Tony Johnston

Illustrations and easy-to-read text reveal the secrets of letters, including their power to create words of all kinds.

A young boy lists all the things he will have to take with him on his first day in kindergarten.

In 1950s Tennessee, ten-year-old David's racist father refuses to let him associate with his best friend Malcolm, an African American boy.

A pioneer mother lovingly stitches a beautiful quilt which warms and comforts her daughter Abigail; many years later another mother mends and patches it for her little girl. Two little girls, generations apart, find comfort in the same family hand-stitched quilt, decorated with the tails of falling stars.

Rabbit outwits Coyote in this Zapotec tale which explains why coyotes howl at the moon.

A 700-year-old woman and an 800-year-old man, both witches, go searching on Halloween night for the pumpkin someone snitched from them.

As the heat of the desert day fades into night, various nocturnal animals, including bats, coyotes, and snakes, venture out to find food.

With great gusto, a child's grandmother performs deep knee bends, consumes a breakfast of "huevos estrellados," and practices vocal exercises before going to work as a storyteller.

Isolated on her mountain, Amber meets and befriends a girl from the city who gives her the determination to learn to read and write.

Looking for a soup bone on Halloween, a little old lady finds a hungry skeleton instead.