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My abuelita is round. Robust, she says, like a calabaza. A pumpkin. She doesn’t mind. She likes pumpkins. “Being round gives me a good round voice,” she tells me. “Just the voice for my work.”

Yuyi was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States 15 years ago. Her books mirror stories from her family. Probably first known for her illustrations in Harvesting Hope: The story of Cesar Chavez, written by Kathell Krull. The book received the Jane Adams Award for Best  Picture Book in 2004.

My favorites are In Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book and Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Alphabet. Fitting for this time of year, the main character is Señor Calavera, a skeleton who visits a Grandma on her birthday. Yuyi even website devoted to him.

Both books received numerous awards including the 2003 Best of the Best List, Chicago Public Library; 2004 Latino Award for Best Children’s book; 2004 and 2009 Pura Belpre Medal for Illustration – to name a few.

Other notable books in which Yuyi either authored or illustrated include:

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales. From School Library Journal:

“… a rhythmic poem describing a moonlit Halloween night. Los esqueletos rattle bones and clatter in a dance, los fantasmas drag their chains and shriek their pains, and los muertos emerge from their graves to join other creatures at a haunted casa for music and dancing.”Little Night written and illustrate by Yuyi Moralies. From Booklist:

Mother Sky appears to be preparing a child, Little Night, for bedtime. The activities are familiar–the bath, the stalling, the snack–but in this fanciful tale, nighttime is really Little Night’s playtime.

From Booklist:

Since 2000 the U.S. has taken in about 3,000 “Lost Boys of Sudan,” orphaned by the ethnic and religious wars that have left two million dead. Through the fictionalized first-person account of one boy, Garang, this moving picture book tells the big story of children at war. Driven from his village home by the soldiers, Garang treks with other boys nearly 1,000 miles across the border, first to Ethiopia, and later to Kenya. He finds shelter in refugee camps, but many other refugees die along the way.

The pictures alone tell this moving story – it was awarded the Coretta Scott King honor book award for its illustrations by R. Gregory Christie.

From School Library Journal:

Beverley Naidoos introduction states that more than 20 million children and their families have been forced to leave their homes to escape from the effects of war in recent years…. The pain of their experiences is raw; losing a parent or siblings changes their view of the world, and yet, despite it all, the universal feeling is one of hope for the future.

I just read, Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate. It’s a story of a young refugee from Sudan who comes to live with his aunt’s family in Minnesota. He adjusts to his new life as he wrestles with memories from his home country. It’s told in first-person narrative in verse form. His descriptions of new experiences are delightful to read.

On the day with the name of Saturday,

Hannah and I wait by the road

for the bus to come.

It’s even bigger than the school bus,

with the sour breath and slow growl

of a starving animal.

The door squeals open and

I follow Hannah up the stairs.

She pours quarters into my glove.

Here, she says. Do like I do.

Her money clatters into a box by the driver.

But -

I shake my head.

The school bus is free.

This one you pay for, she says.

C’mon, hurry up.

The content is appropriate for middle-school readers. ELL students will appreciate how Kek adapts to his new surroundings.

I really like Eve Bunting. She has written many books that encourage children to think and talk about topics such as racism, homelessness and in this book – immigration. In One Green Apple, a Muslim girl visits an apple orchard on a class trip on her second day in the her new school and new country. When she puts a green apple into the cider press her classmates protest. However, they learn that all their apples mixed creates a delicious taste. This book can be used to talk about issues ELL students face when they first come to their new schools.

Out of all the rooms in a person’s home, there is something intriguing about sneaking a glance in the kitchen. Have you heard of this book? It’s sure to spark discussions about standard of living and equity. What the World Eats is a fascinating book that shows 25 families in 21 countries around the world. Each family is photographed with a week’s worth of food and groceries. The book includes profiles about each family with recipes, maps, and facts about population, currency, income, and more. The text is written for older readers, but the photographs can be enjoyed by all ages. Says author Faith D’Aluisio and photographer Peter Menzel:

“It’s interesting to watch children with this book in their hands. It doesn’t require being read from front to back and they don’t approach it in that manner anyway; they’re drawn in by the food portraits and begin immediately to compare themselves to what they see. Afterward they go back to fill in information.What the World Eats is meant to get kids thinking about the world around them, but also about the food on their own plates.”