Editor’s note: We continue with our 31 Days of Reading in Spanish. Check out the book review below and don’t forget to enter our weekly GIVEAWAY of $100 worth of books in Spanish!
BOOK DESCRIPTION/REVIEW
Here’s why my kids like this book: it has a rooster, a talking goat, and a fire. (I have three boys ages 5 and under. They are easily entertained.)
However, I don’t want to discount the beauty of this simple story. It’s a Cuban folktale retold, about a bossy rooster going to his uncle’s wedding. Along the way, the rooster dirties his beak, then tries to persuade a series of characters, from fellow animals to a blade of grass and a stick, to help him clean it. No one will pitch in until the sun, who owes the rooster a favor, obliges.
If there’s a moral here — it is a story about a bully after all — I overlook it to have fun with the repetitive phrases sprinkled throughout the text. (There’s a lot of room to imitate characters’ voices too, if you like.)
I also love the illustrations. Anyone who has lived in or visited Miami can recognize the streets of Little Havana in the background.
Like many Cuban children, the author of this book remembers hearing her grandmother tell her this story at night in the “impenetrably” dark and quiet countryside. Her retelling evokes that same feeling, one I’m always happy to share with my city slicking kids.
BOOK DETAILS
Title: El Gallo de Bodas
Author: Lucia M. Gonzalez
Illustrator: Lulu Delacre
Age group: 3-5 years
Publisher/Year: Scholastic/1994
ISBN: 978-0439067577
Price: $4.89 on Amazon.com
