About the Holiday

Today we celebrate kids—their joy, exuberance, and nearly endless excitement to learn new things. The youngest children are especially enthusiastic as they discover their own way of looking at and interacting with the world. Today’s books explore skills that kids use every day in fun and helpful ways.

Thanks to Charlesbride and Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media for sending me this book for review!

Moon Chef | Chef luna

Written and Translated by Delia Ruiz | Illustrated by Nomar Perez

Gaby loves helping her parents in the kitchen, and she’s made a surprising observation! When she sees the moon through the windows of her house, its shape reminds her of her favorite foods. And what’s more—the shape of the moon is always changing! Sometimes the moon is a full circle like the rellenos de papa her family ate for dinner, but days later the moon is a half-circle, reminding Gaby of the empanadillas on the platter.

As she grabs a plantain to create tostones, she realizes it looks like the crescent moon she sees out the kitchen window. On another day, she decides that the “moon is hiding” as she licks her dusky blue “flan plate clean like new, and it blends in with the sky.” When the moon reappears, Gaby is happy to find other tasty snacks to track it’s progress back to a full moon for a complete “monthly moon menu.”

“Picking up STEAM” back matter includes a discussion of the moon and its shape as a sphere that goes through various stages throughout the month. Illustrations of the moon identify the eight lunar phases, educating kids about this phenomenon. Tips for how adults and children can explore the concepts in the book at the grocery store and while looking at the moon also make science learning fun. Moon Chef/Chef Luna is part of STEAMWORKS, a series of fiction board books for ages 0-3 that relate science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) to kids’ everyday lives.

Chef luna

¡Hola, Luna! Sigue el ciclo de las fases lunares a medida que Gaby llena su plato (¡y la barriga!) con alimentos que coinciden con la forma de la luna que ve en el cielo. De la media luna a la guayaba gibosa, las formas de los alimentos crecen y decrecen a medida que avanza el mes, al igual que las fases lunares. Amplía lo aprendido más allá de la historia con el material de apoyo elaborado por expertos, que incluye información adicional sobre las fases lunares y actividades STEAM divertidas.

Parte de Steamworks, una serie de libros de cartón de ficción para niños de 0 a 3 años que relacionan la ciencia, la tecnología, la ingeniería, las artes y las matemáticas (STEAM, por sus siglas en inglés) con la vida diaria de los niños.

Delia Ruiz’s creativity in comparing whole and sliced fruit and vegetables as well as finished dishes to the phases of the moon will excite young readers and prompt them to do the same with their own favorite foods and objects around their homes. Concrete associations such as these make an impression as children learn to connect something they know to an unfamiliar concept or subject and extrapolate that knowledge to other topics. Ruiz’s Gaby is an enthusiastic companion for little ones discovering new tastes at home and exploring their world nearby and as far as the eye can see.

With vivid colors and a cheerful, busy home, illustrator Nomar Perez invites young children to find a wide variety of shapes from circles and half-circles to crescents and slivers as well as squares, ovals, diamonds, and abstract patterns on his pages. Kids will have fun making connections from room to room and talking about the differences between the circles and examples of spheres they find. Perez’s festive taco night, lit up by the moon, fireflies, and string lights and containing a full range of shapes, offers inspiration for readers to enjoy finding shapes at home themselves!

Ages Baby – 3

Charlesbridge, 2026 | ISBN 978-1623546700

About the Author

Delia Ruiz is a Latina teacher-turned-author from San Antonio, Texas. Her books include the ¡1, 2, 3 Baila! bilingual board book series, Ways Papi Says I Love You, Moon Chef, and Roqui’s Pandero Beat, winner of the International Latino Book award. Delia hopes to inspire the next ​generation of writers who also come from immigrant households. She lives in Puerto Rico with her husband, their son, and their pug. Visit her at aventurasenesl.com. You can follow her journey @aventuras.en.esl

About the Illustrator

Nomar Perez was born on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, in the city of Ponce, and moved with his parents and five siblings to Ohio when he was ten. Nomar is heavily influenced by all types of media, most especially animation, puppetry, and computer art. He studied computer animation and painting at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and since then has worked as an illustrator on social expression products in the categories of humor, children’s, and young adult. Nomar has also illustrated numerous children’s board books and school publishing books. Coquí in the City is his author-illustrator debut. Follow him on Instagram.

You can purchase Moon Chef from these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

You can purchase Chef luna from these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop