Unfortunately, none of the dogs and cats at the animal shelter feel quite right. Leo is searching for something special, maybe even magical. At a lively open-air market, Leo and his older brother, Rey, are drawn to a vendor selling fantastical, brightly colored creatures\u2014combinations of different animals in dazzling hues. The brown-skinned shopkeeper explains that these are alebrijes, magical beings from Mexico that can be adopted only by those they choose. Leo is overjoyed when a neon-winged wolf-dog selects him. He names it Lobo. But life with a magical pet isn\u2019t easy. Lobo flies off during baths, races away \u201cfaster than a bolt of lightning\u201d on walks, and leaves foul-smelling rainbow messes in his wake. Overwhelmed, Leo wonders if he can handle such a powerful companion. But with Mam\u00e1, Pap\u00e1, and Rey\u2019s help, he learns to care for Lobo in creative ways. Inspired by real-life alebrijes, vibrant Mexican folk-art sculptures of mythical creatures, Gama\u2019s inviting illustrations burst with energy and imagination. Though fantastical, Marquez\u2019s heartwarming story makes clear that adopting a pet\u2014even an out-of-this-world one\u2014isn\u2019t easy, but teamwork makes all the difference. Leo and Mam\u00e1 have warm brown skin and curly dark hair; Rey and Pap\u00e1 have lighter skin and dark hair. The family is cued Latine, and Spanish words are interspersed.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unfortunately, none of the dogs and cats at the animal shelter feel quite right. Leo is searching for something special, maybe even magical. At a lively open-air market, Leo and his older brother, Rey, are drawn to a vendor selling fantastical, brightly colored creatures\u2014combinations of different animals in dazzling hues. The brown-skinned shopkeeper explains that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}