Enchanting new bilingual picture books in Spanish and English include a reissued collection from the United States poet laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera.

Pepe, a sad and lonely dog with no family, is begging for food when a sombrero flies off a balcony and onto his head, adorably. His luck changes immediately as he is fed and soon discovered by a movie director, who turns him into a star. But he’s still lonely, and now he’s plagued by a nemesis, a cat in purple wingtips (“el gato in zapatos”). Eventually Pepe forsakes stardom for a loving family, and the cat joins him for a happy, huggy ending. Kent’s snappy story moves right along in alternating passages of English and Spanish translation, making its easy multiculturalism seem all the more natural. With Henry’s buoyant, if conventional, cartoonish illustrations, it’s a rollicking demonstration of how the two languages can live side by side as comfortably as many a family’s pet dog and cat.

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