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."

REVIEW: My Toys Mis Juguetes

Emberley, R.  (2002).  My Toys  Mis Juguetes.  Boston:  Little, Brown and Company.

0316174947

This dual language board book shows images of common toys and includes the name in both English and Spanish.  As far as concept books go, it will be more amusing to the wee little ones than most.  The majority of the toys are age appropriate and the illustrations colorful.

It is worth noting that on all of the pages, English is privileged over Spanish by appearing above the Spanish translation (although, the Spanish is in bold).

This is one book in a larger series of dual-language concept books.  Other topics are animals, clothes, colors, food, etc.

Activities to Do with the Book:

This is a good book to help students with labeling and to help children with second language acquisition--not only with the toy vocabulary, but also with colors, shapes and shapes.  

Also, for four or five-year-olds who feel bored, a teacher or parent could open to a random page to help children figure out an activity to do.

Favorite Quotes: 

"rings

los aros"

"paints

las pinturas"

"puzzle

el rompecabezas"

"scooter

el patinete"

REVIEW: Just In Case

Morales, Y. (2008). Just in Case: A trickster tale and Spanish alphabet book. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

1596433299

While on his way to Grandma Beetle’s birthday party, a ghost informs Senor Calavera that he has forgotten her gift. What follows is a list of possible gifts listed alphabetically—by the Spanish alphabet, with each object being named in Spanish, but with illustrations and English descriptions.

The illustrations are beautiful. With wonderful use of color, they share Hispanic images and symbols. (Plus, there’s a blue butterfly for students to find on each page) All of the illustrations show great attention to detail and humor. (My favorite is at the beginning when Senor Calavera irons his tie while wearing it—totally something I would do…if I wore ties.)

For kids from a Hispanic background, this book can be very empowering to see in a classroom, especially since this is also the book that won an ALA Belpre award this year.


Activities to do with the book:

Beyond helping young readers with the alphabet (in which case this book would need to be a read aloud by an adult as it is text-heavy), it can also be used with older students learning Spanish to provide some fun and new vocabulary words (among them cosquillas (tickles), granizado (snow cone), titere (puppet) etc.).

This book could also be shared with children around birthdays and other gift giving occasions to help children think of ideas to give people of all ages.

The story could also be tied into a talk on El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead—November 1st and 2nd). But if used for this purpose, don’t present Just in Case as a book about the holiday. Rather, share it as an example of what talking about such a holiday could inspire students to write creatively.


Favorite Quotes:

“At last the day had arrived. It was Grandma Beetle’s birthday!”

“Oh , my. He had forgotten a present for Grandma Beetle!”

“You surely must know, the best present to give a friend is the thing she would love the most.