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 it in the lagoon! Could the fireflies’ bright lights have hidden its glow? Juanito just doesn’t know!
This charming story by Aracely De Alvarado introducing the phases of the moon to children is enlivened by Victoria Castillo’s bright, eye-catching illustrations depicting the nighttime sky and animals in their habitat. Kids ages 4 – 8, and some adults too, will enjoy repeating the sounds animals make—in English and Spanish!
Winner of Salinas de Alba Award for Latino Children’s Literature
“A boy discovers that the moon is missing from the sky and enlists the help of nighttime animals to find it in this bilingual picture book. The animal sounds used in each character’s response to Juanito’s queries make for perfect read-aloud potential. The dreamlike illustrations depict Juanito as a young Latinx boy with brown skin and straight brown hair. STEM content and a Spanish lullaby pair up for a satisfying bedtime story.” —Kirkus Reviews
ARACELY DE ALVARADO, a preschool teacher, wrote her first story because she wanted to develop and enrich her students’ vocabulary and language skills. She is the author of La divina Catrina / Oh, Divine Catrina (Piñata Books, 2020) and Los pingüinos / The Penguins (Palibrio, 2014). Aracely studied artistic design, drawing and oil painting. She is from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, and lives in California with her husband.
VICTORIA CASTILLO, an illustrator and comic artist, has a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from the University of North Texas. Her Colombian mother and Mexican father ensured that she was exposed to different cultures from an early age. She has travelled extensively, and those adventures taught her the importance of diversity. She credits her passion for languages and communication to these experiences. The illustrator of The Little Doctor / El doctorcito (Piñata Books, 2016), Victoria loves vibrant, expressive shapes and colors. She surrounds herself with books, toys, music, cartoons and monsters of various forms and sizes for inspiration in her drawing, sculpting and painting. She lives in Texas with her family and numerous dogs.
