Maya and Annie on Saturdays and Sundays / Los Sábados Y Domingos De Maya Y Annie

Summary of Book

Maya and Annie are friends who play together on Saturdays and Sundays. They make lemonade with lemons from the big tree in Annie s yard and play with Maya s two little dogs. Maya likes the different food Annie s dad cooks: noodles, rice, fish and dumplings. And Annie likes eating dinners Maya s mom makes: tacos, chicken, tamales and rice and beans.

Weekends are special because the girls don t see each other on school days. Annie s dad takes them to the beach and they swim, make sandcastles and catch crabs with nets. At the carnival with Maya s mom, they go on scary rides, eat cotton candy, play games and win prizes. They don t want the weekend to end!

One special night, Annie s dad and Maya s mom invite their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins to a big dinner and make a special announcement: They re getting married! The girls will become sisters, and they ll spend every day of the week together.

From posadas to Lunar New Year, each girl recounts her perspective of their friendship on alternating pages that are paired with lively illustrations by Thelma Muraida. Based on Gwendolyn Zepeda s own experiences with her family, this engaging bilingual picture book for ages 4-8 explores blended families from a multicultural perspective, combining Asian and Latino cultural traditions.

Author Biography

Gwendolyn Zepeda was born in Houston, Texas in 1971 and attended the University of Texas at Austin. She began her writing career on the Web in 1997, with her long-running site gwendolynzepeda.com and as one of the founding writers of entertainment site Television Without Pity. Her first book was a short-story collection called To the Last Man I Slept with and All the Jerks Just Like Him (Arte Público Press, 2004).

Zepeda's first children's book, Growing Up with Tamales (Piñata Books) is a 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Award Highly Commended Title. Her first novel, Houston, We Have a Problema (Grand Central Publishing, 2009) won praise from Publisher's Weekly and Booklist for its wit and upbeat story.

A two-time Houston Arts Alliance literary fellowship winner and award-winning poet, Zepeda regularly lectures at universities throughout Texas.

Her latest books include another children's book - Sunflowers (Piñata Books, 2009) - and a new novel from Grand Central Publishing called Lone Star Legend.

Illustrator Biography

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Thelma Muraida began her artistic journey in grade school with interests in drawing and piano. Her formative years were filled with visits to art museums and exposure to classical music. On entering college however, she put her music training aside and began to focus on the visual arts.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity University, and continued her training with graduate work in printmaking and textiles at Eastern Michigan University and the Art Student’s League in New York. Her work in these areas has received several awards in fine art and print-based media.

With a background in painting, printmaking, and graphic design, she uses her choice of media to reflect her inner voice, telling a story with intense colors, indigenous designs and weaving patterns and textures. She incorporates semblances of ancient design into her work – reinterpreting them to create a new expression of tribute to the past.

Muraida has used her education and experience to good effect, working in the fields of graphic design and children’s book illustration.