Benita loves to read in bed but keeps getting interrupted by a whistling Tunche, a scary Supay and other spooky creatures from Peruvian lore. To the creatures’ disbelief, Benita is so absorbed by her book that she’s not the least bit scared of them. This humorous celebration of bedtime reading puts a global twist on taking the “scary” out of monsters.
Selected for the 2024 NEA’s Read Across America List
Selected for Kirkus Reviews' 2023 Fall Preview issue
CBC Children’s Favorites Award, 2024
A Read Across America Book of the Month, October 2024
“Creatures from Peruvian folklore try, unsuccessfully, to haunt a young reader . . . An imaginative peek at colorful monsters” – Kirkus Reviews
“Illustrating duo Cocoretto put their own bold folk art stamp on creatures of lore, while play-by-play text from Llanos establishes the child’s single-minded pursuit of reading and the beasts’ comic surprise” – Publishers Weekly
“Young book lovers will relate to Benita’s devotion to reading and be amused by the friendly night creatures, who are all based on Peruvian legends” – The Horn Book Magazine
“With a book-loving main character plus cool Peruvian monsters, this is a warm-hearted story you won’t want to miss” – Imagination Soup
About the Contributors
Written by - Mariana Llanos
Mariana Llanos is a Peruvian-born writer of children’s literature. Her picture book ‘Run, Little Chaski!’ won the 2022 Oklahoma Book Award and was listed among Bank Street’s Best Books of 2021. The Spanish edition, ‘¡Corre, Pequeño Chaski!’, was a 2022 Alma Flor Ada Award winner and a Premio Campoy-Ada Honorable Mention. Mariana is a SCBWI member and currently serves as the Inclusion and Diversity Chair for their Oklahoma Chapter. When she’s not writing, she enjoys baking, spending time with her children, and visiting schools to ignite the love for reading.
Illustrated by - Cocoretto .
Cocoretto is a Peruvian-born couple and team, Ivan and Natalia. They are illustrators, authors and designers with backgrounds in fine arts, graphic design and photography. With their strong graphic sense and bright, saturated colors, they like to build compelling and relatable environments for their work. They feel grateful to have the chance to make children around the world giggle and smile with their many books and translations. Ivan and Natalia live and work in the noisy city of Lima, the capital of Peru.
