An award-winning author of picture books, Pam Muñoz Ryan blends colorful rhyme as well as concise texts in her books that deal with concepts, such as One Hundred Is a Family and The Crayon Counting Book, with natural history in A Pinky Is a Baby Mouse, Armadillos Sleep in Dugouts, and Hello, Ocean, with culture and history in California, Here We Come!, The Flag We Love, and Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride, and with family matters in Mice and Beans and Mud Is a Cake. Ryan has also penned two juvenile novels, Riding Freedom and Esperanza Rising, which feature strong female protagonists confronting life on their own terms. "I have written books for adults, picture books for children, and recently I completed my first novel for older students," Ryan noted on the Scholastic Authors Online Web site. "Maybe it's the teacher in me, but...