Little Crow to the Rescue

El Cuervito al rescate

Little Crow to the Rescue



Little Crow and Father Crow sit on the branch of a tall tree surveying the freshly planted corn field. Father Crow tells Little Crow that the human father and son they see working in the fields do a lot for crows. They plant corn, they move water, and they feed the crows with their fields. The crows sing their gratitude to the farmers, but in spite of their efforts to sing their best songs, the farmers don’t like the crows.



As they watch, the tricky farmer bends to get a rock. He hides it by the side of his leg, and when they get in close range, the farmer launches his missile at the crows. But Little Crow and Father Crow are much too fast for him. They fly overhead, laughing and singing. Other crows are not so lucky, like Uncle Fly-Too-Late whose wing was broken when a farmer threw a rock.



Little Crow is troubled. What if the farmer picked up a rock when Little Crow wasn’t looking? What if Little Crow couldn’t get away fast enough? Soon, Little Crow has an idea that just might save all the crows.



Felipe Ugalde Alcántara (Illustrator)

Creator: Nicolas Kanellos

Area: Houston / Third Ward-MacGregor

Contributor: Arte Público Press

Source: Center for Mexican American Studies

Uploaded by: Marisela Martinez

Copyright status: In copyright

Center for Mexican American Studies

Mother Fox and Mr. Coyote

Mamá Zorra y Don Coyote

Mother Fox and Mr. Coyote



The home of Mother Fox and her three babies is hidden by the roots of a tree stump in a long valley. In the beautiful fields around their home, Mother Fox cares for her children, who are so tiny they fit in the palm of a human hand. She brings them treats to eat, and she leads them to sit on the rocks in the sun.



But Mother Fox must always be wary because an old coyote shares their valley with them. Though he is lonely, the mean coyote searches for food rather than a friend. “After all, this is the way the world works.”



One day, Mother Fox takes her babies to the pond to search for food. There, while jumping and frolicking with the bullfrogs in the night, Mother Fox rolls on the ground shaking with laughter. In fact, she laughs so hard that she forgets about the hungry coyote. Soon, she finds herself snout to snout with her biggest fear. Knowing that they cannot run or hide from the coyote, Mother Fox uses her cunning mind to escape. With a little help from the moon and a trick of light, she saves her babies.



In this enchanting bilingual picture book, renowned author Victor Villaseñor casts a traditional folk tale about Mother Moon. Paired with bright and inventive illustrations, this story is a celebration of nature in all her beauty.



Felipe Ugalde Alcántara (Illustrator)

Creator: Nicolas Kanellos

Area: Houston / Third Ward-MacGregor

Contributor: Arte Público Press

Source: Center for Mexican American Studies

Uploaded by: Marisela Martinez

Copyright status: In copyright

Center for Mexican American Studies

Rain of Gold

Lluvia de oro

Rain of Gold



Rain of Gold is a true-life saga of love, family and destiny, pulsing with bold vitality, sweeping from the war-ravaged Mexican mountains of Pancho Villa’s revolution to the days of Prohibition in California.



It all began when the author’s maternal grandmother sat him down in their little home in the barrio of Carlsbad, California, and gave him sweet bread and told him the story of their past. Of his mother Lupe, the most beautiful girl in the whole village, no more than a child when Villa’s men came shooting into their canyon. And of his father Juan and his family, reduced to rags and starvation by the Revolution as they ran a tireless race against extinction to escape across the border into the United States, where they believed that endless opportunity awaited them.



But Juan found that the doors to the promised land are often closed to those from south of the border. There were times when a man had to take the law into his own hands. But Lupe, law-abiding and extremely religious, learned early in her war-plagued life that love was more powerful than violence, and she refused to bend. It became a struggle of iron wills and deepest passion, a story of love told with humor and poetry that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit.



Imran Chaudhry (Illustrator)

Creator: Nicolas Kanellos

Area: Houston / Third Ward-MacGregor

Contributor: Arte Público Press

Source: Center for Mexican American Studies

Uploaded by: Marisela Martinez

Copyright status: In copyright

Center for Mexican American Studies

Walking Stars

Estrellas peregrinas

Walking Stars



Best-selling novelist Victor Villaseñor grew up with these stories that he now is sharing with young people far and wide. The tales of derring-do and self-discovery set to the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and his family’s immigration to the United States all involve young people overcoming physical, emotional, and psychological barriers during times of extreme stress.



The over-riding message of Villaseñor’s exciting narrations is that we can all be heroes. Especially young people, who have the power to create their own futures, can find within themselves the power to achieve great feats of skill and courage, whether fighting witches or real-life oppressors. And, too, spirituality, imagination, and love of family are also the domain of the young, and these can help young men and women overcome all manner of adversity.



Within the pages of Walking Stars is a whole cast of lovable, down-to-earth children and teenagers whose desire and perseverance take them to stardom, but a stardom different from that found on television and the popular media: It is the brilliance of becoming strong, confident, and contributing adults able to bring positive change into society.



Johnny Guzman (Illustrator)

Creator: Nicolas Kanellos

Area: Houston / Third Ward-MacGregor

Contributor: Arte Público Press

Source: Center for Mexican American Studies

Uploaded by: Marisela Martinez

Copyright status: In copyright

Center for Mexican American Studies