Ruth Behar Author
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  • Pepita Meets Bebita by author Ruth Behar
  • Pepita Meets Bebita by author Ruth Behar
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Pepita Meets Bebita

Pepita Meets Bebita is a heartwarming picture book co-authored with her son, Gabriel Frye-Behar!!

 
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Welcoming a new baby can be hard, especially when you’re used to being the center of attention! When it’s time for Pepita, the puppy of the family, to meet the brand new bebita, she’s in for a few surprises. What do you mean that Mami is too busy to bounce a ball for Pepita? And Papi seriously can’t find any time to scratch her ears? This new bebita is a bit of a problem….

But along the way, the two will grow to love one another and become a family with even more smiles and heartwarming moments. From award-winning author Ruth Behar and her son, Gabriel Frye-Behar, comes a true-to-life story about adjusting to new additions and embracing change.

Cuando la perrita Pepita y la bebé, Bebita, se conocen, necesitarán algo de tiempo y mucho amor para convertirse en las mejores amigas.

Darle la bienvenida a un nuevo bebé puede ser difícil, ¡especialmente cuando estás acostumbrado a ser el centro de atención! Cuando Pepita, la cachorra de la familia, conoce a la nueva bebita, se lleva algunas sorpresas. ¿Qué significa que ahora Mami esté demasiado ocupada para lanzarle una pelota a Pepita? ¿Y Papi en serio no encuentra tiempo para rascarle las orejas? Esta nueva bebita es un problema…

Pero sobre la marcha, las dos llegarán a quererse y a convertirse en una familia con muchas más sonrisas y momentos conmovedores. De la galardonada escritora Ruth Behar y su hijo, Gabriel Frye-Behar, llega una historia real sobre cómo adaptarse a la llegada de nuevos miembros y cómo aceptar el cambio.

Also available in Spanish as Pepita y Bebita Spanish version at Barnes & Noble English version at Barnes & Noble Learn More

Ruth’s New Middle Grade Novel

ACROSS SO MANY SEAS, a story of four Sephardic girls in four different times and places united by their desire to belong and to matter.

Across So Many Seas, has been named a 2025 Notable Social Studies Trade Book by The Children’s Book Council
Across So Many Seas, has been named one of the 2025 Notable Children’s Books in Language Arts by the Children’s Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Across So Many Seas, wins 2025 Newbery Honor Book Award
Across So Many Seas, wins 2025 Sydney Taylor Honor Book Award
Across So Many Seas, Read John Schu’s interview with Ruth about receiving “the call” about the Newbery Honor Award.

Best books of 2024

New York Public Library, Best Books for Kids 2024
Kirkus Reviews, Best Middle Grade Books of 2024
School Library Journal, 42 Stellar Middle Grade | SLJ 2024 Stars So Far
Evanston Library, Evanston Public Library’s 101 Great Books for Kids 2024: Middle Grade Fiction / Novels for Kids
Tablet, The Best Jewish Children’s Books of 2024
Imagination Soup, What are the best middle grade books of 2024?

Praise for Across So Many Seas

quote1Behar delivers a moving tale about four generations of a Sephardic Jewish family navigating cultural and societal upheaval from 1492 to 2003.
★ Publishers Weekly, starred review

quote1Powerful and Resonant.
★ Kirkus, starred review

quote1Paths of milk and honey for this new book. It sings with poetry and history and story all at once. I enjoyed traveling and learning the path of the ancestors. ¡Felicidades! May our Dio guide this book and bring it many blessings.
-Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

quote1As lyrical as it is epic, Across So Many Seas reminds us that while the past may be another country, it’s also a living, breathing song of sadness and joy that helps define who we are.
-Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee

across so many seas by ruth behar
Listen to the Across So Many Seas Playlist Also available in Spanish as A través de los mares Order at Penguin Random House More Praise for Across So Many Seas

Other books by Ruth Behar

tia fortuna’s new home by ruth behar
Available in English Available in Spanish
Lucky Broken Girl by ruth behar
Available in English Available in Spanish
Letters From Cuba by ruth behar
Available in English Available in Spanish

So many people are looking for a place to call home. I want to imagine that the world has a very large heart and can give all of us who have lost our homes a chance to start over.
– Ruth Behar, Letters from Cuba

Author Ruth Behar in Havana Cuba
Read more Ruth’s Linktree Ruth received the Sarah Goddard Power Award

Ruth Behar is an award-winning author exploring the vulnerability we all share.

As a storyteller, traveler, memoirist, poet, teacher, and public speaker, Ruth Behar is acclaimed for the compassion she brings to her quest to understand the depth of the human experience. She made her fiction debut with her Pura Belpré Award-Winning novel, Lucky Broken Girl, which explores how the worst of wounds can teach a child a lesson about the fragile, precious beauty of life. Her recent novel, Letters from Cuba, inspired by the story of her maternal grandmother’s courageous efforts to save her Polish Jewish family, was named a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and received an International Latino Book Award. Tía Fortuna’s New Home, is a lyrical ode to cultural memory and heritage, and her picture book, Pepita Meets Bebita, co-authored with her son, Gabriel Frye-Behar, is about the joys and challenges of a growing family as seen from the perspective of a beloved dog. Her latest middle-grade novel, Across So Many Seas, is a story of four girls from different generations of a Sephardic family, seeking a home where all are welcome. Born in Havana, Cuba, she grew up in New York, and has also lived in Spain and Mexico. Her memoirs, The Vulnerable Observer, An Island Called Home, and Traveling Heavy, and her bilingual poetry book, Everything I Kept/Todo lo que guardé, examine her return journeys to Cuba and her search for home as an immigrant and a traveler. She was the first Latina to win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. Her honors also include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Distinguished Alumna Award from Wesleyan University, a Fulbright Award, an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Hebrew Union College, and being named a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation. Recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is an anthropology professor at the University of Michigan and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

                                                                               

Ruth is a member of:

Ruth Behar is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Ruth Behar is a member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs

All website content © Copyright 2025 Ruth Behar | Privacy Policy.
Original author photo by Ivana Blanco Gross. Photo editing by Gabriel Frye-Behar.
Bio photo: May Reguera Studio, Havana.
Flower details on the site, courtesy of Penelope Dullaghan.
Tia Fortuna’s New Home illustrations by Devon Holzwarth.
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