Millions of dollars Grants are available to just anyone and can be used to start a business, going to college, or purchasing a house. We will write the grant for you! Click here for details.

By Roni Schotter

         For one magical night, Luisa wants to make her single mother's worries disappear.

        Every day after school Luisa goes to Walter's World of Beauty to watch her mama work— cutting, coloring, and curling customer's hair, transforming them into the images of their dreams. Mama works hard and hardly ever smiles, but when she does, she is the prettiest flower in all the World. At the end of each day, she puts her tip money in a special envelopes for Luisa—the envelope marked "college." She wants to give her daughter the world—but Luisa has plans of her own.

       It's Mama's birthday and, for one night, she wants to make Mama smile... the way she smiles in an old photograph of her dancing at a place called Roseland. So Luisa transforms Walter's World of Beauty into Roseland, by decorating it with roses and collages of Mama's customers, who are also in on Luisa's secret. And it isn't long before everyone is happily dancing, especially Mama, who is the happiest of all.

Review:
From School and Library Journal
“Schotter’s nimble use of alliteration and words with multiple meanings adds depth and richness to the text…These are scenes to savor, snuggled closely one-on-one, or shared with a group.”

From Booklist
Gr. 1-3. Gallagher's bright-eyed, smiling, subtly modeled faces light up this loving mother-daughter tale. Dropped off at Walter's World of Beauty every day after school, Luisa does her homework and draws pictures of the multicultural clientele until her hairdresser mother comes off shift. Recalling that her mother used to dance "when Dad was around," Luisa colludes with those same regulars to throw Mom a rug-cutting birthday surprise that leaves everyone teary and laughing. Against soft-edged, often golden-tinged backgrounds, Luisa herself dances in graceful, unstudied poses through nearly every frame, and the intimacy shared between child and single parent is evident (without becoming soppy) throughout. John Peters

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Schwartz & Wade; Hardcover; Ages 4-8; August 2006; $16.95; 978-0-375-83612-1 (0-375-83612-8)

About the Authors:
Roni Schotter is the award-winning author of 22 books for children, including picture books and story picture books for middle readers, as well as middle-grade and young adult novels. Her books are concerned with imagination and its power and the extraordinary courage of children who think for themselves and “dare to reach out to the larger world.”

Roni Schotter's many acclaimed books for children include The Boy Who Loved Words, Dreamland, Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane (a Parents' Choice Award winner) and Hanukkah! (recipient of the National Jewish Book Award).
The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter, illustrated by Giselle Potter: http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375836015

About the Illustrator:
S. Saelig Gallagher is the illustrator of Moonhorse by Mary Pope Osborne; The Selfish a fairy tale written by Oscar Wilde; The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman; and Blue Willow by Pam Canrad. She lives in California

Links:
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375836121 Find out More About this Book!

Click here to sign up for the Read & Play Newsletter and be entered to win free children’s books! http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/readandplay_parentcenter/

Buy this Book! http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375836121