In his striking author-illustrator debut, the award-winning illustrator of My Papi Has a Motorcycle offers an immersive and fantastical desert adventure, where the sun reigns over the vast landscape and shapes all that it touches.
“A hypnotic joy.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Where the rock wall ends, the desert beyond begins.
Following a blazing trail of sundust, two curious siblings hop the wall into a place that’s endless and free. Here, prickly old nopal trees beg to be climbed, empty turtle shells invite a closer look, enormous rocks model how to sit still and listen, and a colibrí offers an unexpected ride. In the desert, where life revolves around the Sun, brother and sister explore, imagine, and wonder, What if Sun’s power was inside me? until their mom’s whistle calls them back home again.
With spare, lyrical text, Pura Belpré Honor and Ezra Jack Keats Honor recipient Zeke Peña has created a fantastical tale that suspends moments in time with his radiant art and celebrates the bonds between the sun, the desert, and its people.
Zeke Peña is a Xicano storyteller and professional doodler from Sun City, TX. Sundust, his author-illustrator debut hits shelves in Summer 2025. He recently illustrated the NY Times Best-Selling Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man Novel. Zeke was awarded the Ezra Jack Keats and the Pura Belpré Illustration Honor for My Papi Has a Motorcycle. He also received the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for his illustrations in Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide. He is currently drawing more books in his tiny studio that used to be a mop closet in NW Arkansas.
★ “…stunning...Author-illustrator Peña breathes life into the desert setting…Kids who find magic in everything around them will appreciate this lovely reassurance that they are even more connected to the world than they think.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review
★ "In a wide-ranging solo debut, Peña (My Papi Has a Motorcycle) imagines two Latinx-cued children exploring a sweeping desertscape.... Speech bubbles add levity to energy-charged prose through this surreal exploration of the way the natural world endures and transforms." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
In his striking author-illustrator debut, the award-winning illustrator of My Papi Has a Motorcycle offers an immersive and fantastical desert adventure, where the sun reigns over the vast landscape and shapes all that it touches.
“A hypnotic joy.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Where the rock wall ends, the desert beyond begins.
Following a blazing trail of sundust, two curious siblings hop the wall into a place that’s endless and free. Here, prickly old nopal trees beg to be climbed, empty turtle shells invite a closer look, enormous rocks model how to sit still and listen, and a colibrí offers an unexpected ride. In the desert, where life revolves around the Sun, brother and sister explore, imagine, and wonder, What if Sun’s power was inside me? until their mom’s whistle calls them back home again.
With spare, lyrical text, Pura Belpré Honor and Ezra Jack Keats Honor recipient Zeke Peña has created a fantastical tale that suspends moments in time with his radiant art and celebrates the bonds between the sun, the desert, and its people.
Creators
Zeke Peña is a Xicano storyteller and professional doodler from Sun City, TX. Sundust, his author-illustrator debut hits shelves in Summer 2025. He recently illustrated the NY Times Best-Selling Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man Novel. Zeke was awarded the Ezra Jack Keats and the Pura Belpré Illustration Honor for My Papi Has a Motorcycle. He also received the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for his illustrations in Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide. He is currently drawing more books in his tiny studio that used to be a mop closet in NW Arkansas.
★ “…stunning...Author-illustrator Peña breathes life into the desert setting…Kids who find magic in everything around them will appreciate this lovely reassurance that they are even more connected to the world than they think.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review
★ "In a wide-ranging solo debut, Peña (My Papi Has a Motorcycle) imagines two Latinx-cued children exploring a sweeping desertscape.... Speech bubbles add levity to energy-charged prose through this surreal exploration of the way the natural world endures and transforms." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
