Review from Publisher Marketing:
This masterfully written children's book by New
Mexico's favorite storyteller is a delightful tale about a young owl
named Ollie who lives in an orchard with his parents in northern New
Mexico. Ollie is supposed to attend school but prefers to hang out with
his friends Raven and Crow instead. Ollie's parents discover he cannot
read and they send Ollie off to see his grandmother, Nana, a teacher and
farmer in Chimayó. Along the way, Ollie's illiteracy causes mischief as
he meets up with some shady characters on the path including Gloria La
Zorra (a fox), Trickster Coyote, and a hungry wolf named Luis Lobo who
has sold some bad house plans to the Three Little Pigs. When Ollie
finally arrives at Nana's, his cousin Randy Roadrunner drives up in his
lowrider and asks Ollie why he's so blue. "I'm starting school, and
there's too much to learn, and I can't read," Ollie says. "I can't do
it." Randy explains that he didn't think he could learn to read either,
but he persevered, earned a business degree, and now owns the best
lowrider shop in Española! Ollie finally decides he is ready to learn to
read. The characters and the northern New Mexico landscape in Owl in a
Straw Hat come to life wonderfully in original illustrations by New
Mexico artist El Moisés.
Rudolfo Anaya, considered the father of Chicano literature, is the author of the beloved classic Bless Me, Ultima, which was adapted into a major feature film in 2013. In 2016, Anaya received the National Medal of Arts presented by President Barack Obama. His children's books include Rudolfo Anaya's The Farolitos of Christmas, The First Tortilla, Roadrunner's Dance, The Santero's Miracle, and Serafina's Stories. Anaya is professor emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico where he taught for thirty years. He lives in Albuquerque.
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