Celebrate Cinco de Mayo continues National Geographic’s spectacular Holidays Around the World series with this joyous feast of Mexican culture—an annual event in Mexico and an increasingly popular holiday in America as well. Many mistakenly assume that the fifth of May is Mexico’s Independence Day. In fact, the date marks the anniversary of a famous 1862 battle in which the Mexicans defeated the French. Known as the Battle of Puebla, the victory marked a watershed in Mexican pride and unity that echoes down to the present day. With succinct text and dazzling photography, Celebrate Cinco de Mayo takes readers on a journey to discover the rich variety of celebrations across our country—from Texas to Minnesota to New York. This inviting book gives readers a flavor of the wide range of colorful holiday traditions: parades and pageants; races and rodeos; mariachi music and dancing; parties with piñatas and delicious Mexican foods. Children will learn how the largest Cinco de Mayo event in the world, the Fiesta Broadway, actually takes place in the United States, and attracts more than 600,000 revelers each year. Mexico is our closest neighbor and the birthplace of America’s largest immigrant community; a knowledge of Mexican culture and history is increasingly relevant to students across the United States.National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources.Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.

Introduces children to a varied selection of religious and cultural holidays through fascinating facts, prayers, songs, recipes, color photos, and more, and includes backmatter for parents and teachers.

After leaving her newborn kits to search for food, a mother raccoon is separated from them by a flooding creek.

Simple text and photographs introduce wolves, depicting how they hunt and travel in packs, communicate, and care for their pups.

Gives facts and supplies photographs about various types of spiders, suggests learning activities, and explains some of the habits and characteristics of spiders.

Offers young readers information on shadows, including how they result from a source of light and how they change with changing conditions.

An engrossing factual account, featuring accurate and clever illustrations, of the building of a church in Brickerville, Pennsylvania in the 1700s captures the importance of churches as centers of early American life and communities.

The true story of six-year-old Ruby Bridges who, in 1960, was one of the first African American students to integrate Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.

When a giant gorilla is removed from his remote jungle home by the woman who raised him and a zoologist representing an animal preserve, the poachers who threatened him in Africa follow and provoke him into going on a rampage in Los Angeles, California.

Seven adorable puppies are born blind and helpless, but they change quickly into lively young dogs in a story about how puppies develop inside their mother, and how they grow, including useful tips on how to care for puppies.

A dog's young owner describes the birth of her puppies and their first few weeks of life

Explains how animals, birds, reptiles, and insects vary their markings and color to hide from their enemies and respond to their environment

Explains how the sense of touch helps to identify everyday objects and familiar surroundings

A mother dinosaur reads her sleepy dinosaur son a bedtime story about a dinosaur chase that occurs when a precious necklace is stolen

As a rainstorm approaches, a young girl and her grandfather take the farm animals into the shelter of the barn and then watch the rain begin.

Four young ducks from the country have an exciting time when they visit their relatives in the city