Book Orders for Visiting Author Carmen Agra Deedy

2024-25 Gordon Berman ’68 Memorial Lower School Resident Author

The Park School Library is excited to host Carmen Agra Deedy, award-winning author of 16 books for young readers, on Thursday April 3 as our 2024-25 Gordon Berman ’68 Memorial Lower School Resident Author.

Throughout the day, Carmen will hold three storytelling sessions for our Lower School students. Her books will be available for sale prior to her visit, and the Lower School Library will host a book signing session with Carmen from 2:45-3:45 p.m.  

Our resident author program brings noteworthy authors and illustrators of children’s books to the Park School each year for presentations and hands-on workshops with Lower School students. Read more about the program here.

Martina The Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) by Carmen Agra Deedy 
$8.99 (paperback) $18.99 (hardcover)

Martina the beautiful cockroach doesn’t know coffee beans about love and marriage. That’s where her Cuban family comes in. While some of the Cucarachas offer her gifts to make her more attractive, only Abuela, her grandmother, gives her something really un consejo increíble, some shocking advice.” You want me to do what?” Martina gasps. At first, Martina is skeptical of her Abuela’s unorthodox suggestion, but when suitor after suitor fails the Coffee Test, she wonders if a little green cockroach can ever find true love. Soon, only the gardener Pérez, a tiny brown mouse, is left. But what will happen when Martina offers him café cubano? After reading this sweet and witty retelling of the Cuban folktale, you’ll never look at a cockroach the same way again.

Carina Felina
$19.99 (hardcover)

The trouble started when Pepe the parrot fell in love with . . . a CAT! Hoping to win her paw, he invited her to his house for dinner. But within moments of arriving ― with a gobble and a gulp ― Carina swallowed that love-sick parrot whole! And he was just the appetizer! In this Cuban retelling of a classic folktale, Carmen Agra Deedy and Henry Cole merge their talents to create a wickedly funny and inspiring picture book that proves the smallest of creatures can sometimes possess the most surprising strength!

The Rooster That Would Not Be Quiet!
 $18.99 (hardcover)

So the villagers elect the bossy Don Pepe as their mayor. Before long, singing of any kind is outlawed. Even the teakettle is afraid to whistle!

But there is one noisy rooster who doesn’t give two mangos about this mayor’s silly rules. Instead, he does what roosters were born to do.

He sings:

“Kee-kee-ree-KEE!”

Carmen Deedy’s masterfully crafted allegory and Eugene Yelchin’s bright, whimsical mixed-media paintings celebrate the spirit of freedom — and the courage of those who are born to sing at any cost.

14 Cows For America
$8.99 ea (paperback) $17.99 (hardcover)

In June of 2002, a ceremony begins in a village in western Kenya. Hundreds of Maasai surround an American diplomat to bestow a gift on the American people. The gift is as unsought and unexpected as it is extraordinary. A mere nine months have passed since the September 11 attacks, and hearts are raw. Tears flow freely as these legendary warriors offer their gift to a grieving

Rita and Ralph’s Rotten Day 
$18.99 (hardcover)

In two little houses,on two little hills,lived two best friends… So begins the story of Rita and Ralph. Every day they meet to play beneath the apple tree. It’s always fun and games — until one roundly rotten day when a new game means someone ends up crying. Who knew it could be so hard to say “I’m sorry”?

Wombat Said, “Come in!”
$18.99 (hardcover)

A kindhearted wombat offers refuge to a parade of animal friends during an Australian bushfire in a delightful new picture book from New York Times best-selling creators Carmen Agra Deedy and Brian Lies.

Australian bushfires roar above Wombat’s home. He is fortunate that his burrow is deep below ground and he is safe. He snuggles under his crazy quilt and drinks his tea. Soon his frightened friend Wallaby shows up at his door. “Oh Wombat! I c-c-can’t reach my home! M-m-may I stay with you awhile?”

Wombat pauses only for a tick of the clock, and says, “Come in!

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale 
$16.95 (hardcover)

In this playful homage to Charles Dickens, Skilley, an alley cat with an embarrassing secret, longs to escape his street-cat life.

Hoping to trade London’s damp alleyways for the warmth of ye olde Cheshire Cheese Inn, Skilley strikes a bargain with Pip, an erudite mouse. Skilley will protect the mice who live at the inn, and in turn, the mice will provide Skilley with the thing he desires most.

But when Skilley and Pip are drawn into a crisis of monumental proportions, their new friendship is pushed to its limits. The escalating crisis threatens the peace not only of the Cheshire Cheese Inn but the entire British Monarchy!

The Peanut Man
 $18.99 (hardcover)

The story of a Cuban refugee and her joy in an unexpected encounter that connects her beloved home in Havana with her new home in Atlanta

With luminous illustrations by the award-winning artist Raúl Colón, this story of immigration, of being displaced and finding a connection to home, reminds us how much alike we humans are, regardless of culture, color, or creed.

The Children’s Moon
$18.99 (hardcover)

There once was a time when the sun alone ruled the day, the moon graced the night, and little children were sent to bed before sunset. Then early one dawn, the moon heard sounds of children laughing, and she yearned to see them by daylight.

“Certainly not!” snapped the sun. “The day is mine. The night is yours!”

But the moon had a clever plan…