Books published by publisher University of Papua New Guinea Press

Awarded a 1961 Newbery Honor, Old Ramon tells the timeless coming-of-age story of a young boy who spends a summer with an old shepherd in the Mojave Desert. He leaves his textbooks behind for real life lessons with Ramon as his mentor. He learns not only how to care for the sheep but how to overcome fear, how to face death and responsibility, and the difference between being alone and being lonely. Written in Schaefer’s charming and engaging style, the novel details a boy’s discovery of both the value of friendship and the hardship of life.ABOUT THE AUTHORJack Schaefer was a journalist and writer known for his authentic and memorable characters set in the American West. Schaefer received the Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 1975 and the Saddleman Award in 1986 from the Western Writers of America. His popular Western novels include Shane (1949) and Monte Walsh (1963).ACCLAIM“It is an account told with dignity and simple strength, a tale which will win the reader with its convincing depiction of a pastoral life and its tender portrayal of a natural and abiding friendship.” -- Kirkus

When Rosita, the loveliest gal in the Pecos River Valley, offers her delicious rhubarb pie as first prize for the Great Grasshopper Race, a thousand love-struck vaqueros line up for the competition. Of course everyone believes that the legendary cowboy Pecos Bill, riding his giant grasshopper, Hoppy, is a shoo-in for the grand prize. Sure enough, Bill and Hoppy give an impressive performance, crisscrossing the Southwest in a raucous ride. But young Juan, who is hopelessly in love with Rosita, astonishes them all when he and Jack the Jackalope take a miraculous ride around the world and across the Milky Way. The daring pair return, covered in stardust, to claim the beautiful Rosita and her delicious pie.Set in New Mexico, Anaya's fanciful story, coupled with Amy Córdova's vivid illustrations, brings the tradition of Southwestern tall tales to a new generation of young readers.Ages 6 and up

Maria Chabot met Georgia O'Keeffe in Northern New Mexico in 1940. O'Keeffe, one of America's most celebrated artists, was fifty-three and had just purchased a house at Ghost Ranch where she had painted over several previous summers. Chabot, a San Antonian and an aspiring but unknown writer, was a robust twenty-six and familiar with the largely Spanish-speaking culture of the region. The two were drawn to each other for different reasons. To be free to paint, O'Keeffe needed capable help to sustain and provision her remote household, and although Chabot needed a place to live where she could pursue her writing with minimum distraction, she was also seeking a mentor. For four summers beginning in 1941, when O'Keeffe was in New Mexico, Chabot lived with the artist at Ghost Ranch, managing her house and guests, and organizing the famed camping-painting trips from which came some of O'Keeffe's most distinguished works of the period. In 1946, Chabot agreed to conceive and oversee the reconstruction of a ruined adobe house in Abiquiu, NM, that would become O'Keeffe's permanent home in 1949. During the periods when O'Keeffe was in New York where she lived with her husband, famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz, the two women wrote each other with remarkable frequency. Their letters describe their love for northern New Mexico, the hardships of life there during World War II, and their interactions with the diverse cultural groups of the region. The letters also offer insights into the women's very different ways of dealing with the world and their differing perceptions of a complex and sometimes tempestuous friendship.

Winner of the 2018 Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association Winner of the 2018 Skipping Stones Honor Award for Multicultural and International BooksWhen Kameron moves to his grandma's sheep camp on the Navajo Reservation, he leaves behind his cell phone reception and his friends. The young boy's world becomes even stranger when Kameron takes the sheep out to the local windmill and meets an old storyteller. As the seasons turn, the old man weaves eight tales that teach the deeper story of the Diné country and the Diné people.

In this second ChupaCabra mystery, Professor Rosa Medina has just arrived in Santa Fe where she meets Nadine, a mysterious sixteen-year-old who insists that the two of them travel to Roswell, New Mexico. Nadine is convinced that C-Force, a secret government agency, has decoded the DNA of ChupaCabra and an extraterrestrial. If the two genomes are combined, a new and horrific life form will be created.In this fast-paced mystery, Anaya expands the ChupaCabra folklore into a metaphor that deals with the new powers inherent in science. Is ChupaCabra a beast in Latino folktales, used to frighten children, or a lost species being manipulated by C-Force? Rosa's life hangs in the balance as she and her young accomplice try to find a way to stop C-Force before its mad scientists create a monster.

Recent health scares such as H1N1 influenza have exposed children to frightening information that can be difficult to process. This thoughtful bilingual book helps them understand the abstract concept of large-scale sickness and appreciate the role children play in the health of their community. It introduces young readers to a fascinating aspect of southwest history, and invites discussion of folk medicine and science, while also addressing children's curiosities and fears.Recounting the two most deadly epidemics to strike the Southwest--smallpox in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and influenza during World War I--this beautifully illustrated narrative reveals that with tragedy comes heroism, as demonstrated by the children who bravely transported the smallpox vaccine from Mexico's interior to New Mexico in 1805. Through the eyes of the protagonist José Amado "Amadito" Domínguez--a real child of the flu epidemic era who would later become Taos County's first nuevomexicano physician--folklorist Lamadrid weaves together culture, history, mortality, and hope into a life-affirming lesson.Part of the Pasó por Aquí Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary HeritageABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORSEnrique R. Lamadrid is a literary folklorist and cultural historian in the University of New Mexico's Department of Spanish and Portuguese.Amy Córdova of Taos, New Mexico, is an artist, arts educator, and activist, renowned for her highly contextualized depictions of Latino cultures. She has illustrated over seventeen children's books and has been awarded the prestigious American Library Association Pura Belpré Award twice, in 2008 and 2010.ACCLAIM"...[Amadito and the Hero Children] illuminates two little-known episodes that left deep and lasting impressions on Southwestern culture." -- Kirkus Reviews"A recommended addition to collections of Hispanic heritage and biography alike." -- School Library Journal"This bilingual story weaves together culture, history, mortality, and hope in a life-affirming lesson." -- Tucson Citizen

Grandpa Luis loves to have his grandchildren, Alejandra, Daniel, and Benjamín, visit him in his hometown of Chimayo, New Mexico, and is happy to make a fresh batch of homemade tortillas whenever the children want them. One morning, Grandpa Luis leaves a tortilla on the griddle too long, almost burning it. Grandma puts the crunchy tortilla aside for Grandpa's lunch quesadilla, but not before the children discover something very unusual about the tortilla. Benjamín has seen the perfect shape of a bear, but Daniel swears he saw a dolphin. When Alejandra goes for a second look, all three of them watch as the body of the bear changes into a dolphin and then into a coyote right before their eyes. Word spreads quickly and soon the neighborhood children are clamoring to see animals appear in the magic tortilla.Through a child's lens, this lighthearted bilingual tale presents the contemporary phenomenon of sacred and mundane objects appearing on everyday items like doors, walls, toast or, in this case, a tortilla.

Through New Mexico’s Official Scenic Historic Markers we learn about the people, the geological features, and the historical events that have made the Land of Enchantment a place unlike any other. An index to our history, these markers tell an incredible story about our cultures and origins. This revised and expanded edition of Roadside New Mexico provides additional information about these sites and includes approximately one hundred new markers, sixty-five of which document the contribution of women to the history of New Mexico.Now structured alphabetically for easier identification, each essay also offers suggestions of similar Historic Markers to help readers explore each topic further. In addition, Pike includes entries on “Ghost Markers”—those sites missing from the road that still impart significant historical lessons. Roadside New Mexico delivers a useful companion for travelers who want to understand more about the landscapes and inhabitants of the state.ABOUT THE AUTHORDavid Pike grew up in Truth or Consequences and Las Cruces, New Mexico. He earned a bachelor’s degree from New Mexico State University and a master’s degree in nonfiction writing from Johns Hopkins University.

This textbook for the middle-school reader is an engaging and balanced account of New Mexico from earliest times to the present. Presented is a comprehensive introduction to geographic features as well as social, economic, and political events that have shaped the state's development. The first nine chapters cover New Mexico's pre-history and settlement prior to 1846; another six chapters focus on New Mexico as a part of the United States. The narrative is enriched by nineteen special interest features, five time lines, 145 illustrations, of which twenty-seven are in color, and twenty-three maps. A separate teacher resource guide is complimentary with class sets of 20 or more books. The resource guide includes lesson plans keyed to the state's instructional standards for social studies, answers to section and chapter reviews, four different types of student activity worksheets, tests and answer keys, bibliographies, and resource suggestions."This book is easy to read. I enjoyed being reminded of facts I had not thought of for years. The approach is good, even enjoyable."--Thomas E. Chávez, Ph.D., Director of the National Hispanic Cultural CenterReading level: grade 7.