Author/Illustrator: Arthur Dorros/Rudy Gutierrez
Plot Summary: A boy's relationship with his father and grandparents is warmly described in English with a few Spanish words thrown in for good measure. With swirling, psychedelic illustrations, father and son sing, make breakfast, visit the park, race and end up at the home of the boy's grandparents.
Comments: In reading the verso, the father in this book does not speak English. However, it is not obvious from reading the book because he rarely says more than one Spanish word at a time. Nonetheless, it is a good story with interesting pictures. We have a second grader in our school whose parents speak very little English and the boy is still learning but very conscientious. I suggested this book for him as it was at his reading level. He enjoyed it very much and I thought perhaps it would be a good book for him to read to his parents. Perhaps that is the "target market" for these types of "bilingual" books.
Extensions:
1. Although the main theme of this book is the boy's relationship with his father, depending on your school and its demographic population, emphasizing this relationship may be insensitive. After a read aloud, students would be asked to draw a picture of them doing something with someone special in their lives - it could be a father, mother, aunt, grandparent, etc. It could be something they have done or that they wish to do. They would write a sentence or two under the picture.
2. Although our Spanish teachers do not like bi-lingual books and prefer to read only books in Spanish, they could use this book for a read aloud but read the entire book in Spanish. In this way, they could still use the illustrations but could highlight in particular, the words written in Spanish.
3. Students could look up the Spanish words from the book in the Enchanted Learning English-Spanish Dictionary cited below.
Themes/keywords: fathers and sons, bilingualism, Hispanic Americans
Age/Reading Level: Interest level - Pre-k - 3rd grade; ATOS 1.7; Follett 2.0
Standards:
ELA1R4 The student demonstrates the ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and expression.
ELA1R6 The student uses a variety of strategies to understand and gain meaning from grade-level text.
ELA1W1 The student begins to understand the principles of writing.
Publisher's Info: HarperCollins Children's Books, New York. 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-058157-2
ISBN-10: 0-06-058157-3
Awards/Review Sources:
Wilson's Children 01/01/09 | School Library Journal 05/01/08 |
| Booklist 03/15/08 | Horn Book 10/01/08 |
| Kirkus Review 04/15/08 | Multicultural Review 12/01/08 |
| Pura Belpre Award/Honor 01/26/09 |
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Genre/Dewey: Fiction; Easy/Everybody
Websites:
Publisher's website
Author's website
Illustrator's website. Beware - his art includes topless ladies.
Good Conversations Interview - may have to pay for continued access to this site
English/Spanish Dictionary from Enchanted Learning
Notes for Booktalk:
Vocabulary: buenos dias, cantemos, sabroso, la mano, aqua, alto, cuidado, mira, aguila, la cara, no ahora, un cuento, ganador, otra vez, abuelo, abuela, abrezos
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