Sundust: (A Caldecott Honor Book) -- Zeke Peña, Hardcover

In his striking author-illustrator debut, Zeke Pe?a offers an immersive and fantastical look at his hometown of El Paso, where the sun reigns over the vast desert and shapes all that it touches.

Where the rock wall ends, the desert beyond begins.

The desert is home to unique fauna and flora that have adapted to thrive under the intense sun, making it an endless landscape for two curious siblings to roam free. Old discarded tires, gnarled nopal trees that beg to be climbed, enormous rocks that demonstrate how to sit still and listen. Rain brings a welcome reprieve from the heat, followed by the mud slowly drying out on their skin, cracking like clay, until it's hard to tell where the kids end and the desert begins.

Sundust is the author-illustrator debut from the acclaimed illustrator of My Papi Has a Motorcycle; it celebrates the bonds that develop between a person and their hometown through spare, lyrical text and dazzling desert landscapes.

Author: Zeke Pe?a
Publisher: Kokila
Published: 08/05/2025
Pages: 48
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
ISBN: 9780593700112
Audience: Ages 4-8

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/14/2025

About the Author
Zeke Pe?a is a cartoonist and illustrator from El Paso, Texas. He studied art history at the University of Texas at Austin and is self-taught in illustration and painting. He has published work with VICE.com, Latino USA, The Believer Magazine, The Nib, Penguin Random House, Holt/Macmillan, and Cinco Puntos Press. He received the Boston Globe- Horn Book Award for a graphic biography he illustrated titled Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide and the Pura Belpr? Illustration Honor for My Papi Has a Motorcycle. You can see more of his work at ZPVisual.com.