Desert Hawk Books

 

Carlos and the Squash Plant
Carlos y la planta de calabaza

by Jan Romero Stevens
illustrations by Jeanne Arnold

 

 

Hardcover

8.5" x 11"
32 Pages
English/Spanish text
Ages 5-8
Fully illustrated in color

Quantity:  $15.95 & S/H  

 

He had an itchy sort of feeling in his ear, and when he started to scratch it, he felt something strange.

Carlos ran to the mirror. A tiny, light green stem with two pear-shaped leaves was growing in his right ear.

This original story is a new twist on southwestern lore. Carlos enjoys tilling the rich brown earth on his parents' farm in northern New Mexico, but his dislikes of baths leads him to ignore his mother's warnings about what will happen if he doesn't wash the dirt out of his ears. What a surprise Carlos gets when the itching in his right ear turns out to be a sprouting plant that grows longer and longer and gets more and more difficult to fit under his hat! Complete with evocative illustrations and a recipe for Carlos's favorite dish, calabacitas, this bilingual book is a must-read for children of the Southwest and beyond.

Jan Romero Stevens and is also the author of Twelve Lizards Leaping: A New Twelve Days of Christmas, Carlos and the Carnival, Carlos and the Skunk, Carlos and the Cornfield, and Carlos Digs to China.

Jeanne Arnold lives in Salt Lake City, UT and is also the illustrator of Carlos and the Carnival, Carlos and the Skunk, Carlos and the Cornfield, and Carlos Digs to China.