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Harriet Rohmer (b. 1938) created an independent publishing organization, Children’s Book Press, in 1975 to challenge the whiteness of mainstream children’s literature and to give inner city children alternative narratives to foster ethnic awareness and pride. The first 10 books, published between 1975 and 1978, entitled “Fifth World Tales,” became key to the non-profit’s growth into a major publisher of equitable children’s literature. This article shows how these first 10 books, ostensibly built on indigenous folklore of the Americas, also drew inspiration from the Latino communities of San Francisco, California. Most obviously, all 10 books featured the art of Latina and Latino muralists based in San Francisco’s Mission District, at the height of a flourishing community mural movement. Few street murals survived the flux of urban change, such that these children’s books represent an alternate, physically accessible illustration of this arts community, not unlike portable murals. Less obviously, it also reveals how the narratives of these books stemmed from the work of teacher and co-adapter Mary Anchondo (b. 1937) and from the parents and children of a Head Start pre-school classroom, as well as from a larger Latino intellectual community invested in myth and folklore. This article traces the unusual origins of these first 10 books, their publication as a federally funded effort to desegregate public schools, and these books as art objects of a Latino arts renaissance in San Francisco’s Mission District. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]