In this folktale retold, Esperanza gives her very last pear to a
beggar and is rewarded with the best pear crop she's ever had--and the
power to ensnare anyone she wants in her tree.
When Señor Death comes for her, Esperanza tricks him into climbing her
tree, where he becomes stuck, unable to come down and do his work. From
that point on, no one dies. But when Esperanza learns that her friend in
the next town is suffering terribly, she realizes that the end of death
doesn't mean the end of suffering and agrees to let Señor Death down
from her tree. The final work by legendary children's author Luli Gray
with an afterword by the publisher that explains why Gray changed the
story to include hope.