Ana Crespo: Hello. My name is Ana Crespo. I am the author of a few picture books, including Lia and Luis: Who Has More?, and the upcoming Lia and Luis: Puzzled. Both books are illustrated by fellow Brazilian, Giovana Medeiros and published by Charlesbridge.

The books are part of the storytelling math series, which features diverse characters in a mathematical plot. Lia and Luis are Brazilian American like my kids and perhaps like some of you too. So as my kids, Lia and Luis speak both English and Portuguese, and the stories have quite a few Portuguese words in them. The first book, Lia and Luis: Who Has More?, was inspired by a question my parents used to ask me, "What weighs more, a kilo of cotton or a kilo of lead?" And of course they both weigh a kilo, but a kilo of cotton takes a lot more space than a kilo of lead. Lead is a metal, quite heavy, and one kilo of lead does not take a lot of space.

The biggest challenge in both books was to make sure the books were not only culturally authentic, but also mathematically possible. In Lia and Luis: Who Has More?, that involved measuring and weighing these snacks so that Giovana could create scenes that mirrored, what would have happened if this were happening in real life.

In Puzzled!, it was quite more complicated because aside from measuring pieces and thinking about all the details in the puzzle, we also had to keep track of every single piece in every single page, not an easy task. Certainly my favorite part of creating these stories was in the first book during all the measuring and weighing. To measure and weigh the food I had to have it at home and after I measured and weighed everything, what do you think I did? You're right if you said, "I ate it." I ate a lot of biscoitos de polvilho e coxinhas de galinha.