Hot Cha Cha!

When Maria finds the lost key to her neighborhood's city playground, she gathers all her friends together for a rollicking, rolling good time of outdoor fun in this vividly illustrated, artfully narrated rhyming adventure. Just as the kids are about to leave their newly found turf, the grown-ups crash the party and join in on the funhand-clapping, rope-jumping, and high-swinging together in a colorful multicultural celebration. Teaching children the fundamentals of storytelling, this picture book provides an impeccable working model for storytelling using straight rhymes, slant rhymes, and meter. Masterfully presenting poetic tools in an accessible manner, this is a book whose story sings and leaps off the page, causing kids to dance and cheer.

Josephine Nobisso is the author of several books, including The Numbers Dance; Show, Don't Tell!: Secrets of Writing; and The Weight of a Mass. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Friend of Education Award, the Global Learning Initiative Award, and the NCEA's Distinguished Graduate Award. She lives in Westhampton Beach, New York. Joan Holub is the former associate art director for Scholastic. She is the author and illustrator of numerous children's titles, including Knuckleheads and Why Do Dogs Bark? She lives in Seattle, Washington.