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Captain Mama's Surprise: La Sorpresa de Capitán Mamá
In this second book in the Captain Mama series, Marco and his sisters, whose mother is a U.S. Air Force aviator, visit the KC-135 aerial refueling tanker on a field trip with his second grade class. The children and their teachers meet the aircrew and the crew chief, tour the airplane to understand its unique parts and learn what each crew member does as they work together onboard this gas station in the sky. Includes a STEM activity for children to learn basic aircraft terms and structure plus glossaries in Spanish and English of aviation terms in the text.
42 pages, Hardcover
Published July 4, 2016
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About the author
Graciela Tiscareno-Sato
12 books6 followersGraciela Tiscareño-Sato is a highly-decorated military veteran, bilingual STEM Consultant to K-12 school districts and a sought-after speaker on environmental entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, the Latino educational crisis and solutions.
She's the author of 5-time award-winning "Latinnovating: Green American Jobs and the Latinos Creating Them," the first book showcasing Latino-led innovation and entrepreneurship in the green economy. [ISBN: 978-0-9834760-0-9]
Ms. Tiscareño-Sato was honored by The Obama White House as a Woman Military Veteran Leader Champion of Change. Her Congressman gave a moving tribute to her life and work here.
Graciela is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, School of Environmental Design. Her global sustainability experience began while leading the Green Enterprise Initiative at Munich-headquartered Siemens Enterprise Networks. She helped enterprises understand the economic and environmental value of collaboration technologies. Once adopted, these solutions dramatically reduced corporations’ real estate needs, energy needs, employee commutes and their overall carbon footprints.
Graciela has authored an Amazon bestselling bilingual children's book titled "Good Night Captain Mama/Buenas Noches Capitán Mamá," the first bilingual children's book about why mommies serve in the military [ISBN: 978-0-9834760-3-0.] This ground-breaking book was honored at the American Library Association National Convention (International Latino Book Awards) in the category of "Best Educational Children's Book - Bilingual." Since then, it's won awards in competitions among military writers, independent publishers and the prestigious Writers Digest Magazine (1st Place, Children's Picture Book.)
The second book in the series "Captain Mama's Surprise /La Sorpresa de Capitán Mamá" won a Gold Medal in 2019 from the Military Writers Society of America. The International Latino Book Awards recognized this book with 1st Place Honors in the "Most Inspirational Children's Picture Book - Bilingual" category.
Captain Mama and her children will star in this bilingual aviation travel adventure series in the years to come as the series is developed.
Graciela's full military service bio is available at
the Captain Mama site here.
Graciela actively mentors students who need life, education and career roadmaps, which the "Latinnovating" book series provides. She also presents her unique military aviation service story to motivate students to pursue technical fields in "The STEM of Aviation" - where Science, Technology, Engineering and Math converge to fly global, military missions in jet aircraft.
Graciela earned a Master's degree in International Management and Marketing from the School of Global Commerce at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington while on active duty with the U.S. Air Force. She was honored by LATINA Style Magazine as the “Entrepreneur of the Year” at the Anna Maria Arias Memorial Business Fund Gala in Washington D.C.
Ms. Tiscareño-Sato was honored by the Business and Professional Women's Foundation with an National Business Women's Week award. The ceremony was part of the Women Veterans Career Development Forum that took place at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial and included a keynote speech by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Graciela is the founder of multicultural marketing and educational publishing firm
Gracefully Global Group LLC.
Her thought leadership pieces and OpEds have published in the U.S. and Europe.
She lives in the San Francisco east bay with her husband and three teen children.
She's the author of 5-time award-winning "Latinnovating: Green American Jobs and the Latinos Creating Them," the first book showcasing Latino-led innovation and entrepreneurship in the green economy. [ISBN: 978-0-9834760-0-9]
Ms. Tiscareño-Sato was honored by The Obama White House as a Woman Military Veteran Leader Champion of Change. Her Congressman gave a moving tribute to her life and work here.
Graciela is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, School of Environmental Design. Her global sustainability experience began while leading the Green Enterprise Initiative at Munich-headquartered Siemens Enterprise Networks. She helped enterprises understand the economic and environmental value of collaboration technologies. Once adopted, these solutions dramatically reduced corporations’ real estate needs, energy needs, employee commutes and their overall carbon footprints.
Graciela has authored an Amazon bestselling bilingual children's book titled "Good Night Captain Mama/Buenas Noches Capitán Mamá," the first bilingual children's book about why mommies serve in the military [ISBN: 978-0-9834760-3-0.] This ground-breaking book was honored at the American Library Association National Convention (International Latino Book Awards) in the category of "Best Educational Children's Book - Bilingual." Since then, it's won awards in competitions among military writers, independent publishers and the prestigious Writers Digest Magazine (1st Place, Children's Picture Book.)
The second book in the series "Captain Mama's Surprise /La Sorpresa de Capitán Mamá" won a Gold Medal in 2019 from the Military Writers Society of America. The International Latino Book Awards recognized this book with 1st Place Honors in the "Most Inspirational Children's Picture Book - Bilingual" category.
Captain Mama and her children will star in this bilingual aviation travel adventure series in the years to come as the series is developed.
Graciela's full military service bio is available at
the Captain Mama site here.
Graciela actively mentors students who need life, education and career roadmaps, which the "Latinnovating" book series provides. She also presents her unique military aviation service story to motivate students to pursue technical fields in "The STEM of Aviation" - where Science, Technology, Engineering and Math converge to fly global, military missions in jet aircraft.
Graciela earned a Master's degree in International Management and Marketing from the School of Global Commerce at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington while on active duty with the U.S. Air Force. She was honored by LATINA Style Magazine as the “Entrepreneur of the Year” at the Anna Maria Arias Memorial Business Fund Gala in Washington D.C.
Ms. Tiscareño-Sato was honored by the Business and Professional Women's Foundation with an National Business Women's Week award. The ceremony was part of the Women Veterans Career Development Forum that took place at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial and included a keynote speech by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Graciela is the founder of multicultural marketing and educational publishing firm
Gracefully Global Group LLC.
Her thought leadership pieces and OpEds have published in the U.S. and Europe.
She lives in the San Francisco east bay with her husband and three teen children.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 7, 2020
Super interesting book about a class trip to see all about aerial refueling aircraft and how it works. The narrator’s mom works on the plane and helps direct the kids on a tour. It’s a very informative book and is also bilingual 🤩 so it’s also in Spanish which is wonderful. It’s an interesting topic that you don’t often see in children’s literature and I have to say my students were unusually quiet and interested while I read through this one. They had never heard of this before and were pretty amazed a plane can refuel in the air. After they had a lot of questions... mostly things like “so does that mean planes can fly forever?” 🤣 Was a really cute lesson and super interesting for everyone.
March 20, 2021
Really wanted to love this, but to the shock of my 2nd grade son, it abruptly ended JUST as the story was getting good...when the children find out they have a chance to fly on the plane! It was completely confusing to my son as there were several pages left in the book (which turned out to be acknowledgement/thanks pages). The ending (or lack thereof) was so disappointing that he referenced it while laughing for days afterward. Until then, though, it was interesting enough...he had had no concept of the idea of a plane refueling another plane. And it's great to see representation of military families in a picture book.
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April 10, 2019MWSA Review
Captain Mama's Surprise takes children on a wonderful adventure on a KC-135 Aerial Refueling Tank. Mama introduces her son's classmates to the crew and clearly explains to them what the mission is and how it is accomplished. The cast is made of diverse characters, which is refreshing. Also appreciated was the focus on female characters who not only are teachers but also pilots in charge of very important missions in the United States Air Force, thus breaking away from the more standardized gender roles that women have usually had in children's books.
The illustrations add a lot to the book as a whole and help highlight the celebration of diversity that is present in the story, which is also brilliantly told in Spanish. The addition of a glossary (in dual language) and an art project make for unexpected yet welcomed additions.
Review by Brunella Costagliola (April 2019)
Captain Mama's Surprise takes children on a wonderful adventure on a KC-135 Aerial Refueling Tank. Mama introduces her son's classmates to the crew and clearly explains to them what the mission is and how it is accomplished. The cast is made of diverse characters, which is refreshing. Also appreciated was the focus on female characters who not only are teachers but also pilots in charge of very important missions in the United States Air Force, thus breaking away from the more standardized gender roles that women have usually had in children's books.
The illustrations add a lot to the book as a whole and help highlight the celebration of diversity that is present in the story, which is also brilliantly told in Spanish. The addition of a glossary (in dual language) and an art project make for unexpected yet welcomed additions.
Review by Brunella Costagliola (April 2019)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews