Acclaimed poet Pat Mora (Borders, Chants, Communion, and other works) has joined with artist Francisco X. Mora to create a charming and elegant book whose rhymes and drawings will delight not only children aged 3 to 7, but adults (and animal-lovers) as well. Pat Mora’s whimsical poem, presented bilingually with a Spanish translation by Alba Nora Martínez, tells of birds, armadillos, and other creatures who join together in a kitchen one “orange night” to make merry beneath the desert moon. Exhilarated by the strains of a lizard mariachi band, these hungry creatures will gobble anything! Only the most delicious of hullabaloos can satisfy their appetites tonight. And only Francisco Mora’s captivating, colorful illustrations could catch them at play on the page.
Click here to listen to the English read-along.
“Ms. Mora’s poems are proudly bilingual, an eloquent answer to purists who refuse to see language as something that lives and changes.”—The New York Times Book Review
“With a playful text, this bilingual picture book celebrates a child’s connection with her desert home…The feelings are universal, the words are precise and physical.”—Booklist
“This isn’t even open to debate. You must have this book.”—El Paso Herald
PAT MORA is a renowned writer of poetry, stories for children and nonfiction. Among her many works are the poetry collections Chants (1984), Borders (1986) and Communion (1994). Mora is also the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over 30 books for children and young adults, including The Bakery Lady / La señora de la panadería (2001), My Own True Name (2000), The Gift of the Poinsettia / El regalo de la flor de nochebuena (1995), Tomás and the Library Lady, Pablo’s Tree, A Birthday Basket for Tía, The Desert Is My Mother / El desierto es mi madre (1994), Delicious Hullabaloo / Pachanga deliciosa (1998) and Confetti. In 1999, she was the Garrey Carruthers Chair Visiting Distinguished Professor in Honors at the University of New Mexico. An El Paso native and the mother of three grown children, she divides her time between the Southwest and the Cincinnati area where her husband teaches anthropology.
Learn more at patmora.com.
ATOS Interest Level: Lower Grades
Category: Picture Book
ATOS English: 2.9
ATOS Spanish: 3.1
Accelerated Reader Quiz #: 30025
