Monica Brown - Waiting for the Biblioburro

Text copyright 2011 by Monica Brown
Illustrations copyright 2011 by John Parra

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Tricycle Press, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Tricycle Press and the Tricycle Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Monica, 1969
Waiting for the Biblioburro / by Monica Brown ; illustrations by John Parra. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When a man brings to a remote village two burros, Alfa and Beto, loaded with books the children can borrow, Anas excitement leads her to write a book of her own as she waits for the Bibliburro to return. Includes glossary of Spanish terms and a note on the true story of Columbias Biblioburro and mobile libraries in other countries.
[1. BiblioburroFiction. 2. Books and readingFiction. 3. LibrariesFiction.
4. Soriano, LuisFiction. 5. ColumbiaFiction.] I. Parra, John, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.B816644Wai 2011
[E]dc22
2010024183

ISBN 978-1-58246-353-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-58246-398-8 (Gibraltar lib. bdg.)

Design by Chloe Rawlins
The illustrations are acrylics on board.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-37455-2

v3.1

The author would like to acknowledge Simon Romero of the New York Times and Valentina Canavesio of Ayoka Productions, who shed light on Luis Soriano Bohrquezs work for literacy. Most special thanks, however, go to Luis himself, for his participation and support of this book.

For Luis Soriano Bohrquez, Nicole Geiger, and all who put books into the hands of children.
M.B.

For Jacob, Elizabeth, and Allison Parra: may your imaginations be your guide in life.
J.P.

O n a hill behind a tree, there is a house. In the house, there is a bed and on the bed there is a little girl named Ana, fast asleep, dreaming about the world outside and beyond the hill.

When Ana wakes up to the roosters quiquiriqu, Papi is already at work on the farm and Mami is busy in the garden. Ana bathes her little brother and feeds the goats and collects the eggs to sell at the market.

After breakfast, Ana and her mother walk down the hill. Ana closes her eyes against the sun and wishes she was back in the cool of the house with her libro, her book.

Ana has read her book, her only book, so many times she knows it by heart. The book was a gift from her teacher for working so hard on her reading and writing. But last fall, her teacher moved far away, and now there is no one to teach Ana and the other children in her village.

So, at night, on her bed in the house on the hill, Ana makes up her own cuentos and tells the stories to her little brother to help him fall asleep. She tells him stories about make-believe creatures that live in the forest and the mountains and the sea. She wishes for new stories to read, but her teacher with the books has gone.

One morning, Ana wakes up to the sounds of tacatac! Clip-clop! and a loud iii-aah, iii-aah!

When Ana looks down the hill below her house she sees a man with a sign that reads Biblioburro. With the man, there are two burros. What are they carrying?

Libros! Books!

Ana runs down the hill to the man with the sign and the burros and the books. Other children run to him too, skipping down hills and stomping through the fields.

Who are you? Who are they? the children ask.

The man says, I am a librarian, a bibliotecario, and these are my burros, Alfa and Beto. Welcome to the Biblioburro, my biblioteca.

But, seor, Ana says, I thought libraries were only in big cities and buildings.

Not this one, says the librarian. This is a moving library.

Then he spreads out his books and invites the children to join him under a tree.

Once upon a time, the librarian begins, sharing the story of an elephant who swings from a spiders web. He reads from books with beautiful pictures, then helps the little ones learn their abecedario.

He sings, A, B, C, D, E, F, G

Finally, he says, Now its your turn. Pick out books and in a few weeks I will be back to collect them and bring you new ones.

Me too? asks Ana.

Especially you, says the librarian with a smile.

So many cuentos!

While Alfa and Beto chomp the sweet grass under the tree, Ana picks up book after book and finds pink dolphins and blue butterflies, castles and fairies, talking lions and magic carpets.