Books in Pig Family Series series

Yingmei Yang has changed her name to Mary now that she's learning how to be American. It's hard since her family sticks to their Chinese customs, which can be embarrassing in public. Still, Mary wants to be best friends with popular Holly Hanson. She sees her chance when she adopts one of Holly's kittens. The trouble is that Mary's family can't afford a cat and it could damage their prized musical instruments. To prove her friendship to Holly, Mary must find a way to keep the kitten a secret from her impossible family. It won't be easy!

Everyone in the Yang family is a talented musician except for nine-year-old Yingtao, the youngest Yang. Even after years of violin lessons from his father, Yingtao cannot make beautiful music.Now that his family has moved from China to Seattle, Yingtao wants to learn English and make new friends at school. Still, he must make time to practice his violin for an important family recital to help his father get more students. Yingtao is afraid his screeching violin will ruin the recital. But he's even more afraid to tell his family that he has found something he likes better than music.Together he and his new friend Matthew think of a sure way to save the recital. They are certain nothing will go wrong.

Here is a bi-lingual (English/Spanish) picture book to promote self-esteem and to prevent bullying. Most of what we have seen on the market, are books for older children, after-the-fact. Here is a unique contribution to the anti-bullying literature: a preventative picture book that can be embraced by both children and parents to educate us all in the issues of power. Stand Up! ¡Enfrenta! is co-written by two former teachers of young children.They hope to help stem the tide of this tidal wave overtaking our children nationally, crossing all borders of economic and social classesThe building of self-esteem is an important and delicate process in working with a young child. Like little sponges, they innocently absorb the impressions around them to better understand how to survive and thrive in their environment. This simple picture book is packed with impressions to help encourage creativity, individuality and confidence, skills that can help combat the susceptibility to peer pressure that is so damaging to our children. It is also a call to parents to become their child's center of gravity and sanctuary. This is an awesome responsibility and we all need help fulfilling this task, either from books, wise elders or peer counselors. That is why the authors have include resources at the back of this book for further study.Both authors wish readers to delight in the illustrations and savor the simple messages they are trying to convey. This book is more timely than ever, as even our elementary and middle schoolers are subjected to cyber-bullying. We know that the suicide rate among teenage girls in particular is "off the charts," and intervention at an earlier age makes the message of this book essential. The authors felt compelled to raise their voices and to contribute something that would hopefully curtail this madness