So, you’ve been mouthing off to your parents a bit lately, not listening when they tell you to put your dirty socks in the hamper? They tell you that if you don’t shape up they are going to call the bogeyman to come and get you. You laugh. There is no such thing as a bogeyman.

A sharp knock comes at the door. Nobody is around so you answer. Standing at the door is the oldest man you have ever seen—his back is hunched and one of his ears is big and red. He grabs for your arm and you know now that the bogeyman is for real.

This particular bogeyman is called el Cucuy (pronounced coo-COO-ee). He comes directly from Mexico. They say with that big red ear that he can hear everything! In this cautionary tale, master storyteller Joe Hayes tells how two girls didn’t listen to their father’s warnings—just like you—and el Cucuy snatched them up. Of course, the story has a happy ending!

Joe Hayes has become one of America’s premier storytellers, traveling around the country to schools, universities and professional conferences to tell stories from the Southwest. His bilingual Spanish-English tellings have earned him a distinctive place among America’s storytellers. Hayes lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Illustrator Honorio Robledo grew up in a small village in southwestern Mexico. His art is influenced by the Surrealists but also by the native painters of Veracruz that express through color all the riches of the region. Robledo lives in Los Angeles, California.