Additional information
by Juan Felipe Herrera (Author), Ernesto Cuevas Jr (Illustrator)
Bilingual English/Spanish. Award-winning children's book author and poet Juan Felipe Herrera offers a story of self-empowerment and friendship.
Kids race across the grass,
swooping like kites over an emerald sea.
No one notices
how fast I can spin my wheels.
Will I ever catch up?
Will they ever see me?
At his new school or on the soccer field, all everyone wants to know is why Tomasito is in a wheelchair. His Papi gives Tomasito a new pet to make him smile, but this bird is a little bit different from the rest. Before long, this boy-bird team discovers that there's more than one way to fly-on or off the soccer field-and that those cheers Tomasito hears from the sidelines just might be for him. Goooooooooooal!
Award-winning children's book author and poet Juan Felipe Herrera scores yet again with this sparkling story of self-empowerment and friendship. The brilliant acrylic paintings by Ernesto Cuevas, Jr., soar off the page with joy.
Author Biography
Juan Felipe Herrera is the son of farmworkers and a graduate of UCLA, Stanford, and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. For over fifty years, he has dedicated his life to poetry, community, art, and teaching. He served as the Poet Laureate of the United States and of California, and he's written more than thirty books across various genres. His awards include the National Book Critics' Circle Award, the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the LA Times Robert Kirsch Award, a Latino Hall of Fame Award, a Pushcart Prize, UCLA Chancellor's Medal, and the UC-Riverside Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2024. He lives in Fresno, California, with his wife, poet Margarita Robles.
Ernesto Cuevas holds a bachelor's degree in fine art from Dartmouth College. He grew to love the arts through his experiences in the fields with his parents, who were migrant farmworkers. Ernesto is also the founder of RedCielo LLC, a graphic design firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.
