Pam Muñoz Ryan

Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

After her overprotective grandmother has a stroke, Maya, an orphan, leaves her extremely restricted life in California to stay with her mother's family on a remote Wyoming ranch, where she discovers a love of horses and encounters a wild mare that her mother once rode.

"Tony Baloney and his school are celebrating Pen Pal Month! Big Sister Baloney says her pen pal is always a friend for life. Tony Baloney hopes his pen pal will be a friend for life, too!"--Page 4 of cover.

In this rhythmic cumulative tale Rosa Maria spends the week getting ready for her granddaughter's birthday party and trying to avoid attracting mice--unaware that the mice in her walls are preparing for a party of their own.

It is the first day of school for Tony Baloney, the macaroni penguin, and he wants to follow all the class rules, but Tony has a way of finding trouble.

A very rare pitacohi bird falls in love with a swallow and plucks his colorful feathers to transform dry, barren San Juan Capistrano into a haven of flowers and flowing water, which the swallows can easily find when returning from their annual migration.

A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world.

A tour of the author's home state, including poems to celebrate California's major cities and regions, and information about state symbols.

Takes the reader on an imaginary trip through California while offering information about the history and geography of this varied region with its numerous historic sites.

Groups making up many different kinds of "families" introduce the numbers from one to ten and then by tens to one hundred.