Ready and Waiting for You is an interactive book designed to welcome young children into the caring community of school with a series of opening doors. From the school bus door, office door, library door, and more, the reader sees the teachers, principal, and staff that create a safe place for learning. The vivid and cheerful torn paper illustrations by Catherine Stock reinforce the fun that awaits students behind every door.

You can read an interview related to the book on the Worlds of Words (WOW): International Collection of Children's and Adolescent Literature Authors Corner Web page.

Ready and Waiting for You is included on the Bank Street College 2014 Best Books (for children under age five) and is recommended for children ages four to six.

Check out the Ready and Waiting for You book trailer designed by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers!

Sing Down the Rain was published in August, 1997. The book is a narrative poem about the annual Tohono O'odham saguaro harvest and rain-making ceremony. The poem was written to be performed by a classroom of students. Michael Chiago, Tohono O'odham fine artist, painted the gouache and watercolor paintings. Tohono O'odham elder, Danny Lopez, served as the cultural advisor for the book.

The choral reading has been respectfully performed by people from diverse cultural backgrounds, including performances by Tohono O'odham students and elders on and off the Tohono O'odham reservation.

I have provided information about the book and an introductory reading, dedicated to my collaborators, on the TeachingBooks.net Web site.

Note: This book is temporarily out of print. Please check back here for updates (9/6/17).

Learn more about Read to Me/Vamos a leer

Star Bright Books Web Site

Read to Me/Vamos a leer is a child-sized book that encourages families to read, to sing, and to tell stories together. Kyra Teis's illustrations portray tender literacy moments between multiethnic, intergenerational family members. Mary Margaret Mercado composed the Spanish adaptation found in Vamos a leer. The poem was originally written for a pregnant teen literacy project, to which I donate a portion of my royalties on this book.

I recorded a brief introduction and reading of the book on the TeachingBooks.net Web site.

As of October 1, 2015, more than 100,000 copies of Read to Me and its various editions have been sold. "Books for Dallas Babies," a collaborative project of the Friends of the Dallas Public Library and Parkland Health and Hospital System, gave 12,000 copies of the book to families of newborns in 2016; they are continuing the project in 2017. Fort Worth Public Library and the JPS Health Network began their "Books for Tarrant County Babies" Partnership in 2017.