The healer in an Oaxacan village returns from market with 25 kittens, but the unfamiliar animals are viewed by the townspeople with suspicion and scorn. When an evil spell threatens the local butcher, the healer and his cats save her life and win the villagers' hearts. "Succeeds on all levels....The story is told in easy colloquial English that has the cadenced feel of Spanish. The illustrations are remarkable."--School Library Journal.
In His Own Words...
"Though I wasn't what you'd call a bookish kid, I knew from the fifth grade that I liked to write. I'd discovered the joys of composing words that elicited some guffaws from my peers. Next to shooting baskets on the playground, writing was the activity for me.
"When I was 14, 1 had the opportunity to spEND
the summer with a family in Quito, Ecuador. There, I first learned how to get along in Spanish. A voyage to the Galapagos and bus journeys through the jungle ignited my lifelong love of travel. Later, I graduated from the University of the Pacific with degrees in International Studies and Japanese language. Overseas studies led to overseas jobsas a copywriter, newscaster, and touring member of a Japanese taiko drum troupe. The broader a writer's experiences, I figured, the richer his perspective would be.
"Translating and writing ads for an ad agency provided good technical training. Since I hadn't majored in English or journalism, I was grateful to hone my skills on the job. But the more I worked within the confines of that field, the more I wanted to create my own stories.
"In 1990, 1 went to Oaxaca, Mexico, where a friEND
introduced me to Leovigildo Martinez. A jovial spirit and a magnificent painter, Leo introduced me to Oaxacan markets and villages. As a fine artist, he had never illustrated books but suggested we collaborate on Oaxacan tales for children. The idea was to take threads of existing folklore, then create stories to be understood universally. The region's phenomenal array of indigenous cultures-their pyramids, textiles, fiestas, and crafts-posed too delicious a challenge to turn down. Although I had never written for children, I told Leo, "Me gusto la idea."
"I based our first book, The Twenty-five Mixtec Cots, on my experiences with a Oaxacan healer. The title for our second book, The Moon Was at a Fiesta, was borrowed from a proverb Leo taught me that explains why the moon is sometimes out in the morning. Travels through countries such as India and Japan have inspired other books in progress. I feel stories in foreign settings are of great value to children, and that ultimately the world's peoples must learn from each other to solve the many problems we face.
"At home, I find inspiration to write from playing drums. I have conga drums, bongo drums, a drum set, and a Middle Eastern dumbek, on which I am fond of tapping rhythms between composing paragraphs. For this reason, I do not live in apartments, and colleagues do not invite me to share office space with them.
"Writing children's books has lead to invitations to visit schools, where I enjoy presenting my stories in English and Spanish, playing hand drums, and showing slides. My interests since fifth grade have broadened but not changed. Writing is still the activity for me, but I now prefer to play basketball in a gym."
