Just a Minute, written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales, is an original trickster tale in which Grandma Beetle outwits the skeleton Señor Calavera and spends her birthday with a table full of grandchildren and her surprise guest! This spirited tribute to the rich traditions of Mexican culture is the perfect introduction to counting in both English and Spanish.

I was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. I always drew—at home I copied my family's portraits, at school I drew on my textbooks. When I was five my mother taught me how to knit; I made a hat and a vest with the many colors of my mother's leftover yarn. She also taught me how to sew because I wanted very much to dress my dolls in new outfits. I am the oldest of four children; my siblings and I grew up seeing my mother constantly creating things with her hands.

When I was a child, I had a grandma just like Grandma Beetle: plump and strong, and loving. And like Grandma Beetle, she was a trickster too. Just a Minute is a tribute to her and all the women in my family—my maternal grandmother, my aunts, sisters and mother. They are hardworking women who take great care of their homes and their children.

My mother used to do as much work as Grandma Beetle does in the book when she celebrated one of our birthdays. She threw great birthday parties where you could eat steamy tamales, sing the Mexican happy birthday song, "Las Mañanitas" and break many piñatas filled with candy. She sometimes even created the piñatas herself out of cardboard boxes and tissue paper, and made give-away candy boxes that looked like animals.

In Just a Minute, death is subtly introduced when Señor Calavera (Mr. Skull)—such a skinny gentleman—comes to Grandma Beetle's house requesting that she leave with him right away. I created him in the fashion of the beautiful toys or the skeleton-shaped candy that Mexican artisans craft during the celebration of El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead). In fact, if you could jump into the book and meet Señor Calavera in person, you would find that he is made of crystallized sugar, just like the decorated sugar skulls that children eat during The Day of the Dead celebrations.

Señor Calavera's name means "Mr. Skull" in English. In Spanish, Calavera is also the name of a festive verse written to serve as a humorous epitaph for somebody. Click here to find Señor Calavera Skeleton and Skull activities for The Day of the Dead.

Yuyi Morales is an artist and a writer, a puppet maker, a Brazilian folk dancer, and the former host of a Spanish-language storytelling radio show for children. She grew up in Mexico and now lives with her husband, son, and cat in Northern California.