Author Description

NOT TO BE ME is a children's poetry, diversity, and imagination picture book written when the author was nine years old in fourth grade. A child's wandering imagination about future and everyday things is illustrated by several different artists in each set of paired poems. NOT TO BE ME is also a celebration of artistic and cultural diversity. Readers are treated to a new artistic style with every turn of the page by artists and characters representing diverse groups of people. It also adds to the limited selection of bilingual books for kids, with both English and Spanish translation for dual language learning. NOT TO BE ME is full of entertaining pictures that make you giggle and think out loud. Silly elements are included in the artwork to match the humor of the paired poems. Readers will enjoy pointing out the nonsense. It enlivens the imagination of children young and older, and invites adults to share their own childhood memories while reading the book aloud. NOT TO BE ME offers bonus material inside the book and online, including a list of high frequency site words, Spanish words, and activity sheets that help make reading fun for children, teachers, and parents.