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Green like my mother’s
salsa verde,
green like the earth in Spring.
Take me across the mountains to my mamá
so I can hear her songs again.
What happens when a small girl suddenly starts turning green, as green
as a cilantro leaf, and grows to be fifty feet tall? She becomes Super
Cilantro Girl, and can overcome all obstacles, thatšs what! Esmeralda
Sinfronteras is the winning super-hero in this effervescent tale about
a child who flies huge distances and scales tall walls in order to rescue
her mom.
Award winner Juan Felipe Herrera taps poetically into the wellsprings
of imagination to address and transform the very serious concerns many
first-generation children have about national borders and immigrant status.
And artist Honorio Robledo, himself a prize-winning illustrator of childrenšs
books, has created a bouquet of brilliant images and landscapes that will
delight all children
Juan Felipe Herrera is a nationally recognized Mexican-American poet.
His first children’s book, Calling the Doves, won the prestigious
Ezra Jack Keats Award. Its sequel, The Upside-Down Boy, was a selection
for the Texas Blue Bonnet Master List and was a Smithsonian Notable Book
for Children. A third story, Grandma and Me at the Flea, came out
in 2002 to rave reviews. Juan Felipe was also the winner of the Latino
Hall of Fame Poetry Award for 2000 and 2002. He lives with his family
in Fresno, California, and loves the color green because it’s the
color of emerald, oceans, and cilantro.
Honorio Robledo Tapia spent his childhood in Veracruz, Chiapas, and in
the mountainous regions of Matlanzinca of Mexico, where there was no electricity
or running water. Today he is an author, painter, and musician, and lives
in Los Angeles. He is the author of Nico visita la luna / Nico Visits
the Moon. and of El Cucuy, winner of the Independent Publishers’
Award in 2002. He is also the creator of the comic strip, Cubeta,
which appeared in the newspaper, La Jornada in Mexico, and can
now be seen in La Opinión in Los Angeles. His children Nico
and Amalia are huge fans of his work and awake him at six every morning
to hear his stories.
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Full-color illustrations throughout 
