Online and Off-line Genealogy for Kids

Climbing Your Family Tree is filled with detailed guidance on utilizing the Internet for genealogy. The Internet has completely transformed genealogy, making family history the second most popular hobby in the U.S. after gardening and genealogy the second most searched for subject on the Web. Climbing Your Family Tree is the comprehensive, kid-friendly genealogical primer for the 21st century, and a dramatic story of how and why our ancestors undertook the arduous voyages of immigration to this nation. It teaches kids to track down important family documents, including ships' manifests, naturalization papers, and birth, marriage, and death certificates. It tells how to create oral histories. It shows how to make scrapbooks of photos, sayings, and legends. It tells how to compile a family tree. A full chapter is devoted to the online search, and relevant Internet information has been incorporated into all the other chapters. Also new are more kids' genealogical stories and a reworked, easier-to-use design, and supporting the book will be a Web site that will include record-keeping pages, links to sites in the book, and more.

Grandma Calls Me Beautiful

A companion to the best-selling Mama, Do You Love Me? and Papa, Do You Love Me?, this beautiful book captures the unique bond that exists between grandmother and grandchild. Set in Hawaii, the vibrant watercolor illustrations and lyrical text combine to capture the lush landscapes and unique traditions of Hawaiian culture, while at the same time conveying a universal message. Sure to be another instant classic.

Uncle Andy's: A Faabbbulous Visit With Andy Warhol

When James Warhola was a little boy, his father had a junk business that turned their yard into a wonderful play zone that his mother didn't fully appreciate! But whenever James and his family drove to New York City to visit Uncle Andy, they got to see how "junk" could become something truly amazing in an artist's hands.

Uncle Andy's offers an exciting and unique perspective on one of the most influential artists of our time. Through James' eyes, we see the things that made his family visits memorable-including the wonderful disarray of Andy's house, waking up surrounded by important art and incredible collected objects, trying on Andy's wigs, sharing the run of Andy's house with his twenty-five cats (all named Sam), and getting art supplies from Andy as a goodbye present. James was lucky enough to learn about art from an innovative master and he shows how these visits with Uncle Andy taught him about the creative process and inspired him to become an artist.