Lalo Loves to Help

Lalo, a yellow-naped Amazonian parrot speaks many languages and loves to sing opera. He lives a happy life, and is always ready to help everyone and everything living in the Ecuadorian rainforest. On the day of an opera, Lalo is summoned downriver to translate the words of an elderly lady. Could this be the forgotten language of the Teteté people? Will Lalo and his friends rise to the occasion––or will the ancient songs of the Ecuadorian Amazon be lost forever? Lalo and his friends learn that kindness and a second language are very helpful.

Cecilia Velástegui, M.S. Ed., is known as the Fabulous Fableist for her award-winning bilingual fables. Her fable Olinguito Speaks Up was awarded Best Latino Focused Children’s Picture Book and Best Educational Children’s Picture Book by the 2014 International Latino Book Awards, the oldest and largest Hispanic book awards in the nation. She has presented her fables on stage at the 2013 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Smithsonian Institution–National Museum of Natural History, the Los Angeles Zoo, and the Orange County Children’s Book Festival, among others.