REVIEW: Chato Goes Cruisin'

Soto, G.  (2005).  Chato Goes Cruisin'.  New York:  G.P. Putnam's Sons.

039923974x

Chato the cat enters into a competition to win a cruise for two and wins!  His good look turns bad though when he and Novio Boy discover that they will be trapped on the ship with a bunch of dogs!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Oh noes!  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too many exclamation points?

Despite the set back of being surrounded by their natural enemies, Chato and Novio Boy still manage to have a lot of fun.  That is until all the dogs aboard the ship get sick and it falls to the two cats to find help.

This picturebook includes a lot of Spanish vocabulary perfect for Spanish students and empowering for students from a Hispanic background.

The illustrations are interesting, with segments that are in a black and white comic style juxtaposed with the painted, curving more colorful artwork.  

Activities:

A fun and humorous read, Chato Goes Cruisin' would be a great one-on-one read with a child, so that an adult could point out the details in the juxtaposed sections to the young reader.

Since the cats fear that the dogs will be prejudiced against them, this story could be used as an allegory to discuss issues of stereotyping and prejudging.

This book could be incorporated into a Spanish classroom for any age as a read aloud to assist students with new vocabulary.  Older students could also take into account the way the cats' masculinity is presented.

Quotes of Note:

"Win a Cruise for Two!" Chato read while popping crunchies into his mouth.  Feeling lucky, he clawed the entry for from the bag."

"A few weeks later, Chato shouted, "Chihuahua!  We won!"

Won what, homecat?" Novio Boy asked.

"The Cruise for two!" Chato became dreamy."

"But wait!  I don't like the ocean.  It's got too much agua in it."

"When they arrived at the dock, they were surprised to find it full of dogs."