By: Alma Flor Ada
English version by:
Rosalma Zubizarreta-Ada
Illustrations by: Gabhor Utomo
ISBN: 978-1-55885-899-2
Publication Date: May 31, 2020
Format: Hardcover
Trim: 8.5″ x 11″
Pages: 40
Imprint: Piñata Books
Ages: 5-10
A bilingual picture book introducing children to the wonders of nature and poetry.
“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
natural world and the joy found in the great outdoors. There are stars that
bathe in the river, the sun that hides behind the mountain and a stream that
wraps itself in shadows. In one verse, the authors note there’s only a short
distance from the river to the freeway leading back to the crowded, noisy city,
“yet those few kilometers / allow us to dwell / in a very different world.”
Reflecting time spent with family
enjoying nature, these poems were conceived while Alma Flor Ada camped along
the Yuba River with her daughter, Rosalma Zubizarreta-Ada, who created the
English-language versions. With gorgeous illustrations by Gabhor Utomo
depicting the countryside and kids playing at a river, this bilingual picture
book introduces children to both the joy of poetry and spending time outside.
ALMA FLOR ADA, Professor Emerita at the
University of San Francisco and an expert on multicultural and bilingual
education, is an internationally acclaimed children’s book author. Her books
include My Name Is María Isabel (Athenaeum, 1995), which was named to the
National Council of Social Studies and Children’s Book Council’s Notable Books;
The Gold Coin (Atheneum, 1991), winner of a Christopher Medal; Under the Royal
Palms (Atheneum, 1998), winner of a Pura Belpré Award; and Gathering the Sun
(Harper Collins, 2001), recipient of a Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award
from the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance. She lives and works in
San Rafael, California.
ROSALMA ZUBIZARRETA-ADA is a writer,
organizational facilitator and author of From Conflict to Creative Collaboration.
In the realm of children’s literature, she has co-authored The Woman Who
Outshone the Sun (Children’s Book Press, 1991), created the English-language
versions of the poems in Gathering the Sun (HarperCollins, 2001) and translated
a number of other children’s books. She lives with her husband in Great
Barrington, Massachusetts.
GABHOR UTOMO was born in Indonesia, and
received his degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in
2003. He has illustrated a number of children’s books, including Kai’s Journey
to Gold Mountain (East West Discovery Press, 2004) and Lupita’s First Dance /
El primer baile de Lupita (Piñata Books, 2013). Gabhor’s work has won numerous
awards from local and national art organizations, and his painting of Senator
Milton Marks is part of a permanent collection at the California State Building
in downtown San Francisco. He lives with his family in Portland, Oregon.
