Hello. My name is Lulu Delacre and I will be reading from this book that I both wrote and illustrated, and the title is Rafi and Rosi: Carnival. And it is really about the sibling relationship between Rafi, who is the older brother, and the know-it-all brother, always showing off to his little sister, and Rosa, the adoring little sister. They’re both tree frogs, coquís, from the island of Puerto Rico.
And in the story I’m gonna read you just very briefly from the very first story in this book that is titled “Queen for a Day.” It is set, the book is set in Carnival in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and you know, in the story, Rosie wants Rafi to push on the swing, and Rafi’s very busy, you know, he’s an older brother, he has other things to do, and he’s actually doing a mask for Carnival, so he doesn’t have time to go, you know, swing his sister.
So, he goes and tells her, “Go find yourself an outfit. You can be the queen of this year’s Carnival.” And Rosie believes him. “So she went to the dress-up chest. She lifted out the pale green scarf, the hot-pink scarf, the sky-blue scarf, and the crown with red feathers. She tried them on. She skipped and twirled in front of the mirror. ‘Hmm,’ she said. ‘Something is missing.’”
And you’re going have to read the book to find out what it was. Thank you.
